Largest US Radio Company iHeartMedia Files For Bankruptcy (reuters.com)

The largest U.S. radio station owner, iHeartMedia, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as it "struggles with $20 billion in debt and falling revenue at its 858 radio stations," reports Reuters. The company has reportedly reached an agreement with holders of more than $10 billion of its outstanding debt for a balance sheet restructuring, which will reduce its debt by more than $10 billion. From the report: Cash on hand and cash generated from ongoing operations will be sufficient to fund the business during the bankruptcy process, said iHeartMedia, which owns Z100 in New York and Real 103.5 KISS FM in Chicago. The filing comes after John Malone's Liberty Media Corp proposed on Feb. 26 a deal to buy a 40 percent stake in a restructured iHeartMedia for $1.16 billion, uniting the company with Liberty's Sirius XM Holdings Inc satellite radio service. Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings Inc, a subsidiary of iHeartMedia, and its units did not commence Chapter 11 proceedings. The company had 14,300 employees at the end of 2016, according to its most recent annual report.

Comments

Re: Not surprising.

[TuballoyThunder]

Iâ(TM)m not sure if broadcast TV will go the same way as radio. I frequently hear people (of the non-technical variety) talking about how they have dumped cable and are using an antenna. While they may be willing to pay for Netflix or Amazon, paying for CBS Now isnâ(TM)t as appealing when they can watch for free. When I point out that the TiVo OTA version does not have a monthly subscription, they usually plan buying one.

Re: Not surprising.

[guruevi]

Not that, nobody is listening to premium radio station. IHeartMedia and Sirius bet big on premium digital radio streaming or subscription based radio. They sent me a advertisement for a "deal" for $5/month once (for 3 months, $24.99 after). That didn't pan out for obvious reasons and they got their lunches served by Pandora and the like.

Re: Not surprising.

[backslashdot]

AM radio is still popular. Most of the Trump drones have to tune in to download the latest update or patch.

Sad

[Anonymous Coward]

This is bad.

Monopoly won't help you now

[nitehawk214]

ClearChannel is one of the reasons people don't want to listen to terrestrial radio anymore. They have a near monopoly in so many regions, and instantly make radio bland and corporate. I'm a bit surprised their attempts at payola with their awards and festivals haven't saved them.

Re:Monopoly won't help you now

[Anonymous Coward]

This is so true. My spouse and I took a cross-country road trip. We played a game on the way down as we drove. We kept finding that one station in each city that played the exact same feed. Once the radio started breaking up, we would start changing channels to find what station was playing the feed. Didn't have a city that didn't and playing the same 12 songs (or at least it felt like the same 12) made it real obvious. Luckily, when not on the edge of broadcast range, there were plenty of unique stations to listen to, especially the AM ones.

Re:Monopoly won't help you now

[denis-The-menace]

Entertainment is not like making cars.

-You wants cars of the same model/year to be identical.

-If have 100s of stations that play the same EXACT songs you get ClearChannel / iHeartRadio. About 75% of the stations should go.

And running the SAME advertisements within an hour makes that ad extra annoying.

Re:Monopoly won't help you now

[xski]

Yes, this.

When I saw the headline I thought "I'm pretty sure I'm happy about this."

Re:Monopoly won't help you now

[rnturn]

Exactly right. Interesting radio stations that I had listened to for decades were suddenly transformed into bland and boring once they were absorbed by Clear Channel. They became so desperate for ever increasing profits that the music-to-ad ratio has declined to barely above 50 percent. I don't know of anyone who listens to the radio for music any more. Except for the local classical music station that has minimal, announcer-read ads--they're still worth tuning into--and public radio for news, I rarely tune into an OTA radio station any more. All of the stations that have been bought up by these mega-corporations have turned to crap; playing the same corporate-mandated "hits" over and over and run by people who, apparently, really don't like music.

Re:Monopoly won't help you now

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't need no stinkin iHeart

CLASS,Venice,:174.36.206.197:8000/,,,
CLASS,WETA,:38.100.128.106:8000/fmlive,,,
CLASS,WSHU Baroque,:wshu.streamguys.org:80/wshu-baroque,,,
CLASS,WCLV,:audio1.ideastream.org/wclv.mp3,,,
CLASS,WKSU-3,:66.225.205.8:8030,,,
CLASS,WBAA Perdue,:purdue.streamguys1.com:80/wbaa-classical,,,
CLASS,Prague,:icecast5.play.cz/croddur-128.mp3,,,
CLASS,Strsburg,:str0.creacast.com/accent4,,,
CLASS,VPR Classical,:vprclassical.streamguys.net:80/vprclassical128.mp3,,,
CLASS,WCPE N.C.,:audio-mp3.ibiblio.org:8000/wcpe.mp3,,,
CLASS,Guitar,:108.61.73.120:14020,,,
CLASS,NWPR Classical,:134.121.234.129:8000/NWPRCLASSICAL,,,
AMBI,Cinemix,:listen.cinemix.fr,,,
AMBI,Chant,:streams.greenhost.nl:8080/gregoriaans,,,
JAZZ,CJRT Toronto,:206.223.188.169:8008/,,,
JAZZ,VPR Jazz,:vprjazz.streamguys.net:80/vprjazz64.mp3,,,
JAZZ,CJRT Oscar P,:206.223.188.169:8008/,,,
JAZZ,CJRT Groove,:206.223.188.169:8002/,,,
JAZZ,Smooth Jazz-Fla,:us1.internet-radio.com:11094,,,
JAZZ,Jazz Groove,:199.180.72.2:8015/,,,
JAZZ,Love Smooth Jazz,:streaming307.radionomy.com:80/lovesmoothjazzcom,,,
JAZZ,CZ Hard Bop,:streams.greenhost.nl:8080/hardbop,,,
JAZZ, VPR Replay,:vprmix.streamguys.net:80/vprmix64.mp3,,,
JAZZ, VPR Jazz,:vprjazz.streamguys.net:80/vprjazz64.mp3,,,
INTL, BBC VPR Radio,:vprbbc.streamguys.net:80/vprbbc24.mp3,,,
INTL,BBC Bristol,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lrbris_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Cambridge,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lrcambs_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Essex,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lressex_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC London,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lrldn_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Leeds,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lrleeds_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Oxford,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lroxford_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Sheffield,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lrsheff_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC World Service,:bbcwssc.ic.llnwd.net/stream/bbcwssc_mp1_ws-einws,,,
INTL,BBC Radio2,:sc17.ord.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_radio2_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Radio3,:sc11.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_radio3_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Radio3,:202.177.192.119:80/radio3,,,
INTL,BBC Radio4,:sc17.ord.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_radio4fm_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Radio5,:sc11.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_radio5live_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Kboo,:live.kboo.fm:8000/high,,,
INTL,NRK Norway,:lyd.nrk.no:80/nrk_radio_alltid_nyheter_mp3_h,,,
INTL,Talk Europe,:46.28.53.118:7014,,,
NPR, KALW SanFran,:live.str3am.com:2430,,,
NPR,KAZU Monterey,:icecast.csumb.edu:8000/live128,,,
NPR,*KCMP Minn,:current.stream.publicradio.org/kcmp.mp3,,,
NPR,KCRW Electric,:kcrw.streamguys1.com/kcrw_192k_mp3_e24_internet_radio,,,
NPR,KCRW News,:kcrw.streamguys1.com/kcrw_192k_mp3_news_internet_radio,,,
NPR, KCSN L.Angeles,:130.166.82.184:8000/,,,
NPR,*KERA Texas,:kera-ice.streamguys.us:80/keralive,,,
NPR,KHPR Hawaii,:hpr-ice.streamguys.org/khpr2,,,
NPR, KNPR HD3,:66.209.79.122:8004/,,,
NPR,KNPR News,:66.209.79.122:8000/,,,
NPR,KPFA Pacifica,:streams1.kpfa.org:8000/kpfa_64,,,
NPR, *KQED SanFran,:streams2.kqed.org:80/kqedradio,,,
NPR,KPBS SanDiego,:kpbs.streamguys.tv/,,,
NPR,KPBZ Spokane,:tektite.streamguys1.com:5010/KPBZ-mp3,,,:173.192.70.138:8720
NPR,*KPCC S.Calif,:live.scpr.org:80/,,,
NPR,*KPCC S.Calif,:live.scpr.org/kpcclive/,,,
NPR,KUAC Alaska,:kuacii.streamon.fm:8000/KUACII-32k-m.mp3?starttime=1427683229,,,
NPR,*KUOW Seattle,:kuow.streamguys1.com:80/noads-kuow1-hi.mp3,,,
NPR,WAMU-1 D.C.,:wamu-1.streamguys.com:80,,,
NPR,WBEZ Chicago,:wbez.iad.streamguys1.com:80/wbez128.mp3,,,
NPR,WBUR Boston,:wbur-sc.streamguys.com/wbur.mp3,,,
NPR,WCAI Cape Cod,:audio.wgbh.org:8002/wcai,,,
NPR,WCPN Cleveland,:audio1.ideastream.org/wcpn128,,,
NPR,*WFAE N.Carolina,:wfae.iad.streamguys1.com:80/wfae3,,,
NPR,WFSW Florida,:146.201.215.226:8000/891,,,
NPR,WFSU Florida,:146.201.215.226:8000/889,,,
NPR,WFIU Indiana,:hannibal.ucs.indiana.edu:8000/wfiu2_hi,,,
NPR,WGBH Boston,:audio.wgbh.org:8000/wgbh,,,
NPR,WKS

iheart

[ohgary]

