Originally posted Monday, October 21, 2019 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog
Former WQXI-FM jock Dain Schult was sentenced to four years in prison for executing a pyramid scheme.
According to the Los Cruces Sun News in New Mexico, he and Joel Hixon, of Las Cruces defrauded investors in a scheme that promised to use hundreds of thousands of dollars in investors' money to promote "mom and pop" radio stations on the web.
Instead, the money was used as living expenses for both men. Hixon received 18 months and each was fined $25,000.
Schult worked at WQXI (then called 94Q and now called Star 94.1) in the 1970s as an evening jock known as "the silver-haired man of rock and roll." He was indicted in 2015 and found guilty in July.
The Austin man spent many years attempting to build a big radio company and solicited money from radio contacts all over the country including Atlanta. He called it American Radio Empire.
Mike Rose, a former radio producer and program director at 640/WGST-AM, gave Schult $4,000 over the years after being promised a role in the company and an equity stake.
“My idea was I’d invest enough to keep me in the game but not enough to kill me,” Rose said. “So if the money went away, I’d be fine.”
Rose said he didn’t know the extent of what Schult had one but was surprised by the severity of the sentence. “I feel shock and disappointment for his family,” he said, “and for his victims as well.”
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