kansascity | A Kansas City area radio station can broadcast Russian state-owned media programming, the type that U.S. intelligence called a “propaganda machine,” for six hours a day through a lease agreement struck by a local radio operator.
RM Broadcasting LLC, a Florida-based company that has agreements to broadcast the Russian state media program Radio Sputnik, reached a deal on Jan. 1 to lease air time through Alpine Broadcasting Corp. in Liberty. Alpine Broadcasting Corp. broadcasts on three frequencies in the Kansas City area: KCXL 1140 AM, 102.9 FM and 104.7 FM.
The lease agreement lets RM Broadcasting air its
programming from 6 to 9 a.m. and 6 to 9 p.m. seven days a week. KCXL’s
website, which says that it’s the radio station that will “tell you the
things that the liberal media wont (sic) tell you,” lists Radio Sputnik
in its morning programming.
A 2017 report by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence
that evaluated Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election described
Sputnik as “another government-funded outlet producing pro-Kremlin
radio and online content in a variety of languages for international
audiences.”
Sputnik, along with Russian television outlet RT — formerly Russia Today
— “contributed to the influence campaign by serving as a platform for
Kremlin messaging to Russian and international audiences,” the DNI
intelligence assessment said.
Those descriptions were part of a larger set of
findings by the Director of National Intelligence that said Russian
President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign during the 2016
elections that sought to undermine public faith in the U.S. election
process, denigrate Hillary Clinton and promote Donald Trump.
RM Broadcasting is run in Florida by a man named Arnold Ferolito. He disputed the government’s assessment of Radio Sputnik.
“Ninety percent of the programming is generated right here in the United States,” Ferolito told The Star in an interview.
