{"id":17887,"date":"2018-05-02T06:00:04","date_gmt":"2018-05-02T11:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=17887"},"modified":"2018-05-02T06:58:19","modified_gmt":"2018-05-02T11:58:19","slug":"cumulus-media-ready-exit-bankruptcy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2018\/05\/02\/cumulus-media-ready-exit-bankruptcy\/","title":{"rendered":"Cumulus Media ready to exit bankruptcy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> WLS Studio<\/p><\/div>\n

Cumulus Media,<\/a> parent company of three Chicago radio stations, has found a way out of bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

The nation\u2019s second largest radio operator announced Tuesday that its financial restructuring plan has been approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, a move that will allow Cumulus to erase more than $1 billion in debt and emerge from Chapter 11 reorganization before the end of the quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is very good news for all of us in Chicago who had to deal with a few extra issues during this reorganization,\u201d said Marv Nyren, vice president and market manager of Cumulus Chicago.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Cumulus Media<\/p><\/div>\n

Among other effects, the bankruptcy prompted Cumulus to cancel <\/a>money-losing contracts to broadcast Chicago White Sox baseball and Chicago Bulls basketball on news\/talk WLS 890-AM,<\/a> and to sever ties with Erich Mancow Muller, morning personality on former classic rock WLUP 97.9-FM. Other staff cuts followed.<\/p>\n

Cumulus forfeited its deal to acquire The Loop, which it had been operating through a local marketing agreement with Merlin Media. In March, Merlin sold <\/a>the station to Educational Media Foundation, a noncommercial Christian broadcasting company, effectively ending The Loop\u2019s 41-year run as an iconic Chicago radio brand.<\/p>\n

In addition to WLS 890-AM, Cumulus owns classic hits WLS 94.7-FM<\/a>. It also has an agreement to buy <\/a>alternative rock WKQX 101.1-FM<\/a>\u00a0from Merlin for $18 million.<\/p>\n

By reducing the company\u2019s debt by more than $1 billion, Cumulus \u201cwill have greater financial flexibility with which to support its ongoing business transformation,\u201d according to an announcement Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe court\u2019s approval of our plan allows us to complete the balance sheet restructuring that is critical to the success of our turnaround strategy,\u201d Mary Berner, president and CEO of Cumulus, said in a statement. \u201cWith a firmer financial foundation in place, we look forward to continuing to implement the business initiatives that have already taken this company so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s comment of the day: <\/a>Wylma Harmon:<\/strong> Why is it if a media outlet or newspaper happens to be liberal that conservatives figure that's the end of that particular media? Do they believe that only they know the truth? I like to read both sides and then form my own opinion. I do not like anybody to form my opinion for me. We need media on both sides to make it balanced.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cumulus Media, parent company of three Chicago radio stations, has found a way out of bankruptcy. The nation\u2019s second largest radio operator announced Tuesday that its financial restructuring plan has been approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Court in New York, a move that will allow Cumulus to erase more than $1 billion in debt and emerge... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17887"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17887"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17887\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17896,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17887\/revisions\/17896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}