I have a love hate relationship with iheart. I love the streaming service, but that what they did the broadcast radio. EVERY station playing the same thing. I can hear 8 country stations on my drive in 6 are iheart and have the same bobby bones programs running. I listen to radio for music not some morning DJ blabbing out his crappy love life. SHut up and play the music.

Re:iheart

[jwhyche]

I have a love hate relationship with iheart. I love the streaming service,

If you really love music then I would suggest you ditch iheart and sign up with spotify. You can have it with or without commercials.

But if you really want to go back to the days before clear channel get a app like Xiialive and explore the world of shoutcast and icecast. Any one can set up a icecast or a shoutcast station and you can fine lots of independent artist. Lots of crap too, but there are some really good stations that have a shout cast stations. If you like jazz, ie music, its hard to beat some of the jazz shoutcast stations.

I believe, I'm not 100% sure, but I've found that iheart uses icecast with a 48K AAC feed. I've found that almost every iheart station that I tune too has a shoutcast/icecast present too. Of course it could be a coincidence since I don't do much iheart.

Once known as ClearChannel.

[Anonymous Coward]

Good riddance. Maybe this will mean this horrible conglomerate will be broken up into locally run and maintained radio stations.

Re:Once known as ClearChannel.

[Sarten-X]

Unfortunately, those locally-run stations usually can't afford to survive on their own. That's why they mostly joined the big conglomerates in the first place.

I've worked at a local radio station. It's not a cheap business. Beyond the equipment costs, there are licensing fees that are essentially mandatory to keep content on the air. Even for talk radio, people want to be paid for their time. If you're going to avoid licensing by producing your own content, you need a studio, with facility expenses. Then, of course, you have all of the overhead of handling the technology involved, which today involves a significant IT budget, as well as the usual communications link to the transmitters, transmitter space rental, and so on...

My station was pretty much just the hobby of a few wealthy listeners. Some folks dump money into a boat-shaped hole in the lake, but these folks likes to burn their cash at the top of an antenna tower. Our advertising income barely covered the electricity costs.

Re:Once known as ClearChannel.

[Anonymous Coward]

Our advertising income barely covered the electricity costs.

What are the prospects for a radio station going off-grid? Seems profitable - just adapt the transmit power according to energy reserves and time of day.

Re:Once known as ClearChannel.

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately, those locally-run stations usually can't afford to survive on their own. That's why they mostly joined the big conglomerates in the first place.

You know, that's what everyone tells us. But even within the tech industry, I've found that mergers and acquisitions don't actually solve that problem.

It artificially creates 'shareholder value' for the first quarter in which they've sacked all of the people and leveraged the synergies, but then the smaller entity gets ground into dust, turned into a shadow of itself (losing all of the good stuff in the process), and then eventually killed off -- making you wonder why they bought it in the first place if the intent was just to ruin it and then close it.

I can't speak to radio, but in tech, these acquisitions seem to translate corporate value into executive bonuses. At the end of the day, there's less value than when they started.

Me, I've come to conclude that acquisitions are just a shell game and a means to distract investors, but fundamentally don't every result in what was claimed.

Specifically, that has made me conclude all CEOs are lying assholes, who have little more sense of how to run a business than a rabid ferret.

Re:Once known as ClearChannel.

[humankind]

There is so much content online radio stations could license podcast content and make out like bandits.

I bet most podcast producers would love to have radio stations run their stuff for free.

Re:Once known as ClearChannel.

[Anonymous Coward]

pillage, pillage, pillage. Loot, loot, loot.

Stupid the Kid

Re:Once known as ClearChannel.

[spoot]

OK, I spent nearly 4 decades in Broadcast and Network radio, worked all over the country, nothing under a top 10 market and eventually ending up in NYC in management in network radio and finally as a consultant based in NY, (retired from the biz now).

You are correct about the executive bonuses, same/same. Clear Channel/iHeart became a behemoth and ended up paying huge sums of monies for large market radio properties in big bundles. Hence the debt. As a very large company, they became slaves to the shareholders/Wall Street. They HAD to meet expectations and revenue every quarter to keep their share value. How did they do this, depleting staff, jettisoning higher paid folks who knew how to actually create a product and not just bean-counters. As pointed out here, creating also-rans all over the country with voice-tracking and other network feeds, Program Directors locally couldn't make local decisions because all edicts came from the mother ship in San Antonio. Of course there is much more, but it's exactly the same sort of idiocy that implodes many businesses.

Re:Once known as ClearChannel.

[Sarten-X]

My station tried that for a while. We found that most podcast producers actually fall into three major categories:

First, there are the planning-limited amateurs. By far the largest group, these are the folks who buy a microphone and start talking. They product a dozen segments of precisely one hour... or maybe 43 minutes... or maybe 67 minutes. They don't leave slots for commercial breaks or other station announcements, they don't follow a consistent format, and they don't have a long-term sustainable plan for content. Once that plan runs out, the podcasts stop, often with no warning to the broadcaster.

There are also the quality-limited amateurs, who produce well-planned podcasts and have a chance of delivering great content... but it's not suitable for use. These folks think that a bedroom makes a great recording studio, or that walking down the street and talking provides a casual ambiance, and they generally have never heard of noise removal or normalization. Some of these could be good if they were properly adjusted, but that requires a lot of quality time with a good audio engineer, and that isn't often cheap.

Finally, there are the professionals. These folks have been radio personalities for decades, been in every role in the station, and now see radio production as a way of life. They do everything right, and they know it. Unfortunately, though, these are also the folks who see radio as a moneymaker. They know that they have quality material, and they know that they can charge for it, so they'll charge for a radio station to play their content. It's typically cheaper than music to fill a time slot, but it still cuts into the station budget. A good number of these professionals also think they're good enough to demand particular time slots, or expect the station to promote them as more than just a way to fill time.

It ended up being cheaper and simpler to run a regular studio, bring in local personalities, and have an in-house production team. They made enough content to fill peaks, and we had a few licensed shows from other studios to round out the main listening hours. An automatic DJ filled the rest of the time with music, commercials, and station announcements.

Re:Once known as ClearChannel.

[nitehawk214]

It doesn't solve the problem, it makes it someone else's problem. The people selling out may or may not be getting rich, but they will at least stop losing money.

Why ClearChannel keeps buying up space in a dying market? Who knows. I am sure someone thought that once they hit monopoly status they could just rake in the cash. I guess they forgot that people could do something crazy like... not listen.

Re: Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

AM radio is still popular. Most of the Trump drones have to tune in to download the latest update or patch.

I'm so sorry you hate yourself. What is AM radio?

Re: Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not that, nobody is listening to premium radio station. IHeartMedia and Sirius bet big on premium digital radio streaming or subscription based radio. They sent me a advertisement for a "deal" for $5/month once (for 3 months, $24.99 after). That didn't pan out for obvious reasons and they got their lunches served by Pandora and the like.

32 Million subscribers to SiriusXM most recent quarter. That's a far cry from "nobody". While the growth rate is approaching 0, every quarter has had more subscribers than the previous one.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/252812/number-of-sirius-xms-subscribers/

good riddance.

[nimbius]

this is one of the worst Radio monopolies in America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:good riddance.

