Breaking News: IHeart absolute Bloodbath across US Today

[PTBoardOp93]

It’s a DEBT problem. MUCH more than a sales problem.

IHeart Podcast revenues: UP 26%

IHeart Digital Audio Ex-Podcast UP 7%

Broadcast radio is down 4%, sure absolutely ..

The percentages tell a sordid tale because the dollar amounts are not comparable.

iHeart Podcast revenues for 2025: $174 million, up $34 million
iHeart Broadcast revenues for 2025 (including Premiere Networks): $2.2 billion down $101 million

The company is a long way from being a podcasting first company.

But when you have to fork over $675 million of your whopping $686 million in actual revenues to debt holders…you see who this company 100% serves.

Uh, no. iHeart had almost $4 billion in revenue in 2025. A company that paid 99% of its revenue in debt payments would be immediately bankrupt.

The company lost about $25 million on an operating basis in 2025, before considering any debt payments. So the debt is a big problem, but even if they didn't have the debt, they'd still be in trouble.

 

[TheBigA]

iHeart had almost $4 billion in revenue in 2025. A company that paid 99% of its revenue in debt payments would be immediately bankrupt.

Which may explain why they keep kicking the can down the road. The size of the debt hasn't changed substantially since the bankruptcy. Last year, they did a debt extension that moved payments due this year to 2029.

iHeartMedia Finalizes Debt Swap, Adds Three Years To The Clock - Radio Ink

iHeartMedia has finalized a series of debt exchanges and consent solicitations aimed at improving its financial stability through 2029.

radioink.com

So I'm not convinced that the company is devoting a lot of attention to debt service.

 

[XCountry285]

So you believe that the advertising revenue these stations make is enough to cover all of the increasing costs of rent, salaries, insurance, etc?

Read the Forbes article:



Soft ad markets. That's where the money comes from to pay local talent. Here's more from Forbes:



People are using digital media. That's what you're doing right now.



Once again, that's not what the problem is. The problem is local advertising revenue isn't enough to keep up with rising costs.

The big markets, such as Boston, are paying for the smaller markets.

Their digital business is where the growth is. By next year, iHeart's digital revenue will exceed broadcasting. So this is about shifting expense to where the growth is. Every business has debt. There is nothing iHeart can do that will change people's behavior from using their phones to using radios. So they need to transfer their staff to where the audience is. That's not broadcast radio.

I wouldn't be surprised if they literally had Kiss FM out of LA or Z100 in NYC syndicated on all their Pop stations all over the country.

 

[TheBigA]

I wouldn't be surprised if they literally had Kiss FM out of LA or Z100 in NYC syndicated on all their Pop stations all over the country.

That would effectively cannibalize two of their highest billing stations.

As a company, iHeart has stayed away from that kind of 24/7 format system that's offered by Westwood One.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Which may explain why they keep kicking the can down the road.

Bob Pittman and Rich Bressler have been kicking the same financial can down the road for well over a decade. While iHeart occasionally manages to eke out a quarterly profit, the business model remains fundamentally broken under their shell game. They have excelled at one thing above all else, enriching themselves.

iHeart employees continue to be treated as expendable tools in the executives' shed, strategically disposed of in the company's power rotation of layoffs to hit the cost-reduction numbers needed for Bob and Rich to get their multi-million dollar performance bonuses and contract extensions.

These guys steered the company straight into bankruptcy and instead of being ousted, they not only kept their jobs but have continued to pad their wealth. Meanwhile, the company remains buried under a mountain of debt, surviving as an executive piggy bank while local radio talent (the ones with actual talent), pay the ultimate price.

---

 

[TheBigA]

iHeart employees continue to be treated as expendable tools in the executives' shed,

Depends on the employee. They were very loyal to Rush Limbaugh at a time when it would have been easier to let him go. They continue to renew deals with their top talent year after year. Look how long they've stuck with Elvis Duran. Same with Bobby Bones, Steve Harvey, Ryan Seacrest, and others. They've built a stable of very durable hosts.

A lot of their programming people have bounced back several times. They give preferential treatment to former employees. Not everyone does that. If you look at the lists of the people just let go, you'll see many of them have worked at several iHeart stations over their career. It's likely that if they're willing to move, they'll get rehired again.

Anyone who works there knows the risks. They see the trades just like everyone else. There are no secrets about what will happen. It's not if, but when for most of them.

These guys steered the company straight into bankruptcy and instead of being ousted, they not only kept their jobs but have continued to pad their wealth.

They now work for the very lenders who lost money. They wouldn't have done the bankruptcy without the support of those lenders. They were able to drop almost $15 billion in debt. Nobody knows this company better than them. I doubt anyone else could run it better. But we'll see. Bob may retire at the end of his current deal.

 

[microbob]

Why don't they go ahead and spin off the radio division and just focus on digital? I know that was the sticking point with the proposed SiriusXM merger that was talked about.

 

[Gregg.]

