Financial Broadcasting Network founder pursues financing for return to airwaves.

Financial Broadcasting Network founder pursues financing for return to airwaves 

Financial Broadcasting Network stopped broadcasting the first day of this month but will return to the airwaves with a new format in mid-April, said Glenn Taylor, founder of the Century City-based company.

FBN will abandon its 24-hour-a-day broadcasting schedule, Taylor said, in favor of a new format that will consist of four, two-minute stock market updates per hour and about a dozen specialized financial programs ranging from an hour to two hours in length. The market updates and other programs will be marketed to radio stations nationwide. One hundred stations have already expressed an interest in airing FBN's stock market updates, according to Taylor.

FBN's continued operation under the new format is dependent, however, on the success of a $5 million public offering the radio network is currently putting together. Taylor could not be reached for additional details about the stock offering.

Financial problems have plagued FBN since a secondary stock offering fell apart last year.

The new format is the result of a nine month, $3 million market survey based on telephone interviews with 50,000 people, Taylor said. One feature of the stock market updates will be an hourly quote of the Growth Stock Index, a new index being published by the Swiss-American Financial Group, which monitors the top 100 U.S. growth companies, Taylor said.

FBN hour and two-hour programs will emphasize broad-based consumer and personal financial information, he said. The programs will focus on topics that include banking, credit cards, mortgages, choosing medical and dental plans, tax planning, financing a new car, and starting a business.

Taylor said FBN is also planning to convert MoneyTalk, its monthly magazine, to a private label stockholders' report that can be subscribed to by companies that order a minimum of 3,000 copies. MoneyTalk's circulation had reached 47,000 per month last year and was being distributed at newstands and in bulk subscriptions to affiliated radio stations. Under its new format, MoneyTalk would include two pages of specialized information about the subscribing company's stock.

FBN's 24-hour format was being broadcast locally on radio station XEK-AM 950 in Rosarito, Mexico. It went on the air in March 1989.

The radio network ran into serious financial problems last year when several workers walked off the job alleging they had not been paid for weeks. In November, 10 former employees filed a petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court asking that FBN be placed in Chapter 7 involuntary bankruptcy. Under Chapter 7, a company's assets are sold to pay its bills. The employees claimed FBN failed to meet payroll for two months and were owed $2,000 to $9,500 each.

The filing additionally claimed that Taylor told the employees' attorney, Herbert Wolas, that FBN was two months behind on its rent and owed $140,000 to the Internal Revenue Service and $40,000 in state payroll taxes.