[Nidi62]

this is one of the worst Radio monopolies in America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

I remember when they switched 96.1 in Atlanta over from rock to a Top 40 station (since already having 2 or 3 Top 40 stations in the same market isn't enough). Listening to rock music in my truck before refereeing a football game. Hopped in my truck after the game and it was Top 40. They never put out any warning, and from what I remember they didn't even warn the staff about the switch over. Haven't had good rock music on the radio since. The closest station we have now, every other song has a mandolin or banjo....

RIAA?

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder what kind of impact they had on this with their licensing requirements?

Re: Not surprising.

[rickb928]

They can't get those patches from TV, snowflake.

As a businessman...

[Trailer Trash]

I am just shaking my head. They own 858 stations and have $20,000,000,000 in debt?

Holy. Shit.

That's more than $23,000,000 per station. In debt. Radio stations do not cost $23,000,000.

I cannot figure out how they've managed to run up $20,000,000,000 in debt. That takes a special kind of talent.

And, I mean "special" as in "special ed".

Re:As a businessman...

[Strider-]

That's more than $23,000,000 per station. In debt. Radio stations do not cost $23,000,000.

Given the capital cost of building an HD radio transmitter, maintaining the transmitter site, the studios etc... maintaining a radio station isn't cheap either.

Re:As a businessman...

[Anonymous Coward]

Unnecessary events like iHeartRadio Country Festival, iHeartRadio Music Festival, iHeartRadio Music Awards... none of it really interesting, and all of it so manufactured as to be actually boring to listen to, stream the video of, and good god I couldn't imagine going to one of those nightmare shows. They try hard to be MTV in a world that is over MTV.

Their app is real handy in order to listen to local radio channels while sitting at my desk tho... cause, you know, who has a radio at their desk anymore?

Re:As a businessman...

[tomhath]

FTFA:

IHeartMedia has struggled with debt that was taken on to finance a $17.9 billion leveraged buyout in 2008 of what was then Clear Channel Communications Inc...the company spent $1.4 billion on interest payments last year

It's not hard when you pay $18b for a company that isn't profitable enough to pay the interest on the junk bonds.

Re:As a businessman...

[Anonymous Coward]

Toys R Us, FAO Schwarz, Kmart, CompUSA, FutureShop, Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Target, Best Buy

Oh wait those last two haven't disappeared yet, they will be soon, very soon.

Re:As a businessman...

[Actually, I do RTFA]

Radio stations do not cost $23,000,000.

The typical value of the spectrum for a radio station (just the rights to broadcast on it) are worth more than $23 million. And then the transmitter, etc...

Re:As a businessman...

[BLToday]

Radio stations do not cost $23,000,000.

The typical value of the spectrum for a radio station (just the rights to broadcast on it) are worth more than $23 million. And then the transmitter, etc...

Around $100m in the LA area some years ago. That’s the cost of the spectrum of The Sound 100.3 when the station was created. The station was recently sold off for $18m.

Re:As a businessman...

[fustakrakich]

This isn't about radio. This is a company whose business was buying and selling IOUs. Like any derivatives market it will eventually catch up, but not to worry, all the bosses still got paid, took their money and ran.

Re:As a businessman...

[Tempest_2084]

I too use their app so I can listen to the radio when I walk. Too bad their app sucks so bad that it crashes all the time. Not to mention it drains my battery like mad.

Re:As a businessman...

[Actually, I do RTFA]

While the station sold for $18 million, you have to ask what debts it had. After all, Newsweek sold a few years ago for a single dollar. The domain name newsweek.com is worth more than a single dollar.

Re:As a businessman...

[Anonymous Coward]

$23M sounds like the yearly electricity budget of of a major market transmitter.

Re:As a businessman...

[liquid_schwartz]

You're looking at this from the wrong perspective. Somewhere banksters and the CEO were able to extract 23 million per radio station. I'm sure a shell company in a tax haven is doing quite well. Perhaps even Clinton was able to monetize this move since he kicked it off. Citation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:As a businessman...

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably the same way Toys R Us did. Leveraged buy outs

Re:As a businessman...

[kqs]

Perhaps even Clinton was able to monetize this move since he kicked it off.

You do realize that iHeartMedia is a conservative media company which was known for filtering criticisms of George W Bush, right?

Re:As a businessman...

[Trailer Trash]

Radio stations do not cost $23,000,000.

The typical value of the spectrum for a radio station (just the rights to broadcast on it) are worth more than $23 million. And then the transmitter, etc...

Around $100m in the LA area some years ago. That’s the cost of the spectrum of The Sound 100.3 when the station was created. The station was recently sold off for $18m.

I should have qualified my statement better. Yes, you can find a radio station that has at some point sold for more than $23,000,000. But not 858 of them. Clear Channel has stations all over the US, so while it's possible and even likely that they own a couple of stations that are worth more than that, they also own a bunch of stations in the middle of nowhere that are priced at a couple of orders of magnitude less.

Re:As a businessman...

[pr0fessor]

Kmart has two store less than an hour drive from me, Toys R Us has one and a second about about 1.5 hours away. I was under the impression they declared bankruptcy shoveled off a bunch of old stores and debt kept the locations that made good money.

Re:As a businessman...

[Anonymous Coward]

Um read the news, ALL Toys R Us stores are closing, they will be gone very soon. You must have some of the last few Kmart stores around as they have all closed around here. Kmart, btw, is actually gone, they are owned by Sears Holding, which is another company going to be shutting all doors soon...

Big box stores are all going away. The only ones that will remain in the coming decade or two will be Home Depot, Lowes, grocery stores (Costco, Fred Meyer, etc). Sears, JC Penney, Nordstrom (might survive, maybe), Target, Best Buy, you name it they will not have a physical presence and very likely not an online presence in the next decade or two. Their time has come to an end.

Re:As a businessman...

[GrimSavant]

It's easier to understand once you realize that they went to the loan sharks, aka private equity. They loaded it up with tons of debt in the 2008 for their leveraged buyout, there was $17.9 billion in debt from that alone. Doesn't take all much compounding interest and fees to get that up over $20 billion in a decade, that's a hole that's pretty damn hard for even a great business to dig itself out of without resorting to bankruptcy.

In the loan sharks' defense, the company was probably already walking dead before they showed up, which is typically the case with those sorts of deals. The vultures usually don't go after healthy specimens, and companies usually won't saddle themselves with such ridiculous debts and fees unless they can't get public funding elsewhere.

Re:As a businessman...

[dryeo]

Why not just use the FM radio in your phone?

Re:As a businessman...

[dryeo]

You guys should get a legislature, perhaps call it something like Congress, have the people vote for members even. Seems it would be better then having a series of Presidents passing whatever laws they feel will make them rich.

Re:As a businessman...

[Anonymous Coward]

They purposefully flood the market with the very unprofitable conservative talk personalities for purely partisan purposes. They seem to not actually care about ratings. Pushing their agenda is more important.

Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[rjejr]

Toys R Us went bankrupt, they had only $5B debt but plenty of stock and store property and we're still selling items. How does any radio corporation get to the point that they are $20B in debt, they basically own nothing of any real worth. Even the stations themselves are small and limited tech. iTunes has been out for years. Napster. Writing has been on the wall for years. Who was loaning or lending this company money? At $10B or $15B in debt people didn't stop to think, hmm, may even we should cut them off? $20B is what it takes. Insane.

Re:Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[Ryanrule]

Toys r us had that debt as a result of a leveraged buyout from Bain and friends.

Re:Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[Headw1nd]

And whattaya know? Guess who owns IHeartMedia.

Re:Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[Anonymous Coward]

Unearned revenue is a liability. They have over 850 radio stations, and even at only $2 million worth of presold ads per station, you're looking at $1.6 billion in liabilities. I worked for a small radio station about thirty years ago, and we had almost $500k presold despite only having one salesperson.

Re:Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thomas H. Lee Partners

If you're trying to make a point, I missed it.

Re: Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[Anonymous Coward]

The article says, saddled with the debt from a leveraged buyout.

Oldest trick in the book, corporate pirates raid a going concern, spin off the profitable parts, leave the crap (debt incurred by the buyout).

That's what happens when a company's stock price gets too low.

Should be illegal and the raiders should go to jail. I'm dreaming.

Re:Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[Headw1nd]

There was significant debt from way back, but the bulk of it was racked up when the company was acquired in a leveraged buyout back in 2006. The way a leveraged buyout basically works is the company being acquired borrows a bunch of money that the buyer uses to pay the current owner. So in this case they borrowed something like 12 billion just for that bit alone. If all goes well, your investment is profitable and can pay off its debts free and clear, but if you don't prioritize getting rid of debt over profit taking, or way overpaid for the company in the first place, then the business goes under from the debt. Bain did both.

