This story originally appeared in\u00a0<\/em>Hot Pod <\/em>Insider. Sign up for <\/em>Hot Pod <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Multiple creators who have left the podcast network Kast Media say the company owes them significant sums of money \u2014 amounting to six or seven figures for advertising sold on their shows. A few creators have gone public on social media, and others have individually confirmed to Hot Pod<\/em> that the company has not paid them for several months.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Instead of making the delinquent payments, Kast CEO Colin Thomson formally or informally offered creators a deal where they would be paid a partial amount of the money owed in cash and the rest in shares of PodcastOne on the condition that they sign an agreement to take their podcasts to the new company\u00a0as a part of a proposed<\/a> IP acquisition, several creators told Hot Pod<\/em>. PodcastOne, a former subsidiary<\/a> of LiveOne, has since spun out into a separate public company and went live on the Nasdaq last week.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Comedian Whitney Cummings, who hosts the podcast Good For You<\/em>, told Hot Pod<\/em> that she believes Kast Media owes her at least $350,000 for ad sponsorships \u2014 though the amount could be more.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe whole thing is a nightmare,\u201d Cummings wrote in an email. Cummings, who signed<\/a> a multiyear partnership with Kast back in December 2021, left the network in June. Several other high-profile creators have left Kast, including Theo Von, Logan Paul, Jason Ellis, and Tony Hawk.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n First launched in 2016, the Santa Monica, California-based Kast Media quickly stood out as an independent podcast network with an eye toward video podcasts as well as film and TV development. As recently as last December, it ranked No. 10 in Edison Research\u2019s list of podcast networks<\/a> with the greatest reach. Kast Media was hurt by this year\u2019s soft ad market, though, and like many other audio companies, went through layoffs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In May, Kast and LiveOne\u00a0 announced a proposed IP acquisition<\/a> where more than two dozen podcasts in the Kast Media network \u2014 including Good For You<\/em> \u2014 would join LiveOne\u2019s ranks.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Kast left out a crucial detail: Kast\u2019s podcasters would have to agree to this. Cummings and a number of other creators have yet to sign a deal with PodcastOne at all. Several creators in Kast\u2019s network told Hot Pod<\/em> that they were not consulted before the press release was published.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One thing that\u2019s important to note is that LiveOne never <\/em>truly acquired Kast \u2014 the former entered into what\u2019s known as a \u201cletter of intent\u201d to acquire certain assets of Kast\u2019s IP portfolio. The press release contained a caveat that plainly stated the proposal was far from a sure thing: \u201cThe letter of intent with Kast Media is non-binding \u2026 There can be no assurance that the proposed acquisition will be completed and\/or within the anticipated timeline.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While issues at Kast started becoming apparent to some creators as early as fall 2021, people who worked on both the business side and the narrative podcast side of Kast tell Hot Pod <\/em>that they didn\u2019t realize anything was amiss until the spring of this year. Three creators told Hot Pod <\/em>that they reached out to Thomson about missing checks, but when he didn\u2019t respond, they began reaching out to others in the Kast office, including chief business officer Mike Jensen \u2014 who oversaw all sponsorship ad sales but didn\u2019t normally work with creators.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Michael Ojibway, the creator of the true crime podcast Invisible Choir<\/em>, who signed an exclusive ads sales deal with Kast in the fall of 2021, said he got into the habit of expecting late payments from Kast. His very first check from Kast arrived late, and so did every payment that followed. He noted that if he couldn\u2019t reach Thomson, he would speak with either Jensen or Kast\u2019s senior accountant, Michael Calabretta, neither of whom seemed to know when he would be paid.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere were a number of points where I had a gut check. I was seeing the red flags, specifically with Colin but more broadly with how the company handled accounting specifically that led me to aggressively and proactively inquire about payment,\u201d Ojibway said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Issues with Kast escalated over the summer, as several creators began sharing that they weren\u2019t getting paid. Then, things came to a head this month, when one of the biggest podcasters in the country spoke out. Former Kast podcast network host Theo Von posted a roughly 10-minute video<\/a> on YouTube on September 6th entitled \u201cThis Man Defrauded Our Podcast\u201d in which he alleged that Kast Media owes him and a group of other creators over $4 million for ads served on their shows. Von, who hosts the chart-topping podcast This Past Weekend<\/em>, left Kast at the beginning of the year and joined<\/a> Rooster Teeth\u2019s podcast network back in March.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cOur podcast was defrauded. We were stolen from. We were taken advantage of \u2014 there are a lot of ways to say it. The company that did it is Kast Media, and the man that did it is Colin Thomson,\u201d said Von. He estimated that Kast owed This Past Weekend<\/em> a six-figure sum, though he said he spoke to creators who allege that the company owes them seven figures in back pay.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Von\u2019s video, which has been viewed over 1.5 million times, was posted two days before PodcastOne debuted its listing on the Nasdaq. Shares of PodcastOne fell shortly after trading opened on September 8th, dropping from $8 per share to over $4. At the time of publication of this article, PodcastOne is listed at $2.78 per share.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In an email to Hot Pod<\/em>, Von said that he personally knew of six different creators who were owed amounts that ranged between $1.5 million and $600,000. Von said Kast owes his show an amount that\u2019s in the six figures.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A couple of other hosts have gone public about their dealings with Kast on social media. Jason Ellis, who co-hosts the Hawk vs Wolf <\/em>podcast with Tony Hawk, posted<\/a> a tell-all video on Instagram last week where he called the duo\u2019s two-year deal<\/a> with Kast \u201cone of my biggest regrets in podcasting.\u201d He stated that Kast still owed the duo money from host-read ads that ran on their show.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIf you see Colin Thomson named on any podcast, just know that\u2019s who you\u2019re dealing with.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cIf you see Colin Thomson named on any podcast, just know that\u2019s who you\u2019re dealing with. And if you\u2019re a podcaster and any of those guys reach out to you, just know that I haven\u2019t met a bigger piece of shit,\u201d Ellis said in the video.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n In an Instagram message, Ellis confirmed to Hot Pod<\/em> that both Hawk vs Wolf<\/em> and his own podcast, The Jason Ellis Show,<\/em> signed with Malka Media<\/a>. \u201cWe are not getting any money back haha,\u201d Ellis wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Jim Cornette and Brian Last, co-hosts of The Jim Cornette Experience<\/em>, have also gone public about Kast owing them money. Last and Cornette have posted a series of YouTube videos<\/a> over the past two months where they recount their interactions with the company, throw insults at Thomson, and spill mostly unverified tea. Cornette and his podcasts are now part of Rhapsody Voices, a new podcast network launched by Jensen,\u00a0who left his role as Kast\u2019s chief business officer this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Scott Porch, the founder of Big IP Media, which includes the podcasts The John Campea Show Podcast<\/em>, The Big Thing<\/em>, Dan Murrell Podcast,<\/em> and Star Wars Explained<\/em>, signed a multiyear distribution deal<\/a> with Kast back in February. But he left shortly after and signed<\/a> an exclusive ad deal with Libsyn\u2019s AdvertiseCast in July. The first payment from Kast was the only one that arrived on time, Porch noted. He said in a text message to Hot Pod<\/em> that Kast owes Big IP Media over $150,000.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n All told, PodcastOne has only secured deals with a handful of former Kast podcasts: Brendan Schaub\u2019s network<\/a> of podcasts, The Schaub Show<\/em>, The Fighter and the Kid,<\/em> and The Golden Hour,<\/em> as well as Some More News<\/em> and spinoff podcast Even More News<\/em>, hosted by Cody Johnston and Katy Stoll.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n