If SW radios are not sold in Cuba, why is Rebelde on 5025 kHz? They were on 24/7 before the hurricane hit a few years ago. But back on the air with irregular hours (probably because of equipment issues).
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Audacy Bankruptcy Goes To FCC
- Thread starter TheBigA
- Start date
It's a hold-over from another era. And it's purpose is more for regional coverage of Latin America, not for domestic service. Cuba has several hundred stations on each of the AM and FM bands, including a group of national networks and a bunch of local stations and regional networks.
Cuban AMs: Emisoras cubanas y frecuencias de transmisión agrupadas por provincias (FM)
Cuban FMs: Emisoras cubanas y frecuencias de transmisión agrupadas por provincias (AM)
Update on this story:
www.insideradio.com
Audacy Bankruptcy Exit Plan Nears FCC Decision.
Despite the objections of some conservatives, the FCC is reportedly set to approve Audacy’s pending bankruptcy reorganization plan. With the clock ticking down on the FCC’s deadline for action, Audacy
I realize there will be posts that the industry can't survive without foreign debt.
IMHO If Americans can't run radio and TV stations for a profit, then sell out to another set of Americans. Maybe some stations go dark. If they are viable some American will bid on the allocation when the FCC auction it off. The licenses are for the use of a geographic specific part of the US citizens owned spectrum.
That being said, other operators have foreign influenced owners so I don't see the difference here except for Soros being the GOP's "boogyman".
One Idea I have heard as of a certain date (January 1 2026 or whatever date ) FCC licenses used as collateral for a debt issued after that date that will be NOT allowed in Bankruptcy Court. Pre Jan.1. 2026 ( or whatever date) debt gets a one time "free pass" to go to Bankruptcy Court as a lender.
Radio and TV operators could of course issue have for land and equipment. If a lender wants to "roll the dice" so be it but he / she is taking the risk of getting completely screwed financially.
I believe this idea would flush out all the speculative debt of the past and allow operators to focus on running their business instead of worrying about debt It should also lower the cost of entry to the business to a workable multiple of cash flow.
IMHO If Americans can't run radio and TV stations for a profit, then sell out to another set of Americans. Maybe some stations go dark. If they are viable some American will bid on the allocation when the FCC auction it off. The licenses are for the use of a geographic specific part of the US citizens owned spectrum.
That being said, other operators have foreign influenced owners so I don't see the difference here except for Soros being the GOP's "boogyman".
One Idea I have heard as of a certain date (January 1 2026 or whatever date ) FCC licenses used as collateral for a debt issued after that date that will be NOT allowed in Bankruptcy Court. Pre Jan.1. 2026 ( or whatever date) debt gets a one time "free pass" to go to Bankruptcy Court as a lender.
Radio and TV operators could of course issue have for land and equipment. If a lender wants to "roll the dice" so be it but he / she is taking the risk of getting completely screwed financially.
I believe this idea would flush out all the speculative debt of the past and allow operators to focus on running their business instead of worrying about debt It should also lower the cost of entry to the business to a workable multiple of cash flow.
They are all Americans. George Soros is an American citizen. The foreign ownership waiver relates to stockholders in a public corporation. As the article explains, waivers are common. and are subject to approval by the state department. If it's found that some stockholders are citizens of China, they would be required to sell.
Keep in mind this was a very complicated process called a Reverse Morris Trust. So it was more of a merger than a sale. CBS stockholders were part owners of the new Entercom.
A final resolution of the Audacy bankruptcy will likely also bring some movement and clarity to the future of the Latino Media Network stations, which also have investment from the Soros fund. Appears LMN has been stuck in a holding pattern while awaiting the Audacy outcome. Sale or dissolution of the company on the way?
They've been in a holding pattern since they bought the stations, long before the Audacy bankruptcy.
I guess one could argue that you first have to take off before you can get into a holding pattern.🤪 That hasn’t happened with most LMN stations. Here in Houston KLAT is still simulcasting TUDN from Univision’s KQBU, almost two years after acquiring the station.😖
Has one of these Reverse Morris Trust deals worked for radio in the last 20 years? Not being sarcastic, I just haven't heard of one working in radio. What are those Entercom ( Audacy) shares worth now?
Reminds me of the CDs that bank and insurance companies signed up for "insuring" mortgages in the early 2000s
Depends on what you mean by worked. The seller got out of paying massive cap gains taxes, which was the goal. So in that way it worked for CBS.
I was talking about the companies the bought the stations like Audacy.
The shareholders who quickly sold their stock in the acquiring company did OK. If you held on you got a tax loss.
IMHO If Disney and CBS had spun off the radio divisions into sperate corporations (which use to be a tax free free event like AT&T and Baby Bells, Circuit City - CarMax, etc) with the radio station debts only, the shareholders would have had two stocks with positive EBDITA to sell or do whatever at the time.
I guess I am weird in my stock holdings, I try to look several years ahead. I know their are investors that will "scorched earth a company" grab the money and run. That model is not sustainable. Even KKR is try to build it's new companies via profit sharing for the employees now.