Re:Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[Merk42]

From TFA, emphasis mine

IHeartMedia has struggled with debt that was taken on to finance a $17.9 billion leveraged buyout in 2008 of what was then Clear Channel Communications Inc. That deal led by Bain Capital LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners LP closed just as a financial crisis began to undermine the U.S. economy.

Yes, "Thomas H. Lee Partners" is there as well, but you either missed Bain or are being obtuse.

Re:Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

Toys R Us went bankrupt, they had only $5B debt but plenty of stock and store property and we're still selling items. How does any radio corporation get to the point that they are $20B in debt, they basically own nothing of any real worth. Even the stations themselves are small and limited tech. iTunes has been out for years. Napster. Writing has been on the wall for years. Who was loaning or lending this company money? At $10B or $15B in debt people didn't stop to think, hmm, may even we should cut them off? $20B is what it takes. Insane.

I can answer these. My response is meant to be an example and the numbers I mention are not meant to be representative of actual amounts involved.

Imagine you owe $10,000 on a car and your neighbor, who makes a similar salary, owes $20,000 on his. But imagine he pays $400 a month and the interest rate is 3%. Imagine you have to pay $1000 a month but $900 is interest (you got a terrible loan which we will pretend is even legal) and $100 against the principle. By the time your car is paid off, you will have paid over $80,000 in interest payments. Toys R Us was having to pay a ton of their money towards debt servicing over their leveraged buyout which left their stores in pretty bad shape. One commenter in the Toys R Us thread on Slashdot said they were like being inside a KMart. Yikes.

One of the reasons you might loan a failing business money to keep failing is to gain control over that business. Back in the 90s when the music industry changed and sales of physical products began to decline, Sony loaned Michael Jackson something like a billion dollars against his future music sales. I thought it was insane because there was no way he was ever going to sell enough going forward to pay that back. I thought Sony was crazy. They weren't. To get the money they made Michael pledge his ownership of the Beatles' publishing (that's a whole other story about how he got that in the first place) against the loan and when Michael died and there was no way to pay back the loan, guess who got the publishing? Sony. And by now this particular catalog is now estimated to be worth more than a billion dollars, so Sony was just really looking far into the future knowing that by making a huge loan now that could never be repaid down the road they could get their hands on some publishing they wanted that they felt would be worth more than the loan. Perhaps whoever is pumping money into IHeartMedia wants to get their hands on their stations.

Re:Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[liquid_schwartz]

Toys r us had that debt as a result of a leveraged buyout from Bain and friends.

Banksters strike again.

Re:Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[Anonymous Coward]

IMO, All these signs just point towards another market and bank crash very soon, and no the unemployment rate isn't accurate at all, gross of that drop is people getting excluded after their time on the "safety net" ended, they didn't find a job anywhere.

Re:Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[Anonymous Coward]

LBOs are a scam. It allows shifting the risk of the loan from the buyer to the seller if the buyer defaults and the buyer puts nothing towards the loan, only paying to structure the loan.

Re: Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[rjejr]

Thanks for all that. I kind of get it, but still, $17Billion for even 800 radio stations. They're just radio stations. Might as well spend $17B for some carriages for your horse and buggy business. The Nabisco buyout cost more at $25B but that was a huge business with some real assessts and a future, people gotta eat. Nobody thought $17B in debt for radio stations was a bad idea? No wonder the whole world nearly collapsed in 2008.

Re:Who lent free radio $20B with a B?

[Anonymous Coward]

You know who lent them Billions with a B.

It was never intended to ever be repaid, and it was not intended to bankrupt the company.

Debt is control. Lend someone irresponsible huge sums of money and you can make them dance like little puppets on a string. Credit rating has a nice subjective quality that can be exploited nicely to that purpose.

"Do the thing we deem to be the correct strategy or we will sadly need to downgrade your credit rating which would of course immediately invalidate your loan and that would bankrupt you in a second. So please follow our advice. Thank you for your cooperation." So it means "Fire this officer, install that other officer, deal amicably with this company, be hostile to that other company etc.".

Remember that when looking at the debt of countries.

Radio has been dying for a long time

[93 Escort Wagon]

I seem to recall that radio stations were already failing left and right before the Internet was a thing. It’s hardly surprising that a large corporation whose main business model is the purchase and consolidation of cash-strapped radio stations would in turn fail at some point. It’s basically the old “we sell everything at a loss, but make it up in volume” model.

Re:Radio has been dying for a long time

[Anonymous Coward]

Everyone: "I don't listen to the radio... too many commercials..."

Re:Radio has been dying for a long time

[Snotnose]

Clearchannel destroyed radio about a decade before the internet hit.

Lessee, shitty music, twice the commercials, all local DJs canned for someone thousands of miles away. Gee, why don't people listen to the radio anymore?

Re: Not surprising.

[Junta]

I don't think the companies behind broadcast TV are in trouble, though I do see broadcast TV as a medium declining.

In broadcast radio, the record labels asserted control over the content, and as such broadcast radio companies were not particularly advantaged to compete with streaming companies.

The broadcast televesion networks, conversely, fund and own most of the content. This is the same model Netflix, Hulu, Amazon are transitioning to: being masters of their destinies, as the broadcast networks are starting to compete with and undermine the streaming vendors when they rely upon the broadcast company programming.

Re:Not surprising.

[Strider-]

I dunno, my car's radio is permanently stuck on CBC Radio 1 when in Canada, or the local NPR affiliate when in the US. But then, I'm a left leaning socialist (at least based on some people's political spectrums). I enjoy the various shows for being thought provoking, topical, and exposing me to ideas and things that I often do not agree with. If I was just snarfing down podcasts, the chance of me listening through something that I don't agree with are significantly smaller. But doing that is good for my well being.

Re:Not surprising.

[Sique]

I beg to differ.

I never use the CD player in my car, I exclusively listen to radio stations. That's because I basicly don't listen to music, and I don't listen to audio books at all. So there is no reason for me to use something that can only play prerecorded stuff.

Re: Not surprising.

[Junta]

Note that almost every new car is a SiruxXM subscriber. More than half of their subscribers are likely the trial subscribers from new car purchases.

Beyond that, despite never haven given them a dime, they have frequently given me new free trials.

At least in my car, the audio quality is crap for satellite radio, compared to HD radio or a streaming service. Even if I liked the programming, the quality would have killed it for me.

Re: Not surprising.

[desdinova 216]

I bought a used car with SiriusXM, had a 1 month trial included. didn't continue it after that since it mostly was as repetitive as traditional radio. went back to a combination of streaming services or a flash drive with my library from my desktop.

Another victim of an LBO

[robkill]

Just like Toys 'R' Us was bought out by KKR and Bain in 2005, ClearChannel was bought by Bain and Thomas H Lee in an LBO in 2008. In both cases the company was saddled with more debt than they could pay off and had to file for Chapter 11.

Re:Another victim of an LBO

[Anonymous Coward]

LBOs is basically the market version of a fungus eating at a dead tree to break it down.

Toys R Us and Clear Channel weren't gonna survive regardless. Their business models were massively out of date by decades. So LBO firms came in and extracted every little bit of value they could before the wheels completely fell off. It's money that now could be used to finance a business that is actually profitable and isn't managed by idiots.

Re:Another victim of an LBO

[HornWumpus]

I want to know who the chumps where. Who bought the (Toys R Us/I Love Radio) bonds? Those people are the 'king of the idiots'.

How can we get in on this? How did these fools ever get together with their money in the first place? It would be immoral for us to leave them with their money. An 'attractive nuisance'. Might lead some righteous man astray. Best we take it all.

Good, go die in a fire

[darkain]

iHeartRadio purchased all of the local independent radio stations in the Seattle area. Each of these stations at one point had their own unique niche. Now they're just generic top-10 playlist genre stations. There is no longer diversity within the market.

Also, iHeartRadio and Clear Channel are that closely related? I didn't even realize. Clear Channel is one of the most hated companies locally. There was a 20-year dispute between the city of Tacoma and Clear Channel over their lack of maintenance of their billboards around the city, which the city listed as a blight. http://billboardinsider.com/8-...

Both of these companies have been terrible to the Pacific Northwest and need removed.

Re:Good, go die in a fire

[jwhyche]

Also, iHeartRadio and Clear Channel are that closely related?

Iheartreadio is clear channels bitch application.

