Watch your back, Big Eddie

I listen to the Ed Schultz Show in the noon-3 timeslot on AM1090 in Seattle. He announced today that the Jones Radio Network has been bought out by Triton Radio Networks.

• Press release from Jones


• Triton Media Group has their press release embedded into their flash pages.

So I did some research and edited some articles on Wikipedia, and got worried.

About Jones International

Formed in 1969, Jones International™, Ltd. (JI) is the corporate parent of multiple subsidiaries in the Internet, e-commerce, software, education, and entertainment industries. Jones International is wholly owned by Glenn R. Jones who serves as JI's Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and President. The JI companies cover a wide range of products and services, from online learning software and the nation's first fully accredited 100-percent cyber university, to television programming.

About Triton Media Group
Triton Media Group is the leading supplier of web content, digital products and interactive media tools to the media industry. Its suite of applications, services and content including the offerings of MJI Interactive, Mass to One, Stream the World, and Music To Go, provide proven traffic driving and revenue generating results to broadcasters. Triton Radio Networks is a wholly owned subsidiary of Triton Media Group and is the parent company of Dial Global.

About Dial Global

Dial Global is radio’s largest full-service, independent radio network, providing national advertising sales representation for radio programs and networks in addition to Dial Global’s own programming and services. Dial-Global Programming produces and syndicates music programs and prep services in a variety of formats to more than radio stations nationwide including the Jones Digital Formats and the Dial Global Digital 24/7 Network.

About Oaktree Capital Management
Oaktree is a global independent investment management firm with over $54 billion in assets under management in specialized investment strategies. The firm emphasizes an opportunistic, value-oriented and risk-controlled approach to investments in distressed debt, high yield bonds, convertible securities, specialized private equity (including power infrastructure), real estate, emerging market and Japanese equity securities, and mezzanine finance. Oaktree was founded in 1995 by a group of principals who have worked together since the mid-1980s. Headquartered in Los Angeles, the firm and its affiliates today has over 460 employees in 13 offices worldwide.

Digging a little deeper, I found this page on Google Finance. Looking at the news articles listed, that's where I started getting worried. This article from Reuters tells some disturbing news:

Oaktree urges Chinese companies to buy U.S. brand names

By Alison Tudor, Asia Private Equity Correspondent

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Investment firm Oaktree Capital Management said it is looking to help Chinese companies acquire brand-name companies in the United States.

Many Chinese companies, starved of capital by tumbling stock markets and turmoil in the credit markets, are looking to private equity firms to help them finance their global expansion.

"It's probably the first time that Chinese companies have had a window of this magnitude into the U.S. market to buy companies with attractive assets, like a brand name," said Bill Kerins, a senior investment professional at Oaktree, during the Reuters Hedge Funds and Private Equity Summit in Hong Kong.

Read the rest here.

So we have a global finance company trying to help China buy out America now setting up a media company, Triton, that is buying out radio companies like the Ed Schultz Show. As much as I know Eddie will say it will have no effect on the content of his show, it's just another example of how the conservative ideology is selling out America.