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posted by mrpg on Friday March 16 2018, @03:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the sad-to-hear-you-go dept.

Largest U.S. radio company iHeartMedia files for bankruptcy

IHeartMedia Inc filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Thursday as the largest U.S. radio station owner reached an in-principle agreement with creditors to restructure its overwhelming debt load.

The company, which filed for bankruptcy along with some of its units, said it ā€¨reached the agreement with holders of more than $10 billion of its outstanding debt for a balance sheet restructuring, which would reduce its debt by more than $10 billion.

IHeartMedia, which has struggled with $20 billion of debt and falling revenue at its 858 radio stations, said cash on hand and cash generated from ongoing operations will be sufficient to fund the business during the bankruptcy process.

iHeartMedia.


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  • (Score: 2, Informative) by fustakrakich on Friday March 16 2018, @04:00AM (7 children)

    by fustakrakich (6150) on Friday March 16 2018, @04:00AM (#653345) Journal

    They are a debt swap company, trading old debt for new debt, at higher interest rates. What could possibly go wrong there? And now they will just walk away...

    --
    La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
    • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @04:09AM (5 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @04:09AM (#653352)

      Yeah. I was thinking that a "radio" company would make equipment.
      {Straining hard to remember when that last happened in USA.}

      I was going to say they are a broadcaster, but you got even closer to the mark.

      -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

      • (Score: 1) by anubi on Friday March 16 2018, @06:07AM (4 children)

        by anubi (2828) on Friday March 16 2018, @06:07AM (#653408) Journal

        We had Philco, Atwater-Kent, Emerson, Stromberg-Carlson, RCA, Motorola, oh and if I had my old green Radio-TV servicing manual I could look up a dozen more... but not a one of 'em still around. The latest radio I bought was a TECSUN, from China. ( nice radio, too. ).

        I'd go as far as saying all this copyright crap did in the radio station.

        When I was a kid, it was common knowledge that the "labels" actually PAID our local DJ to spin certain records on the air. DJ's often had scores of excess disks because everyone was sending him free ones, in the hopes he would put it on the station's turntable and expose the audience to that artist.

        Now, that everyone is so "rights-happy", everything gets done below the radar, and anyone going through all the expenses incurred to "do it legally" doesn't stand a chance.

        Even the guy running a pizzeria gets nailed for having music in his place.

        While I still listen to radio, its mostly talk shows I will listen to... kinda an audio version of what goes on here... the talk show host brings up something, and people call in with comments.

        Or sometimes I will listen to a preacher, but its really rare these days to find a preacher who preaches God's word.... most of them just preach a really long boring ad mostly intended to initiate a return call with funds attached.

        Music? Well by now, there is such a large assortment of it out there, I would just as soon assemble the stuff I like from playlists. Even among favorite genres, there are way too many entrees that I find boring. Sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don't.

        --
        "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
        • (Score: 2) by ilPapa on Friday March 16 2018, @06:27AM (1 child)

          by ilPapa (2366) on Friday March 16 2018, @06:27AM (#653414) Journal

          Even the guy running a pizzeria gets nailed for having music in his place.

          While I still listen to radio, its mostly talk shows I will listen to.

          Screw corporate radio, but don't give up on music radio. And especially don't give up on locally owned and operated stations. I've moved across the country in the past three years, and I've found everything from a station in Pittsburgh that plays deep cut doo-wop from the Golden Age to a station in Connecticut that plays very hip East Coast garage rock to several cool stations down in Houston that play zydeco or blues or gospel or serious classic country music (not country hits, not contemporary country, but the good old good ones).

          Now I'm in California's central coast and I've got two (three when the weather's right) college stations that play all the crazy stuff the kids are listening to, and sometimes reggae or sometimes experimental electronic stuff and no fewer than three public stations that play classical, jazz and have pretty interesting talk shows during the day. There's even a station - and I'm not exactly sure where it's coming from - that plays Hawaiian music in the morning (slack key, Brudder Iz, like that) and surf instrumentals in the afternoon. I don't think I've ever heard a commercial on that station. Somebody with low power engaged in an act of love. I just switched the radio on at random and one of my presets is playing late-70s/early-80s punk rock. "Oh Bondage, Up Yours by X-Ray Spex just ended and TV Eye by the Stooges (a live version!) is just kicking off.

          Two things are required if you're gonna explore the tasty underside of terrestrial radio though: First, you need a decent radio. I've got a nice Tecsun and an older C Crane that can pull in the far-off stuff. Second, you should get your hands on an HD-Radio. There are cool stations that stay below the radar because so few people have the HD-radios.

          --
          You are still welcome on my lawn.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @07:56AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @07:56AM (#653445)

            I get Blues and Bluegrass from Pacifica's KPFT in Houston.
            Audio Archive [kpft.org]
            Playlists [kpft.org]
            I also like Lone Star Jukebox and their Americana thing.
            I once heard their Martini Time and thought that was fun.
            They just started carrying an hour of Baroque and Beyond.

            Not music, but something for folks who are tired of what passes for political reporting from Lamestream Media: They put Jimmy Dore on, twice a week.
            (Monday's is the unbleeped version.)
            I find that comedians often do a better job of telling me what's happening than do "journalists".

            They have Professor Richard Wolff's Economic Update, David Barsamian's Alternative Radio, and Ralph Nader too.

            .
            Pacifica's KPFA in Berkeley has some repeaters.
            You might be getting some of the broadcasts of their numerous music shows.

            I'm in California's central coast
            [...]
            a station - and I'm not exactly sure where it's coming from - that plays Hawaiian music

            One day when the atmospherics were just right, I caught a bit of a show that was playing really old jazz from 78s.
            A bit of Googling and it turned out to be a station in Avalon (Santa Catalina Island).