Re:Good, go die in a fire

[sound vision]

I assumed iHeart and Clear Channel were the same.

Good article with history of Clear Channel\iHeart

[BlackSupra]

http://www.expressnews.com/bus...

> iHeartMedia financial troubles embedded in 2008 leveraged buyout ....

Their recent telephone conversation, though, focused on the news that the company, with different owners and now called iHeartMedia Inc., was conducting pre-bankruptcy talks with lenders and bondholders after declaring that the company by February may not be able to meet some of its maturing $20.4 billion in debt.

The company’s daunting repayment schedule, stemming from the 2008 leverage buyout by two Boston-based private equity firms, makes iHeartMedia one of the country’s largest corporate debt dilemmas. ....

Re:Not surprising.

[DickBreath]

> Broadcast TV is next.

The TV broadcasters (and cable) will never believe it until it is too late. They will deny and deny right up until, and perhaps after, the bankruptcy filing. Their whole business model is stuck in some previous millennium long ago washed away in the sands of time. Their model is based on telling you what is the limited menu of programs and reruns you can watch, and WHEN you can watch them. You will watch it according to OUR schedule, or wait until it is in reruns, if it is at all.

They don't realize there are other forms of entertainment. Even if you sit in front of the TV, all you need is an internet connection, but not "cable tv". Subscribe to what you want -- without having ESPN shoved down your throat.

It could have been fixed

[ctilsie242]

Had IHeartMedia kept the same programming that stations had before, or provided stations with some autonomy, things would have been completely different. People would be exposed to new bands and songs, the radio station would be a core pillar of the community, DJs could rally people for worthy causes, and musicians would have a place to get their hot tracks played.

However, this didn't happen. They took the quick buck route and destroyed their future. This worked well for a few years, but it killed radio as a whole as a viable medium. People have moved on to social networks and streaming sites. Only talk radio remains.

Re:It could have been fixed

[tquasar]

DJ's and Musicians. I haven't heard very many radio stations that were rock oriented that allowed DJ's to speak their mind or have musicians in-studio to discuss their music or play live in years. One station I listen to is more talk show but the staff are veterans of the business and entertaining. http://www.kfmbfm.com/category... .

Re:It could have been fixed

[dyslexicbunny]

Yea. Every station I listened to in Atlanta (when I lived there) got bought out and replaced with Top 40. So I stopped listening as I found something that replaced my original station. Eventually I gave up and just streamed Pandora with a cable...

Re: Not surprising.

[Rick Schumann]

Uh, I've had TiVo since Series 2 was on the shelves. So far as I knew you have to have Program Guide service regardless of what your signal source is, so I'm not sure what you're talking about when you say "TiVo OTA version does not have a monthly subscription"? Granted, I currently and still using a Series 3 HD..

I pay for SiriusXM

[ArchieBunker]

I pay for it because I still listen to Howard Stern (when he's not on vacation or working his 3 day "flexible" schedule). I also don't mind the live DJs that the stations have. They say a few words and maybe news about upcoming concerts and that's it. Plus they play specials and have guests do their own playlists. I've heard a lot of good music that way. I also don't have to worry about cell coverage or docking my phone and loading an app.

Re:I pay for SiriusXM

[Anonymous Coward]

I still listen to Howard Stern

*giggle*

Re: Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course Sirius sounds like crap.
It's basically 64Kb/s MP3 quality.

iHeartAttack

[Deathlizard]

This is why it's baffling that they are so much in debt.

iHeartMedia is basically a advertisement platform that just happens to play music and talk shows once in awhile. Most of their "studio's" are empty since most of their stations are run off of nationwide feeds. Everything they broadcast is tied to advertising, IE (product) digital studios, (product) Sportdesk, (product) news center (prouduct) weather center, (product) traffic report, then to top if all off each broadcast is brought to you by (product). Hell, even the stations are used to prop up their iHeartRadio app since they can use their stations to cut steaming fees.

I was genuinely shocked

[rsilvergun]

a few weeks ago when I heard a song on the radio I liked (One Night Only by the Struts). I overheard it at a Sonic Drive in. I promptly googled some of the lyrics and listened to the song on Youtube.

Meanwhile Radio is chock full of stuff like Rush Limbaugh and Alex Jones. I don't need that in my head.

Market is gone

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

Most people have moved on to streaming services.

That left just talk radio. Talk radio's biggest money maker was Rush Limbaugh, but they paid him so much, the company did not net anything.

Re:Market is gone

[Snotnose]

People moved to streaming because radio sucks so hard. In the decade between Clearchannel destroying radio and streaming radio becoming a thing people deserted radio in droves in favor of CDs and hiring buskers to sit in the back seat to provide music. Anything but Crapchannel.

Re:Market is gone

[Anonymous Coward]

Podcasts might be eating into talk radio, anyway. They can focus on rather esoteric or niche areas and find success. For instance, there are a bunch of gaming podcasts, but none on radio (that I know of).

Who needs iHeart ?

[Anonymous Coward]

CLASS,Venice,:174.36.206.197:8000/,,,
CLASS,WETA,:38.100.128.106:8000/fmlive,,,
CLASS,WSHU Baroque,:wshu.streamguys.org:80/wshu-baroque,,,
CLASS,WCLV,:audio1.ideastream.org/wclv.mp3,,,
CLASS,WKSU-3,:66.225.205.8:8030,,,
CLASS,WBAA Perdue,:purdue.streamguys1.com:80/wbaa-classical,,,
CLASS,Prague,:icecast5.play.cz/croddur-128.mp3,,,
CLASS,Strsburg,:str0.creacast.com/accent4,,,
CLASS,VPR Classical,:vprclassical.streamguys.net:80/vprclassical128.mp3,,,
CLASS,WCPE N.C.,:audio-mp3.ibiblio.org:8000/wcpe.mp3,,,
CLASS,Guitar,:108.61.73.120:14020,,,
CLASS,NWPR Classical,:134.121.234.129:8000/NWPRCLASSICAL,,,
AMBI,Cinemix,:listen.cinemix.fr,,,
AMBI,Chant,:streams.greenhost.nl:8080/gregoriaans,,,
JAZZ,CJRT Toronto,:206.223.188.169:8008/,,,
JAZZ,VPR Jazz,:vprjazz.streamguys.net:80/vprjazz64.mp3,,,
JAZZ,CJRT Oscar P,:206.223.188.169:8008/,,,
JAZZ,CJRT Groove,:206.223.188.169:8002/,,,
JAZZ,Smooth Jazz-Fla,:us1.internet-radio.com:11094,,,
JAZZ,Jazz Groove,:199.180.72.2:8015/,,,
JAZZ,Love Smooth Jazz,:streaming307.radionomy.com:80/lovesmoothjazzcom,,,
JAZZ,CZ Hard Bop,:streams.greenhost.nl:8080/hardbop,,,
JAZZ, VPR Replay,:vprmix.streamguys.net:80/vprmix64.mp3,,,
JAZZ, VPR Jazz,:vprjazz.streamguys.net:80/vprjazz64.mp3,,,
INTL, BBC VPR Radio,:vprbbc.streamguys.net:80/vprbbc24.mp3,,,
INTL,BBC Bristol,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lrbris_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Cambridge,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lrcambs_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Essex,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lressex_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC London,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lrldn_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Leeds,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lrleeds_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Oxford,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lroxford_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Sheffield,:sc10.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_lrsheff_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC World Service,:bbcwssc.ic.llnwd.net/stream/bbcwssc_mp1_ws-einws,,,
INTL,BBC Radio2,:sc17.ord.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_radio2_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Radio3,:sc11.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_radio3_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Radio3,:202.177.192.119:80/radio3,,,
INTL,BBC Radio4,:sc17.ord.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_radio4fm_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Radio5,:sc11.iad.llnw.net:80/stream/bbcmedia_radio5live_mf_p,,,
INTL,BBC Kboo,:live.kboo.fm:8000/high,,,
INTL,NRK Norway,:lyd.nrk.no:80/nrk_radio_alltid_nyheter_mp3_h,,,
INTL,Talk Europe,:46.28.53.118:7014,,,
NPR, KALW SanFran,:live.str3am.com:2430,,,
NPR,KAZU Monterey,:icecast.csumb.edu:8000/live128,,,
NPR,*KCMP Minn,:current.stream.publicradio.org/kcmp.mp3,,,
NPR,KCRW Electric,:kcrw.streamguys1.com/kcrw_192k_mp3_e24_internet_radio,,,
NPR,KCRW News,:kcrw.streamguys1.com/kcrw_192k_mp3_news_internet_radio,,,
NPR, KCSN L.Angeles,:130.166.82.184:8000/,,,
NPR,*KERA Texas,:kera-ice.streamguys.us:80/keralive,,,
NPR,KHPR Hawaii,:hpr-ice.streamguys.org/khpr2,,,
NPR, KNPR HD3,:66.209.79.122:8004/,,,
NPR,KNPR News,:66.209.79.122:8000/,,,
NPR,KPFA Pacifica,:streams1.kpfa.org:8000/kpfa_64,,,
NPR, *KQED SanFran,:streams2.kqed.org:80/kqedradio,,,
NPR,KPBS SanDiego,:kpbs.streamguys.tv/,,,
NPR,KPBZ Spokane,:tektite.streamguys1.com:5010/KPBZ-mp3,,,:173.192.70.138:8720
NPR,*KPCC S.Calif,:live.scpr.org:80/,,,
NPR,*KPCC S.Calif,:live.scpr.org/kpcclive/,,,
NPR,KUAC Alaska,:kuacii.streamon.fm:8000/KUACII-32k-m.mp3?starttime=1427683229,,,
NPR,*KUOW Seattle,:kuow.streamguys1.com:80/noads-kuow1-hi.mp3,,,
NPR,WAMU-1 D.C.,:wamu-1.streamguys.com:80,,,
NPR,WBEZ Chicago,:wbez.iad.streamguys1.com:80/wbez128.mp3,,,
NPR,WBUR Boston,:wbur-sc.streamguys.com/wbur.mp3,,,
NPR,WCAI Cape Cod,:audio.wgbh.org:8002/wcai,,,
NPR,WCPN Cleveland,:audio1.ideastream.org/wcpn128,,,
NPR,*WFAE N.Carolina,:wfae.iad.streamguys1.com:80/wfae3,,,
NPR,WFSW Florida,:146.201.215.226:8000/891,,,
NPR,WFSU Florida,:146.201.215.226:8000/889,,,
NPR,WFIU Indiana,:hannibal.ucs.indiana.edu:8000/wfiu2_hi,,,
NPR,WGBH Boston,:audio.wgbh.org:8000/wgbh,,,
NPR,WKSU-1 Kent,:wksu1.streamguys.com:8010

