Is Audacy getting ready to sell or close down a station? It wouldn't be shockingly if in a year or two either WCBS 880 or (hopefully not) WXBK go on the market.
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Could Audacy be preparing to close down or sell one of it's NY stations?
- Thread starter 101.9 La Kalle
- Start date
They are not going to to sell individual stations in that manner because all are "on the books" at higher values than they could sell for, so the end result of a sale is a write-down of the asset value. And doing any write-down would cause lenders and investors to further devalue the company.
Is it possible to devalue a company to less than zero?
Audacy has been actively trading its stations around the country in attempts to improve their clusters. They recently traded some stations with Beasley in Las Vegas. But keep in mind that the market for radio stations right now is really bad. Even religious broadcasters aren't rushing to buy stations. So selling stations wouldn't be a good idea. Especially in NYC, where their cluster brings in over $110 million a year. What they need to do is cut down on expenses. So today is was announced that WINS has reached an agreement with the Writers Guild, and it's members will be getting 3% raises. That money has to come from somewhere. So we'll see how the economize.
The company did a conference call with the financial media on Tuesday where they discussed their financial situation, and a here's an article that sums up the situation:
www.insideradio.com
The company did a conference call with the financial media on Tuesday where they discussed their financial situation, and a here's an article that sums up the situation:
Facing Some Big Debt Hurdles, Audacy Says It Has Started Talks With Lenders.
The date may be two years away, but Audacy executives said this week they are already spending plenty of time thinking about Nov. 17, 2024. That is when $632 million
A trade is a like-kind transaction where the value of one item is said to be the same as the value it is traded for. Since there is no cash, there is no write-down.
Basically, the lenders don't want to become owners, so this will be a negotiation to "kick the bottle down the road" as Kelly stated in another thread.
They tried that during the pandemic with disastrous results.
The amount they'd receive would be much less than the amount those two stations bill in a year. So it would be a net loss.
To who?
Not in this solar system.
WCBS would probably be purchased by a company like Multicultural Radio and 94.7 would probably move over to WNEW or WFANFM. If not, a HD2 subchannel of one of the Audacy stations.
I can't see Audacy selling or trading any of their current New York stations.
However, I could see Audacy combining WCBS-880 and WINS-1010/92.3 into a single all-news station broadcasting at 1010 and 92.3 under the WINS call letters and 880 flipped to the Audacy-owned Bet QL network (perhaps branded as "880 The Bettor"), while continuing to carry New York Mets games and adding "overflow" sporting events from WFAN-660/101.9.
In fact, given that WINS and WCBS-AM have been under the same ownership for the past 25 or so years, I'm a bit surprised that the two stations haven't yet been consolidated into one.
However, I could see Audacy combining WCBS-880 and WINS-1010/92.3 into a single all-news station broadcasting at 1010 and 92.3 under the WINS call letters and 880 flipped to the Audacy-owned Bet QL network (perhaps branded as "880 The Bettor"), while continuing to carry New York Mets games and adding "overflow" sporting events from WFAN-660/101.9.
In fact, given that WINS and WCBS-AM have been under the same ownership for the past 25 or so years, I'm a bit surprised that the two stations haven't yet been consolidated into one.
They each bill over $30 million for a combined total of $60 million. Combining them throws away $30 million.
Well, combining them might allow them to raise their ad rates but I agree it would not double.
The more relevant question is what is Audacy doing to do about their impending delisting? A reverse split, or a reverse split with a cash infusion from the Field family?
The Fields have "super voting" shares, but they do not control a majority of the total number of outstanding shares. So, they might lend money to the company but they are not going to put any more in than other shareholders might also do.
If I were them, I'd keep my personal wealth away from an further exposure.
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Five years ago (November 2017), Cumulus was delisted from the NYSE. Here's how that happened, and what happened next:
According to the article, they filed an appeal. When they lost, they went to "over the counter." Then a few weeks later, they filed for bankruptcy.
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