Report...iHeartMedia Drowning In Debt

Servicing iHeartMedia's $20.8 billion debt is a drag on the company's earnings -- the company paid $558 million in interest in the quarter, with the total bill on that interest estimated at $1.8 billion for the year, according to Billboard.

The weight of these payments have led the company to raise much-needed cash by selling assets -- its outdoor advertising division raised $600 million from the sale of nine “non-core” assets, and the company said during the earnings call that investors can expect it to be “proactive” and “opportunistic” in the sale of more assets in the future.

For the time being, iHeartMedia is making small improvements. In the first quarter, revenue rose 4.1 percent to $1.4 billion and OIBDAN (operating income before depreciation, amortization and non-cash compensation) jumped 11.8 percent, to $300 million. OIBDAN is iHeartMedia’s metric of choice for showing its operation performance.