Radio and podcast company Audacy said it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday, citing “macroeconomic challenges” as the reason for its restructuring.
Audacy is home to hundreds of broadcast, sports and podcast programs and is one of the nation's largest radio stations. In Sunday's announcementAudacy President and CEO David Field announced that the company has filed for bankruptcy and has entered into restructuring support agreements with a majority of its debtors.
“Over the past several years, we have expanded Audacy into a large multi-purpose company through our acquisition of CBS Radio and by building key complementary positions in podcasting, audio networks, live events, digital marketing solutions, and digital marketing solutions. “We have strategically transformed our platform into an audio content and entertainment company: our direct-to-consumer streaming platform,” Field said in a statement.
He said there had been a “perfect storm” of challenges facing the company over the past four years. He said the restructuring should have no “operational impact” on the company and noted that “trade and other unsecured creditors will not be prejudiced.”
“While our transformation has strengthened our competitiveness, the perfect storm of persistent macroeconomic challenges faced by traditional advertising markets over the past four years has resulted in billions of dollars in cumulative radio advertising spending,” he said. This led to a significant reduction in
He added that these factors “severely affected our financial position and necessitated a restructuring of our balance sheet.”
The company said in a statement that it filed a restructuring assistance agreement with the Southern District of Texas on Sunday that would “reduce Audacy's funded debt from approximately $1.9 billion to approximately $350 million.”
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