Cumulus still owns some towers and land, but the towers are basically good --in most cases--just for AM and not for Cell phones etc.,and the land is usually not very well located for development or is in flood zones. Any valuable towers or land was sold years ago. So, yeah, there's not much there as far as physical assets.
-
Get involved.
We want your input!
Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.
After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.
After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/
Thanks in advance and have fun!
RadioDiscussions Administrators
Cumulus files for bankruptcy again
- Thread starter BoboKnight
- Start date
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Technically, these will be "transfer of control" filings, because the company is the licensee and the debt holders will now own the company.
They will be the "bigger fools" who bail* the company out.
As for required notices, regardless of how you believe it should be handled, there are FCC-mandated procedures that have to be followed. Personally, I fear the two Daily Digests where all those filings will first be announced, and then on a subsequent date approved. (I'm still recovering from the couple hundred pages of the Digests when EMF changed its corporate licensing name to K-Love, Inc.)
* - Your inadvertent typo in your second post caused me to conjure up a mental image of all their stations and employees being fed into a hay baler. (Actually, I needed the laugh, so ... 🙃 )
K.M. Richards
Program Director, The Eighties Channel™
Or they will, once all the legalities are approved and consummated.
If I ever feel bad, I’ll just remember it could always be worse…I could be a Cumulus lender and own the lease to one of Cumulus’s AM towers and transmitters.
That's already been the situation for quite some time. When the Dickeys ran Cumulus, they only paid small percentages of deals in cash. They swapped equity for property and equity for credit. Private equity has held the bulk of Cumulus since before the bankruptcy roughly a decade ago. Most of the debt they're getting rid of is debt they owe to themselves, just as it was last time. I haven't seen the filing. So, I can't say exactly what's happening, but, if I were guessing, at least one of the private equity companies wants out, and the others have either found another company (or other companies) willing to go in or will carve the exiting parties' shares up among themselves. I seem to remember, after the last bankruptcy, most of the big equity holders in Cumulus got bigger stakes while most everybody else got shafted.
Yep, there's nobody left to get shafted anymore. As you describe, it's re-arranging deck chairs. The biggest benefit is they no longer have to present this facade of being a public company with stock. No more quarterly conference calls. They just operate as a company, and do what the lenders want.
Radio corporations hoped to get too big to fail, but it turns out consultation has made them too big to succeed.
Mixed feelings on it. But mostly relief and even welcome news. Maybe now they can actually sell off what truly isnt profitable and try to be a radio company for what they keep.
Last edited:
They need to evolve as a Media Company that includes Radio stations as well as the other Media assets in their portfolio. I don't consider Cumulus as a radio company. They are a Media Company and need to move forward with that in mind.
I think that's what they've been doing. They're refocusing their staff away from stagnant broadcast areas and more towards digital content. This bankruptcy isn't about programming. It's about debt. The accountants and lawyers will make adjustments that will allow the areas of growth to continue without the baggage of the past.
Agree. I have a habit of referring to them as a radio company from the old days.
They still own "baggage" in the form of hundreds of radio stations. The BK is a clear sign that broadcast radio's slow demise continues. Radio received an absurdly small share of political ad buy wallet in 2024, and I suspect 2026 will be a repeat. Political used to provide a decent cash flow bump in even numbered years, and I suspect the first BK reorg assumed (incorrectly) that would remain the case
You generally don't undertake BK to equitize all pre petition debt if high probability growth prospects exist.
I suspect Cumulus will continue to be a flat to declining company from an EBITDA standpoint as far as the eye can see.
Their nearly debt free balance sheet (upon emergence from this new BK case) could make the company a more attractive acquisition target. Perhaps that's the strategy here - shed all pre-petition debt in its entirety, emerge with a new ABL facility to provide liquidity support, and then seek a suitor so that the equity holders in Reorganized Cumulus (who are debt holders in the current Cumulus) can cash out.
I think that's been the goal all along. These investment companies don't see themselves as owning this company long term. Their goal is to fatten the pig for sale. My feeling is they might already have a potential buyer in mind.
You might very well be correct on that last point.
I feel bad for the person at the front desk who has to answer calls from debt collectors ALL DAY. "We filed for bankruptcy, John Wayne, if that is your real name. Please stop calling."
“Now, listen here, pilgrim….” *click*
Transmitters, sure. Towers, not so much. The ones that had potential for secondary uses, like translators or cellular, those guys have already gotten Hoovered up by the likes of American Tower.
Anyone who was planning a bathroom remodel and realized Cumulus certificates (plus a little glue) are cheaper than paint or wallpaper.
Connoisseur may be interested in buying Cumulus when it emerges from bankruptcy, but as with the Alpha deal, they'll immediately start spinning off the undesirable markets. Warshaw isn't interested in quantity, he's interested in quality. He, or any other buyer, would be wise to do immediately what Cumulus brass couldn't or wouldn't in the last 20 years,
Cumulus Media Seeks To Reject Leases As Part Of Restructuring; Surrenders Some Silent Licenses
As part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Cumulus Media is asking the court to have seven of its leases
radioinsight.com
Cumulus is leveraging to bankruptcy filing not only to excise the debt from its balance sheet but also to drop unwanted assets and leases.