In this week’s issue… Audacy files Chapter 11 – Squier family sells WDEV – Townsquare turns off more signals – WBZ’s Rich pulls back – Remembering Doug Cope – New Year format changes
By SCOTT FYBUSH
Jump to: ME – NH – VT – MA – RI – CT – NY – NJ – PA – Canada
*Happy new year, and many thanks for your patience – while we’d intended to be back with a new issue of NERW last week, family health issues intervened, and so this week’s column ends up covering nearly a month’s worth of news across the region.
We’ll try to get back on a regular schedule as quickly as possible, though next week’s column may also be delayed due to travel.
(And stay tuned also for the start of our 30th anniversary celebration!)
That was Audacy’s pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on January 7, the inevitable conclusion of a story that began with Entercom’s acquisition of the CBS Radio stations and all the debt that came along with that deal.
With that $1.9 billion debt load hanging over the company, it was all but inevitable that creditors would force the bankruptcy filing, which will give control of the company to a lender-led group and will remove David Field from his position as chair of the Audacy board.
Don’t expect big changes in Audacy’s operations as a result of the fast-tracked filing, which is expected to be approved next month: the company says it expects day-to-day activities to continue unchanged at its stations. There’s no reason to think Audacy will sell many of its stations, either – the company says revenues are recovering from the pandemic-era downturn, and it’s not as though there’s a long list of buyers with cash in hand for those clusters, either.
(We do, however, expect Audacy to continue selling off the properties it identified for its Audacy Atlas divestiture trust last year, including several tower sites around the region; just this past week, it reached a deal to sell its studio real estate on a valuable development property in Phoenix.)
THANK YOU TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS!
The 2024 Tower Site Calendar is very, very nearly sold out.
We are so happy that we have so many supporters after nearly a quarter century of doing this. We especially appreciate the nice comments we receive from our longtime buyers.
We will not be reprinting this year’s calendar, so if you want one, order it now. We still have some previous years available if you need to fill in any gaps.
In the meantime, we still have some great broadcasting books. Check out the store!