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Tag: Audacy

  • Black-owned Sports Rap Radio in Detroit pulls plug less than 3 months after launching

    Black-owned Sports Rap Radio in Detroit pulls plug less than 3 months after launching

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    A billboard advertises Detroit’s Sports Rap Radio.

    Less than 90 days after its launch, Detroit-based Sports Rap Radio, touted as the nation’s first sports-talk radio station completely owned by and featuring African American talent, has come to an end — for now.

    Rob Parker, a well-known sports radio host with roots in Detroit, launched Sports Rap Radio in early June, with the goal of adding Black voices at a time when local sports radio is dominated by white hosts.

    But the station, which was leased for two years from Audacy, ran out of funding just before the college and professional football seasons started, Parker tells Metro Times.

    “I’m very disappointed, and I really believed in the idea and concept and wanted this to work and be the blueprint starting in Detroit,” Parker says. “And we just didn’t get our second round of funding, which put us in peril. And it wasn’t a lack of support or advertising. It wasn’t any of that. We had advertising, and we had support. But funding is so huge, and it just didn’t happen for us.”

    Sports Rap Radio went off the air earlier this week.

    But Parker isn’t giving up on his vision.

    “While this didn’t fully work the first time around, this format will be viable and will be a part of the radio landscape sooner rather than later,” Parker says. “I still believe in it, and I know that it’s doable.”

    Parker says he’s proud of what they started.

    “The one thing that can’t be taken away from Sports Rap Radio is, we were the first all Black-owned, all-Black sports talk radio station in the country, and I will always be proud of that,” he says. “They can’t take that from us. We did it.”

    Parker co-owned the station with his longtime friend Dave Kenney and two notable names familiar to Detroit sports fans: B.J. Armstrong, a Brother Rice alum and three-time NBA champion who hosted the station’s midday shift, and Maurice “Moe” Ways, a former Detroit Country Day standout and University of Michigan wide receiver who credits Parker as a mentor since high school.

    Sports Rap Radio featured such shows as The Pitbulls, What Up Doe Morning Show, and The Bad Boys.

    Despite Parker’s New York roots and prominent national media presence as co-host of The Odd Couple on Fox Sports Radio and work for ESPN, FS1, and other outlets, he has strong ties to the Motor City. Parker made history as the first Black sports columnist at The Detroit Free Press, worked at The Detroit News, Channels 4 and 7, and in 1994 became the first on-air voice for then-sports WDFN-AM. Parker also founded the Sporty Cutz barber shop on West Seven Mile Road.

    In May, Parker told Metro Times that Sports Rap Radio was his new passion.

    “I’ve had this idea for a while,” he said at the time. “It’s important to the city and the culture. Four years ago, the sports station in town had NO Black hosts in a city that’s 80% Black. That had to change.” (And it has, with the addition of Rico Beard on 97.1 FM, The Ticket.)

    The station ended about a year after 910AM Superstation, a predominately Black talk radio station, pulled the plug on its format. The white millionaire owner switched the format to conservative talk radio.

    In one of the biggest Black-majority cities in the U.S., radio continues to be dominated by white voices.

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    Steve Neavling

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  • Radio Conglomerate Audacy Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection

    Radio Conglomerate Audacy Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection

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    Audacy, the troubled radio and audio-streaming company, said Sunday it filed plans for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization to slash its debt.

    Audacy is the second-largest radio broadcaster in the U.S. (after iHeartMedia) with 235 owned radio stations across 48 markets. The company’s stations include L.A.’s KROQ, KNX and KRTH; New York’s WFAN sports-talk radio and 1010 WINS; Atlanta’s V-103 (WVEE) and 92.9 The Game (WZGC); Chicago’s Newsradio 780 WBBM and 670 The Score (WSCR); San Francisco’s Alice (KLLC) and KCBS; and Seattle’s KISW.

    Through the restructuring, Audacy expects to eliminate about $1.6 billion of funded debt — a 80% reduction from approximately $1.9 billion — to $350 million. The Philadelphia-based company said it filed prepackaged Chapter 11 proceedings in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on Jan. 7, 2024. Audacy’s debtholders will receive equity in reorganized company. Audacy expects the court will hold a hearing to consider the approval of the bankruptcy plan in February and to emerge from bankruptcy once regulatory approval is obtained from the FCC.

    David Field, Audacy’s chairman, president and CEO, cited a “perfect storm” of macroeconomic challenges for the bankruptcy reorg.

    “While our transformation has enhanced our competitive position, the perfect storm of sustained macroeconomic challenges over the past four years facing the traditional advertising market has led to a sharp reduction of several billion dollars in cumulative radio ad spending,” Field said in a statement. “These market factors have severely impacted our financial condition and necessitated our balance sheet restructuring. With our scaled leadership position, our uniquely differentiated premium audio content and a robust capital structure, we believe Audacy will emerge well positioned to continue its innovation and growth in the dynamic audio business.”

    Audacy said it expects to “continue operating its business in the ordinary course without disruption to its advertisers, vendors, partners or employees. Audacy expects to operate normally during this restructuring process under its current leadership team.”

    Founded in 1968 as Entercom Communications, the company changed its name to Audacy in 2021. In 2017, Entercom acquired CBS Radio — which owned 117 stations nationwide — and giving it the Radio.com digital audio platform. In 2019, the company bought podcast companies Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios.

    During the Chapter 11 process, some of Audacy’s existing lenders have committed to provide $57 million in debtor-in-possession financing, comprised of $32 million of a new term loan and a $25 million upsize of the company’s existing accounts receivables financing facility from $75 million to $100 million, the company said. Audacy said that, pending the bankruptcy court’s approval of its bankruptcy plan, the debtor-in-possession financing and the company’s cash from operations and available reserves it expects to have the capital to “fulfill commitments to employees, advertisers, partners and vendors.”

    Audacy’s stock was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange in November 2023. The company’s shares will continue to trade over-the-counter under the symbol “AUDA” through the Chapter 11 reorganization process. The shares are expected to be canceled and receive no distribution as part of Audacy’s restructuring, the company said.

    PJT Partners is acting as investment banker, FTI Consulting is acting as financial adviser and Latham & Watkins is acting as legal counsel to Audacy. Greenhill & Co. is acting as financial adviser and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher is acting as legal counsel to the debtor-in-possession financing lenders and the ad hoc group of first lien debtholders. Evercore Group is acting as financial adviser and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld is acting as legal counsel to the ad hoc group of second lien debtholders.

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    Todd Spangler

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