San Antonio-headquartered iHeartMedia, the radio and music-streaming company formerly known as Clear Channel Communications, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to escape crushing debt.
Once the poster child for media consolidation, iHeartMedia today said it’s struck a deal with creditors and investors to restructure about $10 billion in debt, or half the total amount it owes. The company has enough cash to support it through the restructuring effort, officials added.
In Cleveland, iHeartMedia’s portfolio includes 96.5 FM, 99.1 FM, 99.5 FM, 100.7 FM, 105.7 FM, 106.5 FM and 1100 AM.
The news comes days after the iHeartRadio Music Awards, a televised event named for the company’s music-streaming service, feted top performers ranging from Cardi B to Bon Jovi.
Aided by a relaxed federal regulations, Clear Channel’s founding Mays family led the firm through a radio-station buying spree in the ’90s and early 2000s, at one point controlling 1,100 properties. They continued a business model of homogenizing content and slashing station staff, even as competition from digital media players and streaming services gave consumers the option of turning the dial on their content.
Ultimately, leveraged buyout firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain
Capital took over the troubled company in a $19 billion deal, forcing the selloff of 400 stations. But the new owners have been unable to turn things around, even after bringing in flashy radio veteran Bob Pittman as CEO and bestowing the company with the hipper iHeartMedia moniker in 2014.
The firm has struggled through years of losses and flat sales against streaming rivals such as Pandora and Spotify.
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This article appears in Mar 14-20, 2018.
Music fans want to listen to good music made by intesting people instead of having the same selected artists shoved into our consciousness by media conglomerates.
Have you listened to any of those stations in the last 5 years? It’s unbearable. I’m not exaggerating when I say in minutes per hour it might be 1/3 commercials, and if you add in the inane babbling of the DJs you’re probably close to 2/3 non-music time. When I can drive 30 minutes into work and only hear 2 songs, that’s a freak’n problem! And then, let’s say you’re on WMMS and you FINALLY get to hear a song and what plays? Back in Black or Everlong or some shit. AC/DC and Foo Fighters have entire catalogs of good and dare I say somewhat popular music and you have to pick the song at the top of the most played list every time? You assholes!
And WTAM….what a disaster that station is. Remember back in the day when WWWE was the entire region’s go-to for news and sports? What a train wreck it is now. Ignoring the national simulcasts (Beck & Rush, say what you will about their quality), your biggest talent is that douche nozzle Mike Trivisonno?! So much so that he’s on TWICE every day, morning and afternoons? Unbelievable…and Hi Triv, I know you’re reading. Then they will pretty much broadcast any piece of crap overnight. I’ve heard nut jobs talking about alien invasions causing hurricanes and other guys with their conspiracy theory psychobabble. Then finally, the crazy religious shows come on. The best is you have a nut job yelling Sandy Hook is a hoax, followed by someone else telling you homos are the devil and dinosaur bones were planted by democrats, and then Bill Wills comes on each morning trying to run a respectable news broadcast. Awesome. Can’t believe they’re bankrupt.
iHeart Media, Good Karma Brands, Entercom, the list can go on……but it all remains the same every day — cookie-cutter garbage.
Since I put Sirius into my vehicle, I haven’t listened to the radio for the last five years.
And Pandora in the house has replaced everything else, even the roomful of LPs that I own.