Re:Who needs iHeart ?

[jenningsthecat]

When you ask "Who needs iHeart ?", you're effectively asking "Who needs radio?". I, for one, don't want to have to rely on Internet infrastructure for music and news. I don't have Internet in my car, and I specifically plan NOT to. I seldom have data enabled on my cell phone, and I plan to continue that practice. I like radio because I often hear new stuff that I really like - that keeps me out of the musical 'echo chamber' that results from playing only music I already have. I also hear tuff I don't like - but I'm happy to have it challenge me, and I'm happy that I occasionally come to like it. I like listening to radio stations fade out when I'm on a long car trip, and I like searching for new ones - it adds to the adventure, and makes the car less of a soporific cocoon. I also think that radio stations are probably more resilient than the Internet during natural disasters, and in any case they can serve as a kind of backup. Plus, if mainstream radio dies, then pirate radio may die too, and that would be a REAL shame. Outcasts and outliers shouting at us from the fringes are important in many ways, and we need more of them, not fewer.

I've expanded beyond many of the traditions I grew up with. I spend a lot of time on the Web, and I've found a lot of new music on YouTube that I would never have found otherwise. I also download movies and TV shows. But I'm in no hurry to cede control over ALL of my access to news, music, and culture in general, to the assholes who currently control much of the Internet and are trying to control even more. I'll fight for net neutrality, but it's not a fight that I'm confident we'll win. I like having a backup plan, however retro and rustic and primitive it might be. Candles are primitive too, but they're still used to create a warm, inviting atmosphere. They're also damned useful sometimes, and they're still a recommended item for emergency kits. Just think of radio stations dotting the landscape, just waiting to be discovered by travellers, as the cozy candles in our cultural, social, and political emergency kits.

Re:Not surprising.

[spoot]

I hate to break it to you, but broadcast radio listenership is doing just fine. With 93% reach, 271 Million listen weekly, and for a well run station, it's still a license to print money.

https://www.newsgeneration.com...

The problem here is the debt incurred by iHeart (Clear Channel) with their overreach paying huge sums of money for broadcast properties trying to create their own little major market fiefdom. They are 10 Billion in debt. Honestly, it couldn't have happened to nicer bunch of duchebags.

Re: Not surprising.

[damnbunni]

TiVo offers versions of their OTA devices with lifetime subscriptions included.

You're still paying for it, but it's included in the purchase price.

(Actually, it looks like that's the only version they sell now.)

Re:Not surprising.

[humankind]

This network didn't die because radio is dead.

iHeart, aka "Clear Channel" killed terrestrial radio.

They took over thousands of local, mom-and-pop radio stations that actually served their local communities, and replaced them with homogenous, centrally-controlled corporate radio full of flag waving, auto-tuned crap music and ads for fake viagra and gold investment schemes.

Re: Not surprising.

[pr0fessor]

I was thinking the same thing I recently bought a new car and got a free trial. I didn't even use it but they keep calling wanting me to buy it they haven't started offering me free months yet like dial up services used to do when everyone was switching to broadband.

Re:Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

How does listening to NPR as a liberal expose you to anything but liberal talking points?

Radio is not dead. Corporate radio is dead.

[humankind]

Yes.. corporations, specifically Clear Channel/iHeart killed terrestrial radio.

On today's corporate radio, controlled by computers from a central location in New York, with no local programming, no local DJs, ever playing anything even remotely interesting or controversial? You never hear protest music. Bob Dylan or Woody Guthrie would never get airplay now... hell, Bruce Springsteen is considered "controversial" by iHeart and if he wasn't a big star, they wouldn't play him at all. Rage Against the Machine was the last great protest band to get any major airplay. Corporate radio is not interested in making people think -- only making people become better consumers.

Radio can come back if the airwaves are turned over to independent locals who put local artists in rotation and cover issues of interest to people, and not big corporations.

Public Radio.

[jellomizer]

For the most part I have been listening to Public Radio, and my local Public Radio station had just recently did a 2 Million dollar fund drive in 2 days. I think it is because our habits are moving from listening to music, which is widely available on the internet. To listening to news, while widely available on the internet too, but more difficult to get local news, and obtain it passively by listening to it, while driving, or doing other activities.

I also find news from NPR and the BBC to be more reputable and focused on news and facts then on commentary.

Re: Not surprising.

[ZipK]

TiVo only offers their OTA model as a one-time purchase with lifetime "all-in" service. There is no subscription option.

Not surprised

[Anonymous Coward]

People are looking for better choice in content and streaming provides that. I noticed even some new cars are forgoing the XMSirius systems in favor of streaming access head units. Many because that's where music content is going. FM radio is elevator music and not in a good way. Canned playlists, too many ads and lousy DJ's that annoy in between few tracks are losing listeners by the truckload. I grew up on Fm radio, but even myself in my 50's rarely turn on a radio station.

Re:Not surprising.

[Jerry]

Very few people actually listen to broadcast radio anymore. Only the people with commutes whose CD player doesn't work, or doesn't have any type of auxiliary input. Home listening? Nope.

Broadcast TV is next.

I haven't listened to radio in over 10 years, about the same time I cut the TV cable. I used a TV antenna for a few years but then installed Roku for a one time charge and now get my "TV" over a 100mps connection.
Congress mandates that cable TV stations must broadcast their signal over the air, so until Congress overrides that law we will still be getting TV over the air.

Not that there is anything worth watching on it that we all haven't seen at least 50 times and can recite the scripts from memory. My wife and I have fun doing that with old Perry Mason broadcasts.

Finding radio stations worldwide

[Mike Van Pelt]

I don't know where I came across this link. It may even have been SlashDot.

http://radio.garden/

A Google Earth type globe with radio stations lit up as little green dots, zoom in, select radio station, and play it.

haha good!

[wardrich86]

Seems like a ton of Canadian radio stations have jumped on this bandwagon as well. The app is horrible, and it's nearly impossible to find the "recently played" list online anymore. The older, non-unified system worked way better. Sure it wasn't as easy to search for things but the streams were far easier to access, as were the playlists.