As I've posted many times, that was the original intent of CBS. They raised the money to accomplish the spin-off, new management was named, and everything was ready. Then David Field came in with this proposal. At the time, he was seen as a great operator of radio stations, and the general view was that these radio stations were in good hands. As a result, the CBS Radio management that was going to operate the stations resigned, and Field took over.
CBS Planning to Sell or Spin Off Radio Division
CBS plans to sell, spin off or swap its radio division later this year, as its 117 stations across 26 markets have become slow-growth and a drain on resources.
www.billboard.com
Les Moonves Discusses CBS Spin-Off Plans
CBS Executive Chairman/CEO Les Moonves discussed the company's plans to spin-off the company's radio properties during an interview on Broadcast
radioinsight.com
Keep in mind that several other tax-free media spinoffs have happened recently. One was AT&T spinning of Warner Media to Discovery. That spin-off has been a disaster for both Warner & Discovery. Meanwhile, AT&T seems to be doing fine.
I don't think you have the solution to the problem, because the media business isn't very solid regardless of who owns it. My view is that CBS Radio would have been in this same situation regardless of how it was spun off. Plus we see that the former CBS Corporation, now Paramount Global, is in free fall. So the problem isn't the company. It's the entire business. Anyone who buys traditional media will be faced with a difficult financial situation.
There is a term called institutional knowledge or culture. When the CBS radio upper level managers resigned (most likely for a severance package than get fired), IHMO, CBS / Entercom/ Audacy was doomed. Those highly payed folks more than earned their salary or that position would have been eliminated years ago.As I've posted many times, that was the original intent of CBS. They raised the money to accomplish the spin-off, new management was named, and everything was ready. Then David Field came in with this proposal. At the time, he was seen as a great operator of radio stations, and the general view was that these radio stations were in good hands. As a result, the CBS Radio management that was going to operate the stations resigned, and Field took over.
CBS Planning to Sell or Spin Off Radio Division
CBS plans to sell, spin off or swap its radio division later this year, as its 117 stations across 26 markets have become slow-growth and a drain on resources.
Les Moonves Discusses CBS Spin-Off Plans
CBS Executive Chairman/CEO Les Moonves discussed the company's plans to spin-off the company's radio properties during an interview on Broadcast
Keep in mind that several other tax-free media spinoffs have happened recently. One was AT&T spinning of Warner Media to Discovery. That spin-off has been a disaster for both Warner & Discovery. Meanwhile, AT&T seems to be doing fine.
I don't think you have the solution to the problem, because the media business isn't very solid regardless of who owns it. My view is that CBS Radio would have been in this same situation regardless of how it was spun off. Plus we see that the former CBS Corporation, now Paramount Global, is in free fall. So the problem isn't the company. It's the entire business. Anyone who buys traditional media will be faced with a difficult financial situation.
The second part of post #65 has a solution. If anyone can do better please post a solution. But IMHO this legacy debt is killing the industry.
IMHO a commercial radio station is only worth a multiple the what it can bill. AM direction sites land is another matter. Most religious operators have different goals than commercial operations. But small capital outlay should encourage owner operators who actually will run their their stations rather than Wall Street speculators.
Radio is not that bad of business profit margin wise. Audacy had a EBDITA of $37 million last quarter up over 100% of the same quarter last year. Radio billings we're down 2%. The digital was up. Would they have a viable digital service without radio?
I my view any radio company is only worth an multiple of cash flow.
That is what you get with principals whose resume consists of being political operatives with no broadcast experience. They did not know the dog stations they were getting for the most part, nor did they understand that the main reason they got financing was to keep Salem from getting the same stations.
CBS Radio had several defects that immediately became apparent. The first was the dependency on AM stations that were aging and losing advertiser appeal; there was no prospect for growth. Second, they did not have clusters and agencies and buying services liked simpler multi-station combined buys. Third, the management was very traditional and had no focus on new media, the internet, streams and the like. Combine these elements and you have the "perfect storm".
For ongoing operations, we have always paid cash flow multiples or billing multiples. For underdeveloped or "losing" stations, we have stick value multiples based on population coverage and other market factors.
As I've said before, two generations of broadcast experience didn't help David Field.
Wait, since when are average margins 15% or less considered not bad? Everywhere else that number is closer to 45%.
That applies to any business, actually.
A lot of fast food stores would love 15% now. Grocery stores would love 5% profit after expenses. Traditionally 1 to 2 percent after expenses, there are a whole lot of dollars in the grocery business and has made some folks rich. Part of Walmart's success has been to run the grocery business at cost or 1% profit, get folks in store and sell general merchandise with tremendous mark ups thanks to sourcing from China and other low cost of labor countries.
Are you talking about CBS or Entercom? Because I would agree with you on Entercom. But CBS created their own steaming platform, Radio.com. They integrated their radio and TV websites into one centralized local news platform. And they were part of the original team in the 90s that developed what later became HD radio. So CBS Radio management was far more advanced than Entercom's, as proven by the numerous mistakes Entercom made with streaming and podcasting. But all of those people left when CBS sold the radio division to Entercom.
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