Radio and podcast large Audacy documents for financial disaster months after awarding $three.2 million to executives

What simply took place? Radio and podcast large Audacy has filed for Chapter 11 financial disaster protection in Texas to reduce the enterprise's debt. The information comes six months after it awarded pinnacle executives $three.2 million in retention bonuses, claiming they had been had to ensure Audacy's lengthy-time period growth.

Audacy's restructuring settlement will permit its overall debt load to be decreased by way of eighty% from round $1.Nine billion to $350 million, once authorized via a judge in Houston. The Philadelphia-primarily based broadcaster said its publicly traded stocks would be wiped out within the deal. The majority of creditors, of which there are among five,000 and 10,000 indexed, have authorised the restructuring package.

Founded in 1968, Audacy operates 227 radio stations and produces podcasts from some of the enterprise's biggest names, however the decline of radio advertising and marketing has hit it tough. Audacy President and Chief Executive Officer David J. Field said a "perfect typhoon of sustained macroeconomic demanding situations during the last 4 years going through the conventional advertising market has caused a pointy reduction of numerous billion bucks in cumulative radio ad spending."

"These market elements have severely impacted our monetary circumstance and necessitated our stability sheet restructuring," Field introduced.

One of Audacy's podcasts

While Field highlights the financial demanding situations Audacy has faced over the last 4 years, the organization still determined enough cash to pay its executives thousands and thousands of greenbacks in bonuses again in June 2023. Field himself obtained $1 million, EVP/Strategic Initiatives and CFO Richard Schmaeling was handed $850,000, and EVP/General Counsel and Secretary Andrew Sutor IV was given $600,000. Audacy said the bonuses ensured the proper crew stayed in place.

Following the financial disaster safety submitting, Field informed Audacy personnel that the restructuring deal need to no longer impact every day operations and there have to be no interruptions to all and sundry getting paid. Some of the 227 radio stations Audacy operates encompass New York's WFAN and WINS, Los Angeles' KROQ and KCBS, and WBBM and WSCR in Chicago. Its podcasts encompass David Spade and Dana Carvey's Fly on the Wall.

Broadcast radio has struggled in current years inside the face of different media. The enterprise has had to bear falling listener numbers, much less advert cash, and growing fees. Back in June, we heard about one Portland station introducing an AI DJ that sounds and acts similar to one of the company's human DJs, Ashley. It was claimed that the technology wasn't step one in replacing income-annoying humans, but it is difficult to imagine this being some thing other than a value-cutting degree.

Masthead: Magda Ehlers