The Fight Between Access.1 And Sheridan Is Over

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Access.1’s National Black Network Broadcasting has taken over American Urban Radio Networks. The press release announcing the purchase said it was to settle the “breach of fiduciary duty lawsuit against its former partner Sheridan Broadcasting Networks.”

Sheridan turned over its majority partnership interest to NBN and agreed to make financial payments (the amounts were not disclosed), to resolve the federal court litigation in Pittsburgh.

There has been bad blood between NBN and Sheridan, which we reported on back in March. The dispute began when NBN claimed Sheridan failed to justify a “secret” methodology for allocating its parent’s corporate overhead to AURN, including a $500,000 annual “salary” of Ronald Davenport Sr. NBN also claimed Sheridan provided invoices to AURN six to eight weeks after the end of every month but forced AURN to pay at the beginning of each month, “thereby advancing itself funds before incurring any actual expenses for the coming month.” Read more about the original disagreement HERE and HERE.

Chesley Maddox-Dorsey will remain CEO of AURN, Jerry Lopes continues as President, Program Operations & Affiliations, and Howard Eisen as President of Network Sales.

Dorsey said, “It’s been almost 25 years since Sid Small and Ron Davenport, Sr. had the vision of creating AURN. The partnership by any measure has been a huge success. Now that Sheridan has passed the baton to us we intend to build on those successes by expanding our capacities to serve our primary advertising and radio station constituencies. It was vitally important to us to put AURN in a position of strength so that we can grow the business and continue our important mission.”

Access.1 Communications owns five radio stations and Superadio Networks. Superadio Networks distributes radio programs, including shows in the Urban, Urban Adult, Mainstream Top 40, Rhythmic, Talk, Country, Hot AC, Rock, Dance, Alternative, Gospel, and Oldies formats.

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