Citadel Broadcasting files Chapter 11 bankruptcy

My Way ^ | Dec 20, 2009 | DAVID PITT

[AmericaUnite]

Citadel Broadcasting Corp., the nation's third-largest radio broadcasting company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday in an effort to restructure its hefty debt load as it continues to face declining advertising revenue.

Citadel owns and operates 224 radio stations, including KABC-AM in Los Angeles, WLS-AM in Chicago, WABC-AM and WPLJ-FM in New York and KGO-AM in San Francisco. Citadel's WABC is home to several syndicated hosts, including Don Imus, Rush Limbaugh, Joe Scarborough and Mark Levin.

[Steelfish]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2411734/posts

[Shady]

The greed of modern radio broadcasting has done the first group in....Unsustainable debt. Gee, will they learn a lesson?

[okie01]

The greed of modern radio broadcasting has done the first group in..

Was it "greed"? Or was it the economy?

Declining advertising revenues are generally attributable to the latter.

[Ron C.]

I'd wager this has a lot to do with getting Rush off the air, a back-door move if I ever saw one.

I hope I'm quite mistaken...

[Springman]

Don't think WABC, WJR, KMOX, WBAP... will go off the air. Even if they did, Rush, Sean, ect. would be on the next day on a different station.

[GeronL]

Citadel was tiny about a decade ago. They went on a spending binge. Now they can’t afford the mortgage.

[DJ Frisat]

Not to worry. I’m sure that Obama and Turbo-Tax Timmy will deem Citadel “too big to fail” and will offer them a bailout! [/sarc]

[CyberAnt]

This is amazing .. they have Rush and Mark and they are in the hole ..?? When are they running the programs .. midnight!

[La Lydia]

This has very little to do with Rush and Mark and a whole lot to do with imprudent expansion and accumulation of debt. "Much of Citadel's debt burden stems from its $2.7 billion purchase of ABC Radio from Walt Disney Co. in 2007...

[ExNewsExSpook]

This has nothing to do with getting Rush off the air. The Limbaugh program is syndicated by a division of Clear Channel—not Citadel. His ratings are higher than ever, and he attracts millions of ad dollars for stations like WABC, WLS and WMAL. Put another way, those stations would be also-rans without Rush.

The only way Rush would leave WABC and WLS is if those stations could not longer afford his syndication fee. And believe me, that won’t happen. Keeping Rush on their stations is a #1 priority for Citadel. However, there are some cities (New Orleans comes to mind) where Clear Channel has flipped an FM station to a talk format, and bought the rights to Limbaugh in that market. As a result, the FM talker (WRNO) is now challenging long-time market leader WWL-AM, largely on the strength of Rush’s numbers.

Clear Channel already has a number of stations in New York...would they try the same tactic there? Stay tuned.

[okie01]

Citadel was tiny about a decade ago. They went on a spending binge. Now they can’t afford the mortgage.

I'm not arguing that. But a lot of individuals and businesses got caught over-extended in the current economy.

I'd imagine that the purchase price for ABC Radio made perfectly good sense in 2007.

You takes your choice, pays your money...and accept the consequences of your decisions.

[The Duke]

WLS?! - They can trash them all, but just not WLS - once home to John “Records-is-really-my-middle-name” Linedecker and his nightly “boogie check”.

[AmericaUnite]

The only way Rush would leave WABC and WLS is if those stations could not longer afford his syndication fee.

I'm so glad to hear it. I wonder about the rest of the line-up.

[Ron C.]

Thanks for the scoop on Rush and Clear Channel. I know the commies would ~love~ to get Rush off the air, by any means possible. Here’s hoping they lose - and lose big on any attempt.