In the spring of 1987, Joseph Entertainment Group, owned by Joseph Balestieri, bought the park and renamed it "Lake Compounce Festival Park". The park received renovations and in 1988 a 20,000-seat outdoor amphitheater. One of the first notable musical acts to perform at the new venue was the group Milli Vanilli, and their live performance was broadcast on MTV in what became the first public sign they were lip-synching, when a recording of the song "Girl You Know It's True" began to skip. JEG focused on concert promotion and neglected the amusement park portion of the property. The Wildcat roller coaster and other rides became nonoperational by 1991. That year, JEG's financial troubles were exposed when a check the company wrote to Guns N' Roses bounced, and the performance was cancelled. It was later discovered that JEG was nearly $900,000 behind in taxes and had not refunded nearly $300,000 to ticket-holders for 15 cancelled concerts.