Potomac Radio Group, which registered this month under the Foreign Agents Registration Act for its work for Chinese state-run China Global Television Network, got a loan for $106,228 through the Small Business Administration in April 2020, according to ProPublica, with the loan forgiven last year. Potomac reportedly paid $79,673 on payroll, $17,835 on utilities, and $8,720 on rent.
Potomac owns WCRW AM 1190, which is heard in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. The company said it had received approximately $4.4 million from CGTN and CCP-affiliated China Radio International throughout 2019, 2020, and 2021. WCRW launched The Bridge podcast in August 2020, with the show co-hosted by Chicago-based John St. Augustine and CRI’s Zhou Heyang. St. Augustine has been a producer for Dr. Oz, while Beijing-based Zhou is a prominent Chinese host.
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Episodes of the podcast have revealed St. Augustine and Zhou endorsing China’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. In contrast, St. Augustine has repeatedly attacked Americans and the U.S. response and said he does not care where COVID-19 originated.
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At the urging of the Trump Justice Department, CGTN registered as a foreign agent of China in 2019. The Trump State Department designated CGTN and CRI as “foreign missions” of China in 2020.
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Potomac earned WUST and WCRW stations in 2019, with WUST broadcasting religious Spanish content and WCRW broadcasting CRI programming for many years.
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“We applied for the loan for both our stations. The Spanish pastors were having difficulty with maintaining their churches during COVID and were unable to come into the studios to do their shows,” Potomac co-owner Brian Lane told the Washington Examiner, adding that the loan was only used for WUST. “Business dropped significantly. … After the sale of WUST, we did not apply for the second round of PPP loans.”
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Potomac said it obtained $527,627 from CGTN in July 2019, $804,119 in August 2019, and $259,872 in September 2019 — before the loan. SBA did not respond to a request for comment.
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“The majority of content is about cultural differences between East and West, such as music and entertainment and opportunities to learn the Mandarin language,” Lane said. “We have ended some of our business with them and are reviewing our options at the moment, including the sale of the station.”
The description of the first episode of The Bridge in August 2020 included “observations on differences in culture and how the Covid-19 response [is] different between the two countries.”
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