Not going to miss them

[Anonymous Coward]

Hopefully the employees are taken care of, not starting at the top.
I had hopes for the concept of the streaming app, listen to your local stations anywhere, great way to bring broadcast radio into the current age of tech ... then my local stations were turned into utter crap. The worst of those changes for my goto station hands down was Bobby Bones.

Re:Not surprising.

[Dripdry]

Yeah... those bastards killed one of the great radio stations of all time: Rock 103.5 in Chicago. Historic radio station.

As far as I'm concerned, let these places fail. Sadly... what'll replace them is likely right-wing media ownership. Looking forward to that...

Re: Not surprising.

[MBGMorden]

I don't think the companies behind broadcast TV are in trouble, though I do see broadcast TV as a medium declining.

This I agree with. The appeal of broadcast TV is that it's "Free" (advertising supported).

I'd imagine that there's a time in the near future where just publishing an app with a free stream of the same content (also ad-supported) would be cheaper than them building massive transmitters in every metro area - if that time isn't already here.

oh good

[slashmydots]

One less preinstall bullshit app on the Windows 10 start menu. Yay! Now if only King would go out of business.

My ClearChannel Adventure

[Anonymous Coward]

So.. due to technical difficulties involving a cassette adapter, I have listened to some FM radio in the last few months. For various reasons I chose my local Cle-- oops, I mean, iHeartRadio station (classic rock genre) basically because as bland as it is, it's still the best radio music available (for my tastes) in this area, and good enough for commuting.

One thing I noticed is that a lot of the ads are for themselves. "Deadheads" as we call it in the print business. (Yes, I work for a newspaper. And I'm still not starving in the gutter yet, though with each year I get a little closer.)

My favorite -- no, let's rephrase that -- the funniest ad is for their app. With their app, you can listen to any of the iHeartRadio stations in the country! Oooh! Ahh!

I speculate that such an app could be made very efficient, thanks to dictionary compression. All you need to do, is have the App include a few AC/DC, Boston, Cream, Deep Purple .. ZZ-Top, etc songs, probably less than a hundred total, and then the convenient any-US-station "streaming" could just be transmission of the song ID, key to the audio data which the app would already have in its local storage.

Second funniest ad was that they want people to watch some music awards show. Then they rattle off a list of supposedly-music-related names that nobody who listens to classic roc has ever heard of. I realize iHeartRadio probably has a radio station in my area for every music genre, and these musicians are probably one of those genres, but if there's any humans working at the classic rock radio station, they must be cringing every time corporate makes them play that ad, knowing that it's driving the classic rock listeners away.

And then when you get to the ads that aren't for themselves, it's pretty bottom of the barrel. It's so nice to know that someone is always waiting and ready to sell me some male enhancement pills. Or debt settlement services.

What a cheesy radio station. There is no way these people don't know that everyone is laughing at them a little, and hell yes, they know the only reason anyone is listening, is that those people's cassette adapters must be broken too.

(I really just need to get a new receiver in my car, with built-in bluetooth. Fucking cassette adapters! I hate them!!)

(If you haven't checked out iHeartRadio lately, you might wanna, just for a reminder of how bad things are for people who don't try/care. It reminds me of the shocking experience of watching TV at a hotel, where it's totally full of ads every few minutes instead of the ads having already been removed by the pirate release groups.)

Re:My ClearChannel Adventure

[nitehawk214]

It gets better (or worse). Advertisers only pay for the on-air ads, since most radio ads are local ones. When listening online, almost every single ad is for their music festival or the streaming service you are already listening to.

The music festival is hilarious. Who the fuck wants to go to a show with both Ozzy Osborne and Katy Perry? What is their target demographic?

Re:My ClearChannel Adventure

[HornWumpus]

Is Ozzy going to bite her head off? I'd pay to see that.

Re:Not surprising.

[Strider-]

If I find myself cussing at the radio and/or disagreeing with them, which tends to happen on a fairly regular basis, then they're doing something right.

echoes to the sound ... of salesmen

[Hognoxious]

On today's corporate radio, controlled by computers from a central location in New York, with no local programming, no local DJs, ever playing anything even remotely interesting or controversial?

So no Stanley Jordan, The âDead, Little Feat, or that band from the college down the street?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Re:Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what /. is for.

Re: Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to rain on your hate parade (iHeartMedia, aka ClearChannel is a shithole company that is deserving of hate), but they bought the company that killed Rock 103.5, they didn't do it themselves.

Chancellor Media killed Rock 103.5 for some urban oldies station, then they merged with some other companies to form AMFM, Inc. which was then acquired by Cheap Channel and flipped to KISS FM. CC then changed their name to iHeartMedia after everyone even those outside the industry knew the name was tainted.

I still hate all of them, but iHeartMedia is far removed from the bastards that killed the legendary Rock 103.5.

Re:Not surprising.

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Remember when Target and Sears (retail) went under? There are a lot of businesses in the US and Canada that are crippled by debt accrued from buyouts and takeovers. They borrow huge sums of money to buy smaller companies and competitors in order to grow their businesses in already saturated markets. Many of these bought out companies are comparably as profitable as they have been in the past. I wouldn't be surprised if massive media conglomerates like iHeartMedia consist of radio stations that are still bringing in plenty of revenue but it's all going to the conglomerate to service the debts, sucking the life out of them.

More consolidation

[satsuke]

Sadly, I think this will likely result in even _more_ consolidation in the terrestrial radio market.

That and probably a bunch of smaller market or fully saturated markets transmitters shutting down.

Again, less voices, less venue.

Re:Not surprising.

[pr0fessor]

I don't have a long a commute any more and rarely am in the car for more than 10-15 minutes and the radio stations play commercial after commercial. I don't even bother with tunes in the car anymore unless I'm on a trip and then it's CDs or more likely paired with my phone.

One can only hope...

[gosand]

I hope this gives rise to decent radio stations again. I've tried over the years to listen to radio, but it's just a couple of songs in between commercials. Maybe we'll see a radio revival where you can hear something other than corporate prescribed music.

Re:One can only hope...

[Anonymous Coward]

Their creditors are going for debt restructuring, so it doesn't look like anything is changing.

Re:Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

RIP 95.5 WBRU in Providence.

50+ years of operation, 30+ years of alternative, indie and underground music, all sold off for pennies on the dollar to a Christian Music group. Granted, they moved to a webcast, but there's no DJ, the setlist is practically Top 40 pop, and their app never seems to work over mobile networks where I'd use it the most. It's a damn shame, since there's pretty much no other alternative station in the area besides some rock-ish stations that occasionally play 1 or 2 Nirvana/Pearl Jam tracks and go back to Eagles/Zepplin/ACDC.

Re:Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

I only use CDs and MP3s in my vehicles, I haven't programmed a radio station into the presets for over a decade.

SUPPORT NPR

[Anonymous Coward]

>
> I don't want to have to rely on Internet infrastructure for music and news.
>
OK. Then support a radio network that is fiscally responsible. NPR is in the midst of their Spring fund drive and they will not turn you away.

Re:Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

The AM and FM radio bands are now just a wasteland! AM is nothing but Rush Limbaugh clones (YYYYYUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK!!!!!), and FM is the same pop crap and commercials played at the same times every day on every station! The only use for an FM radio in a car any more is to use an MP3 Player that broadcasts to the FM radio! The FCC might as well shut down broadcast stations in the AM and FM bands, and let them be used for something that is actually useful!!

Re:Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

The iHeart bigwigs should listen to Marketplace Money on NPR.
They obviously need some kind of financial guidance.

Re: Not surprising.

[Rick Schumann]

Putting it that way makes more sense. It also makes more sense to have Lifetime instead of paying by the month. Frankly, other than the larger outlay of cash, paying by the month for the Service never made sense to me (I've always had Lifetime Service), it's not like you can decide to do without it; TiVo essentially stops working without it, although theoretically you could use it like a VCR, programming channel/date/time manually for everything, although at that point 99% of the features don't work anymore.

Re:Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

What's a CD player? For that matter what's a CD?

But I digress. Another Bain Capital (Mitt Romney) leveraged buyout bites the dust. And now Mitt the wishy washy carpet bagger is off to Utah to snatch up Orrin Hatch's Senate seat, if he can.

With Mitt there can we anticipate Utah declaring bankruptcy in a couple of years?

If I was one of Utah's leading RINOs I'd be madder than spit that Mitt gets to waltz in and jump to the head of the line and take Hatch's seat.

But would Utah voters possibly ever vote for a Democrat? Seems unlikely that they'd grow a pair just to punish Mitt for being a carpetbagger.

