Liberal Billionaire George Soros May Be The Least of Audacy's Worries

With an investment firm led by billionaire George Soros now set to be the largest stakeholder in Philadelphia audio content provider Audacy when it emerges from bankruptcy, there are fresh questions about the direction of the company.

Privately held Soros Fund Management has acquired roughly $415 million of Audacy’s debt, U.S. Bankruptcy Court filings show, positioning it to take a greater post-bankruptcy share of equity in the company than any other creditor. The firm essentially bought out much of the debt owned by New York hedge fund HG Vora Capital Management, which was the largest debtholder when Audacy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month.

Soros has a net worth of $6.7 billion, according to Forbes, and he has long used his wealth to back progressive and liberal causes and political candidates. With his holdings soon to include a large chunk of Audacy, some conservatives wonder if he will use that influence to sway the content on the company’s news and talk stations.

The Philly Business Journel reports Andy Bloom, the former program director for WPHT and fellow Audacy station SportsRadio 94 WIP-FM, said he does not see that happening.

“It’s something that you’d want to pay attention to,” Bloom said. “But I can’t imagine at his level, that he’d want to get involved in the micro-elements of programming of radio stations. He’s just so many layers above that.”

Craig Huber, a media analyst at Huber Research Partners, said he has no idea what Soros' intentions are, but he noted that radio news stations, more than television news stations, report straight down the middle without leaning left or right with coverage. If Soros or anyone else tried to change that approach, Huber thinks it would upset listeners. As for changing the format of conservative talk stations like 1210 WPHT, it doesn’t make much sense from a business standpoint.

“Changing radio station formats tends to lead to a very nasty transition,” Huber said. “People are creatures of habit and you've totally changed the format of it. You have to be very careful of that.”

David Field

Bloom, who now runs his own media and communications consulting business in Minneapolis, said regardless of who owns the company, the larger fear for those working at Audacy stations has to be the possibility of layoffs to fulfill cost-cutting goals. He noted that when other large radio companies such as Cumulus Media and iHeartRadio filed for bankruptcy, a large number of layoffs followed.

Audacy has noted that cost-cutting will be part of its future but has not outlined specifics.

Huber said radio is a space where even the best management team would struggle to offset all the pressures, as advertising revenue has not recovered following the pandemic. “Don't ever underestimate the secular erosion of traditional media advertising trends,” Huber said. “You cannot cut costs fast enough to offset that.”

Huber has been critical of Audacy’s current leadership in recent years for not cutting costs enough. He said whether or not the current management team led by Chairman and CEO David Field is retained by new investors such as Soros, the company will need to cut aggressively.

“There's no sacred cows,” Huber said. “You have to cut costs everywhere. And I'm not saying it's going to fix things either, but at least it really should help offset some of the erosion on the top line of the revenues."