Why don't they go ahead and spin off the radio division and just focus on digital? I know that was the sticking point with the proposed SiriusXM merger that was talked about.

I'm sure they'd say they are getting profit out of the radio division. But each year they need fewer people. When a local morning show on an iHeart Top 40 station gets replaced with Elvis Duran (NYC) or The Fred Show (Chicago) or The Kidd Kraddick Show (Dallas), how far do the ratings drop? I'd say not too much. Is iHeart to blame that this is true?

So who do we blame? Did Clear Channel know it was overpaying for all these radio stations and figured they'd pay off the debt as their revenue grew? They didn't realize we wouldn't need radio as much in the 2010s and 2020s? That streaming and podcasts would take up an increasing share of our listening to media? Clear Channel figured the price of radio stations kept increasing from the earliest days of broadcasting until the early 2000s. Who knew at some point the price of radio stations would start dropping?

Emmis has WEPN-FM 98.7, a full-signal FM in New York, wanted to sell it for $50 million, and there haven't been any offers. Let's remember Infinity paid over $80 million in 1987 for 103.7 KVIL Dallas. That would be $150 million in 2026 dollars. FM radio stations are now worth a quarter of what they once were. AM stations are worth less than the land their towers sit on.

Did any of us see that coming in the 1980s and 90s when Clear Channel was, with the help of financing, buying up stations and small ownership groups? I didn't.

 

[TheBigA]

Why don't they go ahead and spin off the radio division and just focus on digital?

Who would buy it? The stations lost $100 million last year.

The buyer would also be stuck with the debt.

You want to know why people are being laid off? That's why.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

The DJs at Q104.3 in New York, Maria Malito in middays and Ken Dashow in afternoons, also voice track middays and afternoons for iHeart Classic Rock stations across the country. Each time they do a break, it begins with their prerecorded voice saying "Q 101, Toledo's Classic Rock" followed by their rap.

One of the most infuriating things about the practice of voicetracking is how dishonest the radio companies are about it. I would have more respect for it if the jocks would not pretend to be in Toledo announcing the station name as if they are they are there in the local studio.

I think someone like Ken Dashow is a good announcer who sounds relatable and offers excellent content. If I lived in Toledo I probably wouldn't mind hearing him on the local classic rock station as long as there's no deception involved. It's easy enough to come out of the song with a recorded station ID read by the station's branding voice and then have Dashow do his break without any fake localization. Maybe even lean into the fact that this is a national host and music expert and turn that into a positive, instead of faking it and trying to fool the audience like iHeart does.

So who do we blame? Did Clear Channel know it was overpaying for all these radio stations and figured they'd pay off the debt as their revenue grew?

The blame is primarily on Bain Capital and Thomas H Lee partners, the private equity group that bought iHeart (then Clear Channel), loaded it with crushing debt, stripped its assets, pocketed the profits and left it on the side of the road for dead. Standard operating procedure for private equity schemes that kill companies while enriching the PE firm leaders.

Of course the debt was unrepayable. Even after the bankruptcy legal scam that screwed over as many stakeholders as possible, the "new" company still emerged with a stupid amount of debt that it's still kicking down the road. It has never recovered from the PE buyout.

As someone alluded to earlier, this isn't a company with a business model of producing great content and making a profit by selling ads where everyone wins. It's a company that has to spend a huge percentage of its revenue paying debt after skimming millions off the top for executive pay, and there's nothing left for anyone else.

Did any of us see that coming in the 1980s and 90s when Clear Channel was buying up stations and small ownership groups? I didn't.

It wasn't the 1980s. It was after the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 set up the massive media consolidation that ruined radio. And yes, people saw it coming, even at the beginning.

Radio's big bully - Salon.com

Dirty tricks and crappy programming: Welcome to the world of Clear Channel, the biggest station owner in America.

www.salon.com

 

[TheBigA]

One of the most infuriating things about the practice of voicetracking is how dishonest the radio companies are about it.

What's "dishonest?" They give a disclaimer every hour that portions of the program are recorded.

The blame is primarily on Bain Capital and Thomas H Lee partners,

I agree

It was after the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 set up the massive media consolidation that ruined radio.

Not true. What ruined radio was too many stations. It began with the explosion of FM in the 70s, followed by the overlicensing of the spectrum at the end of the 80s with Docket 80-90. That basically quadrupled the number of stations, which drove down station shares, and that meant it took four stations to equal the revenue of one. Because of that, the FCC started to loosen ownership rules at the end of the 80s. The Telecom Act deregulated the phone companies, and basically turned ten telecom companies into three.

As for consolidation, iHeart only owns 850 stations out of 16,000 licenses. Comparatively, there are no regulations on streaming companies.

 

[ted chittenden]

What's "dishonest?" They give a disclaimer every hour that portions of the program are recorded.

I'm now wondering what planet I'm living on. I have listened to several IHeart stations over the years and I have never, not even once, heard announcers (or anyone else) say during any hour that portions of this program were prerecorded.

 

[TheBigA]

I have never, not even once, heard announcers (or anyone else) say during any hour that portions of this program were prerecorded.

