As many of you know, the NAB has been working very hard for broadcasters, making sure they were not left out when the government decided more COVID relief money would be on the way. Mission accomplished.
The second round of PPP applies to businesses with 300 or fewer employees that have sustained a 25 percent revenue loss in any quarter of 2020. It’s capped at $2 million. The money is available to qualifying broadcasters who secured PPP loans earlier this year, as well as those qualifying broadcasters made newly eligible for first round PPP loans as a result of this legislation.
NAB CEO Gordon Smith said the new legislation will help broadcasters that were excluded during the first round of PPP. “These provisions, in addition to the bill’s second round of PPP funding for which many stations will also be eligible, help local broadcasters maintain their operations during this difficult time and continue to provide news and information critical to local communities as vaccine distribution commences across the country.”
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) provisions pertaining to broadcasters:
- Allow individual TV and radio stations to apply for PPP loans as long as the individual TV or radio station employs not more than 500 employees per physical location;
- Permit the Small Business Administration (SBA) to make loans up to $10 million total across TV and radio stations owned by a station group (consistent with current SBA regulation);
- Require newly eligible individual TV and radio stations to make a good faith certification that proceeds of the loan will be used to support expenses for the production or distribution of locally-focused or emergency information; and
- Waive any prohibition on loans to broadcast stations owned by publicly traded entities.
The funds will go to the top again. 95% of radio stations will get nothing but table scraps.
KCAA $5,000 in the first round of PPP and we paid a broker $500 to get it. He wanted $2500 initially, but when he saw low little we would receive, he waived the balance. We applied for the first round of SBA funds on the night the SBA website became active. We received the 10k advance and our loan was quickly declined, as was our appeal.
We can always depend on Washington to do the wrong thing for those at the lower end of the economic ladder after waiting too long to do anything at all. That’s why 50 million people live in poverty and it’s why that number has increased by 8 million this year.
The problem should be obvious. Too many of the people in control of Congress are filthy rich and have no sense of urgency to help the powerless masses. If they ever went through rough times, it was in the distant past and now, it seems like just an abstraction to them. Getting real help to the people is just another abstraction to them and anyone like Sanders or AOC who tries to help is called a radical. Twas Ever Thus.