List of iHeartMedia stations

[Jim Hall]

For anyone looking for a list of radio stations owned by iHeartMedia, you can find it on their website: list of stations. They even have it broken down so you can search by City, State, and Genre.

Re:Not surprising.

[dwpro]

I'm surprised as a left-leaning person that you find NPR challenging. I consider myself a centrist with a libertarian streak, and I find NPR to be markedly left-leaning (though I'm still a contributor and listen to marketplace and NPR politics podcasts religiously). I'm in the market for a right-leaning podcast to balance out my listening habits, but I haven't found a single one that I can stomach beyond Chris Wallace on fox-news Sunday, which isn't too bad.

Re: Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

32M? Lessee, US Census Bureau says 2017 population is 325M and under 18 is 22.8% of that. IOW 251M.

32M is just 12% of the over 18 population. Growing subscriptions? After all these years I'll go out on a limb and say they're reaching max penetration.

And I dunno. I finally bought a car with a built-in satellite radio. SiriusXM offered me $50/6months or $120/12months. I guess math isn't their strong suit.

Except it's not really $50/6months. It's $50 plus a $10 "US music royalty" fee. The 12month plan has a $23 royalty fee. Sleazy!

And since I live in metropolitan area with several stations with good reception and

I have all my music on my phone and the car has bluetooth, what would I possibly need satellite radio for on top of that?

Yeah, I'll save the $143. Thanks.

Sinclair

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone know if Sinclair plans on furthering their efforts towards a media monopoly?

How this happens

[Anonymous Coward]

Ok this is how these companys go bust.

Bain partners with someone promising them quick cash.
They then get a hugely over rated overvaluation of said corporation.
The get a loan for way more then the asking price or true worth, but only slightly less then the valuation.
They pay a good chunk of change on the points to make the loan people happy.
They buy said corporation and split the rest of the loan money with their partners.
The loan people then sell the loan to any sucker they can find as fast as they can.
Then bain and partners run said corporation in to the ground by raiding every dime they can out of it.
Then go for bankruptcy screwing the people that bought the loan, and the poor people that worked for the corporation.

What Bain does should be outlawed, but since they also own a lot of politicians it never will be.

Tetalon

Guess what?

[Anonymous Coward]

The music you listen to on radio stations, it is...PRE-RECORDED!!!

Oh, you thought your local stations had the artists in the building performing recorded perfect versions of their material?

Re:Guess what?

[Anonymous Coward]

He said he doesn't listen to music you stupid fuck. He's probably listening to talk radio or nothing.

Re:Guess what?

[Sique]

Talkradio as it is known in the U.S. barely exists here around. Nevertheless there are stations which mainly send magazines on political, cultural and scientific topics.

Re: Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

Still paying for internet access to get program listings...

Re:Not surprising.

[h4ck7h3p14n37]

I have my alarm clock tuned to WBEZ which is an NPR affiliate. The morning shows like "All Things Considered" can be very left leaning and stick to the liberal talking points. They only invite guests who repeat these talking points and you'll never hear from competing viewpoints. For example, the coverage of the Parkland shooting was all about gun control and how dumb it would be to arm teachers. There has been no coverage of things like the FBI not following up on leads, the school not contacting police about the prior violent incidents, lack of campus security, unlocked doors, etc.

Other shows on NPR are pretty balanced, "Marketplace" is good. My favorite show is probably "Under the Influence", but that's produced by the CBC.

Re:Not surprising.

[h4ck7h3p14n37]

I remember listening to the Rock back in high school. Didn't they play a 3 or 4 hour tape loop?

Speaking of historic radio stations, did you know WLUP is gone?

Re:Not surprising.

[reboot246]

You'd be surprised how many people listen to broadcast radio during their commute to and from work. It's the perfect way to get traffic reports, weather, sports, and news while you drive. And it's FREE.

They may not listen to broadcast radio that plays music, but talk to companies that advertise on radio. The numbers are unreal.

Re: Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep, for fucking Christian rock. Puke. And I'm a devout Christian.

I quite 20+ years ago.

[Anonymous Coward]

CC is why I quite listening to radio more than 20 years ago.

Good

[jandrese]

As someone who has been driven off of commercial radio by Clearchannel/IHeartRadio all I can say is "about damn time". They took on a ton of debt to buy out all of the local stations and convert them to bland corporate garbage and it's finally coming back to bite them in the ass. I hope the go Chapter 13 and local buyers have to step in to restore the radio stations. I know that will never happen in the real world but I can dream. Clearchannel killed radio.

Re: Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

I got a 3-month (I think) trial when I bought a car several years ago, and also found we'd listened to each station's entire playlist before the trial period ended. It also added traffic information to my car's GPS maps, but I found it to be at least a half hour out of date, therefore it was only useful once. (Avoiding an all-night construction project.)

Captcha: hospital. Argh, I was stuck in one for 1 1/2 weeks recently.

I called this one

[WindowsStar]

Several months ago I posted no-one is listening to radio anymore and it was a dying service. I was met with some very not nice people comments on this mostly telling me I didn't know what I was talking about. My comments even received a lot of negative feedback. I did not flame anyone I was just saying it was dead and now we find that the biggest radio company is bankrupt. Ok, here is the proof for all the people that told me I did not know what I was talking about.

Re:I called this one

[WindowsStar]

Opps dieing not dying.

Re:I called this one

[Anonymous Coward]

Could you post a hyperlink to this forsight of yours? That's the whole point of this interconnected knowledge thingy called the internet.

Re:Not surprising.

[pnutjam]

Don't get me wrong, I like to rage out on the right-wing "talking points" on long drives, but news isn't about "talking points". If your news needs to be broken down into complex explanations, it's probably more propaganda then news.

Re:Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

What killed Rock 103.5 was Mancow moving to Q101, not Clearchannel.

Re: Not surprising.

[damnbunni]

The Loop's last three songs were Shout at the Devil, The Number of the Beast, and Highway to Hell.

They got in one last jab.

Real reason for failure

[Anonymous Coward]

Not the lack of interesting content.
Not the lack of local interest material.
Not the excessive commercials.

Fucking gayest name evah, that's why.

Re:Not surprising.

[SunTzuWarmaster]

OMG - Marketplace Tech *USED* to be balanced... then they ran, like 70 episodes on "diversity in tech" before I unsubscribed. Just looking at the headlines now makes me glad that I spent my time elsewhere:
Hierarchy among researchers prevents women
Paraolympic games
venture capitol from white men
etc.
(3 of the most recent 5 podcasts)

Re:Not surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

Here I thought it was living in socialist Canada that would have made you a left leaning socialist (at least in the US).

This isn't good enough

[KHKw2k]

Debt restructuring bankruptcy isn't enough punishment to ClearChannel for the atrocities they've committed against radio. Radio used to be fun, interesting, and varied only ten years ago. These monsters have gobbled it all up, homogenized it, and destroyed the possibility of being exposed to anything other than the blandest corporate pop whargarbl.

In the words of Hajj the Begger: May their taxes increase!

Re: Not surprising.

[Whorhay]

A few years back I was buying a new vehicle. It was supposed to come with a free trial subscription to one of those satellite radio companies. Being an adult and knowing how free trials work, I refused to complete the purchase until they had disabled that crap.

Re: Not surprising.

[michael_wojcik]

since it mostly was as repetitive as traditional radio

Agreed. In fact, I find it worse than traditional radio, though for the latter I mostly listen to college stations that are typically much more varied than commercial ones (because they let students work with a number of formats, rather than sticking to one), or similarly varied independent stations that haven't been homogenized by the likes of Clear Channel.

I have friends who like Sirius for long trips, but I only found a couple of stations I was interested in, and they loop after two or three hours. When I'm doing a 10- or 13-hour drive, that's useless.

Re:Not surprising.

[mark_reh]

I think you've got that backwards. Talking points are propaganda for the weak minded. In-depth investigation/discussion is for people who know there's more to every story than the talking points/headlines.

The problem is that the weak-minded outnumber the others by about 10 to 1. The GOP figured this out years ago, and more recently, the Russians. It's easy to mess with a "democracy" when the majority are dopes.

Re:Not surprising.

[pnutjam]

I said "complex explanations" as a shorthand for "talking points". In depth reporting is the opposite.
I'm talking about the way some right wing hosts will patiently explain to their listeners how this means that and that leads to this and suddenly people are marrying donkeys.

Sorry for the misunderstanding.