Read this thread:

"Portions of the following program are prerecorded. "

Why is this announcement played at approximately 11:55 am on WOR near the end of Mark Simon's show every day? I hear it on other stations at the start of other programs lately as well.

radiodiscussions.com

 

[ted chittenden]

One of the most infuriating things about the practice of voicetracking is how dishonest the radio companies are about it. I would have more respect for it if the jocks would not pretend to be in Toledo announcing the station name as if they are they are there in the local studio.

I think someone like Ken Dashow is a good announcer who sounds relatable and offers excellent content. If I lived in Toledo I probably wouldn't mind hearing him on the local classic rock station as long as there's no deception involved. It's easy enough to come out of the song with a recorded station ID read by the station's branding voice and then have Dashow do his break without any fake localization. Maybe even lean into the fact that this is a national host and music expert and turn that into a positive, instead of faking it and trying to fool the audience like iHeart does.



The blame is primarily on Bain Capital and Thomas H Lee partners, the private equity group that bought iHeart (then Clear Channel), loaded it with crushing debt, stripped its assets, pocketed the profits and left it on the side of the road for dead. Standard operating procedure for private equity schemes that kill companies while enriching the PE firm leaders.

Of course the debt was unrepayable. Even after the bankruptcy legal scam that screwed over as many stakeholders as possible, the "new" company still emerged with a stupid amount of debt that it's still kicking down the road. It has never recovered from the PE buyout.

As someone alluded to earlier, this isn't a company with a business model of producing great content and making a profit by selling ads where everyone wins. It's a company that has to spend a huge percentage of its revenue paying debt after skimming millions off the top for executive pay, and there's nothing left for anyone else.



It wasn't the 1980s. It was after the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 set up the massive media consolidation that ruined radio. And yes, people saw it coming, even at the beginning.

Radio's big bully - Salon.com

Dirty tricks and crappy programming: Welcome to the world of Clear Channel, the biggest station owner in America.

www.salon.com

What we're seeing with big radio companies now is what we've been seeing with other industries since the 1980s when regulators began looking the other way from attempts at remonopolization. And don't get me started on the Jack Welches of the world (who I at one time supported) who stressed short-term profits over longer term growth (though, of course, in the end, unlimited growth until perpetuity is absolutely impossible).

Now maybe @TheBigA is right. Maybe IHeart will hire back some of the people it fired in the past couple of days at lower salaries somewhere down the road. But that is the kind of behavior one saw in Elon Musk and his massive Federal government firings earlier this year. Going in and breaking things for the sake of breaking things and then hiring the people back to fix what you broke in the first place is in no sense a good business policy, no matter how much debt you're holding.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

I have listened to several IHeart stations over the years and I have never, not even once, heard announcers (or anyone else) say during any hour that portions of this program were prerecorded.

That's because they bury it. Besides, the point isn't clear to anyone hearing it. Obviously every song played on the air is prerecorded so how would anyone outside of radio industry people understand that it's really an obligatory legal disclaimer referring to voice tracking?

What's "dishonest?" They give a disclaimer every hour that portions of the program are recorded.

So in answer to your question, pretending to be in the market at the local studio when you're really not it dishonest, and the disclaimer doesn't change that for the reasons noted.

 

[TheBigA]

What we're seeing with big radio companies now is what we've been seeing with other industries since the 1980s when regulators began looking the other way from attempts at remonopolization.

Radio companies aren't buying more stations. They're diversifying their business into other areas. That's why they're cutting staff at radio, in order to add staff in their expanding digital business.

 

[TheBigA]

So in answer to your question, pretending to be in the market at the local studio when you're really not it dishonest, and the disclaimer doesn't change that for the reasons noted.

We've talked about this before. There are people who post here (@SomeRadioGuy) who voicetrack who can explain it to you.

Explaining it to you is a waste of time, because you don't like it, so you call it "dishonest."

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Explaining it to you is a waste of time, because you don't like it, so you call it "dishonest."

That's probably the best thing you've posted tonight. Thank you for not wasting my time with your "explanations!"

 

[ted chittenden]

Read this thread:

"Portions of the following program are prerecorded. "

Why is this announcement played at approximately 11:55 am on WOR near the end of Mark Simon's show every day? I hear it on other stations at the start of other programs lately as well.

radiodiscussions.com

Thanks for the link. Obviously, I've been under a rock (or something). By the way, @davideduardo makes some excellent observations in that thread and I give him kudos for those.

 

[TheBigA]

Going in and breaking things for the sake of breaking things and then hiring the people back to fix what you broke in the first place is in no sense a good business policy, no matter how much debt you're holding.

That's not what happened here. The broadcast stations division lost $100 million last year. That's why they're laying off staff in that division.

That $100 million was strictly in lost revenue, not even considering debt. You can't keep expenses the same when revenues are down.

I was listening to an iHeart station tonight, and I heard a lot of unsold inventory. So even adding spots won't fix that kind of loss.