            -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @08:06AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @08:06AM (#653449)

          When I was a kid, it was common knowledge that the "labels" actually PAID our local DJ to spin certain records on the air

          In the late 1950s, there was the Payola Scandal.
          The problem wasn't that the DJs were taking money.
          The problem was that it was under the table and USA.gov wasn't getting its cut.
          After they got that straightened out, things got back to business as usual.

          -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

          • (Score: 1) by anubi on Friday March 16 2018, @12:09PM

            by anubi (2828) on Friday March 16 2018, @12:09PM (#653529) Journal

            Interesting. I remember that going around, and wondered why it was such a big deal.

            When our local DJ was telling us about it, it sure seemed like an overkill... you know, like going after waitresses for tips. According to our DJ, maybe it was in the ten dollar range, but in those days, that was a couple of dinners at McDonalds. They called it something like a "promotion fee", and usually the station, not the DJ, benefitted from it.

            Our DJ kept us all happy, and no-one ( in town, anyway ) was getting shafted, so at least I saw it more like having to claim coupon "savings" as income on tax returns. Like such a small amount its simply not worth the trouble to account for it. As far as how big our radio station was.. ( A whole kilowatt, no less ), no record label could pay anywhere near a "generous" payout to all those thousands of podunkville stations like ours and stay in business. A few "free" records for our DJ to give away went a long way. He was always having those "and the thirteenth caller to ring me up and tell me what's playing will get a free copy of it, mailed right to your door!".... but to this day, I still think being female and in high school had more leverage than numerical calling order. No way to verify. Big deal.

            Now, what I really hated was ClearChannel buying up all the stations, firing our DJ's, and replacing them with machines.

            Typical Tie-Thinking. Buy the Goose that lays the Golden Eggs, and butcher it.

            Now, why wont those bassterds go buy up sports teams and replace the players with automatons? Are sports fans any more holy than teenagers who really liked being able to call up their DJ, almost like he was a close friend? We all liked our DJ. The day they fired our DJ was the beginning of the demise of AM radio in a teenager's life. Music was only half of it. We liked our DJ, and they fired him. We wanted HIM to tell us about the special at the Piggly-Wiggly, not hear the same bland recording over and over and over.

            --
            "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
    • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday March 16 2018, @04:34AM

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Friday March 16 2018, @04:34AM (#653365) Homepage Journal

      In every deal there's a WINNER and there's a LOSER. If this deal goes through, the share holders don't get a lot. They get 1% of a company with big debt. Instead of 100% of a company with HUGE debt. Doesn't sound great, it's not great, it could be worse. Bankruptcy, sometimes the share holders get nothing. Zero.

      The creditors, I don't think they wanted shares. I think they wanted CASH MONEY. Can we say they're losers? Why not?

      The management, they always win. Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina. Look at the messes they made, right? But they did very well, personally. Not when they decided to go into politics -- they lost very badly. But financially they did very well for themselves.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @04:05AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @04:05AM (#653347)

    There's one of their stations here that starts playing Christmas music even before Thanksgiving.
    I went to their site for their "playlist" page and it wasn't a what's-playing-now thing.
    If it was meant to be something like that, the latency was ridiculous.

    The company appears to be stuck in 1985.
    No surprise that they're going broke.

    .
    Oh, and the 4 CBS stations hereabouts have put all of their sites on radio.com.
    The content is now behind scripts, of course.

    -- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]

    • (Score: 4, Informative) by captain normal on Friday March 16 2018, @04:34AM (1 child)

      by captain normal (2205) on Friday March 16 2018, @04:34AM (#653364)

      It's the old Clear Channel gang. They were driving many local stations under by undercutting cost of ads then buying them out. Their programming pretty much consists of conservative talk shows and lousy pop music.
      One can only hope that them going under will lead to many local stations up for grab.

      --
      When life isn't going right, go left.
      • (Score: 2) by Magic Oddball on Friday March 16 2018, @08:59AM

        by Magic Oddball (3847) on Friday March 16 2018, @08:59AM (#653457) Journal

        The only problem is that if the iHeartMoney stations go under, there's very little chance that anyone local will pick up the slack.

    • (Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Friday March 16 2018, @04:53AM

      by realDonaldTrump (6614) on Friday March 16 2018, @04:53AM (#653373) Homepage Journal

      I know what you mean. It's Thanksgiving, you go to the website, you touch the Play button. It says, "Buffering, please wait." So you wait. And 2, 3 weeks later, out comes the Christmas music just in time. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! 🎅

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Friday March 16 2018, @05:03AM

    by hemocyanin (186) on Friday March 16 2018, @05:03AM (#653377) Journal

    With a name like that, they deserve to be bankrupt.

  • (Score: 2) by FatPhil on Friday March 16 2018, @12:14PM (1 child)

    by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Friday March 16 2018, @12:14PM (#653533) Homepage
    When applied to a company, what does largest mean? If they can suddenly disappear in a puff of smoke they couldn't have been that substantial. If they had 20B debt, then their worth was negative, of pity's sake. All they had was ephemeral influence, but it was all built on lies. Namely the lie that they had a sustainable business model. Good riddence to them, that's bad business, and they deserve to go bust.
    --
    Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @08:45PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 16 2018, @08:45PM (#653792)

      The /company/ went broke. The /shareholders/ got screwed. I bet the C*Os got paid nicely though. Who cares if you lose 20 billion of other peoples' money? You made a few mil...

  • (Score: 2) by chewbacon on Friday March 16 2018, @11:59PM

    by chewbacon (1032) on Friday March 16 2018, @11:59PM (#653856)

    After years of semiannual layoffs and nearly doing away with all local broadcasting. No fucking surprise from these wankers.

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