Broadcaster Audacy files for bankruptcy after deal to slash debt

Audacy, the radio and podcast company that counts New York’s 1010 WINS among its stations, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas after reaching a pact with creditors that would hand them ownership in exchange for slashing $1.6 billion of debt.

The Philadelphia-based broadcaster said in a statement that its publicly traded shares would be wiped out in the deal, which if approved by a judge in Houston, would reduce its outstanding bonds and loans to about $350 million from $1.9 billion.

A “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,” Audacy President and Chief Executive Officer David J.