iHeartMedia, months into a seemingly stagnating effort to restructure its debt, has been asked by its creditors to replace its restructuring adviser, Moelis & Co., The NY Post has learned.
The creditors want an ownership stake in the radio giant in exchange for forgiving some of the $20 billion in debt — but that equity stake offer has not yet been made, sources said.
At present, iHM has only a 50-50 chance of reaching a restructuring deal with creditors and avoiding a bankruptcy by early 2018, according to a lead institutional iHM lender.
iHM, when asked if it had been asked to replace Moelis or if it planned to replace Moelis, said, “Moelis continues to be the firm advising us in connection with our restructuring.” It declined to comment further.
Private equity firms Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners in 2008 bought America’s biggest radio operator, formerly known as Clear Channel, in a highly leveraged $27 billion buyout. iHM presently has 855 radio stations.
iHM, which is operationally profitable, had a net loss of roughly $300 million last year after making $1.8 billion in debt payments.
On May 25, iHM extended the same 75 cents on the dollar plus warrants restructuring proposal for the fifth time to bondholders. Creditors representing less than 1 percent of the company’s debt have accepted the deal, iHM said.
Some iHM bondholders would prefer bankruptcy, in which, they believe, they would be paid in full.
Over the last couple of months, Red Zebra has systematically dismantled its network of local radio stations. The Washington City Paper reports, Radio One bought WWXT 92.7 FM and WXGI 950 AM in April. Then, a couple of weeks ago, the Educational Media Foundation bought WWXX. Finally, a conglomerate called AM 570 LLC, which is affiliated with Christian-themed Salem Media Group, bought WSPZ 570 AM last week.
The two FM stations simulcast ESPN 980’s content on the clearer FM band with much more reach than the flagship WTEM 980 AM has ever shown. Those are gone now.
And 570 served as a complementary channel to ESPN 980, airing more of the sport network’s national programming (which cleared the way for 980 to lean hard local) as well as the live games and associated programming for teams that could be considered second-tier to the D.C. market, notably the Baltimore Orioles for Major League Baseball and the Virginia Cavaliers for NCAA football. That’s gone now.
Red Zebra’s foothold in Richmond was 950, which will continue to broadcast sports content under its Radio One ownership.
All that’s left in the immediate D.C. area is the flagship 980, and there are persistent rumors and reports that it too may be sold off.
WTEM 980 AM (50 Kw-D, 5 Kw-N, DA2)
And it looks to be a financial train wreck for Red Zebra too. Snyder’s company bought the two FM stations, along with 730 AM, back in 2005 for some $33 million, according to Billboard magazine. After a few years of complaints about weak signals, Red Zebra added 980, 570, and 1260 AM for another reported $24.5 million—an estimated total outlay of nearly $58 million.
Five years later, the company sold 730 and 1260 for a reported $4.6 million. This year’s sales TOTAL $4.35 million.
ABC’s Good Morning America was the top morning show for May 2017 sweeps period in total viewers, while NBC’s Today continued to reign supreme among the A25-54 demo. CBS This Morning remains in third place.
Acxxording to TV Newser, GMA delivered yet another first place finish in the morning show ratings race among total viewers. That said, the program was -11 percent from its May 2016 sweeps performance. The program lost even more viewers from the demo, -16 percent from its year-ago May sweeps average.
Today was the No. 1 morning show among viewers from the key A25-54 demo for the 8th consecutive sweeps period. The program has also now spent 73 straight weeks at the top of the morning show heap in the demo. Despite its demo win, NBC’s morning show was -14 percent from its May 2016 average, and -12 percent in total viewers versus last May.
CBS This Morning finished in third place across the board. After being the sole broadcast morning show to post audience growth in May 2016 versus May 2015, CTM came back to earth in May 2017, -5 percent in total viewers and -11 percent in the news demo from May of last year.
The averages for May Sweeps 2017:
Total Viewers: ABC: 4.324M / NBC: 4.128M / CBS: 3.581M
CBS THIS MORNING finished the 2016-2017 television season with CBS’ best overall morning news viewer delivery in at least 29 years (since the advent of people meters in 1987), according to Nielsen most current ratings. This marks the second consecutive year that CBS THIS MORNING delivered CBS’ largest audience in the morning in nearly three decades.
CBS THIS MORNING was the only network morning news broadcast to post a year-to-year increase among viewers and the only network morning news program to maintain its adults 25-54, women 25-54 and women 18-49 rating, compared to a year ago, according to a CBS press release. ABC and NBC each experienced declines in those categories, according to Nielsen’s most current ratings.
“In this competitive landscape it is especially gratifying to see our growth trend continue as more people discover CBS THIS MORNING,” said executive producer Ryan Kadro. “Clearly the focus on real news is paying off and we couldn’t be more proud of the show we are putting on the air each day.”
For the 2016-2017 television season, CBS THIS MORNING delivered 3.68 million viewers, putting CBS in its closest competitive position with NBC’s “Today” in at least 29 years and with ABC in 18 years. On some recent days this season the gap with NBC’s Today has been less than 150,000 viewers, down from nearly 3 million when CTM launched five years ago.
Since the program launched in the 2011-2012 season, the audience for CBS THIS MORNING has grown a whopping 46%, while NBC and ABC have declined -18% and -8% respectively. Also in five years, CTM is up +5% in the key adults 25-54 demo, while both NBC (-29%) and ABC (-25%) are down double digits.
CBS THIS MORNING launched Jan. 9, 2012, and each weekday morning, Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell deliver two hours of original reporting, breaking news and top-level newsmaker interviews in an engaging and informative format that challenges the norm in network morning news programs. The broadcast has earned a prestigious Peabody Award, a Polk Award, three News & Documentary Emmys and three Daytime Emmys. The broadcast was also honored with an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award as part of CBS News division-wide coverage of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.
The advertiser boycott of Hannity's Fox News show that erupted last week after he promoted a groundless conspiracy theory involving the murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich failed to gain the same momentum that brought down The O'Reilly Factor in April. But the speed with which seven advertisers pulled their spots does underscore several important trends, reports Crain's New York.
Sean Hannity
One is that consumers of all political persuasions are getting better at pressuring advertisers, as also seen last week, when AT&T, Coca-Cola and Univision withdrew their sponsorship of the Puerto Rican Day Parade over its decision to honor controversial Puerto Rican nationalist Oscar López Rivera, a convicted terrorist.
A second, perhaps more telling lesson is that increasingly, television advertising can be easily moved to other shows—or replaced. This is particularly true for the tech and e-commerce companies that withdrew from Hannity, such as Casper mattresses and cars.com. "These advertisers know they can get those eyeballs elsewhere," said Matt Britton, chief executive of digital marketing agency Crowdtap.
Britton recommends that brands avoid news and opinion shows entirely because they are bound to create controversy. "If you pull your ads, you make one side happy and the other side mad," he said. "There's no upside."
Clearly many advertisers disagree. Ad revenue for Hannity grew 17% last year to $65.7 million, according to Kantar Media, putting the show in second place across the news sector, behind only O'Reilly's show.
(Reuters) -- Former world number one golfer Tiger Woods said an unexpected reaction to prescribed medications was to blame for his early-morning DUI arrest near his Jupiter Island home in Florida on Monday.
Woods, who underwent surgery last week to relieve lingering back pain, was booked at 7:18 a.m. (1118 GMT) and released several hours later on his own recognizance, Palm Beach County Police said in an online report.
Woods said in a statement released by his spokesman that alcohol was not a factor in his arrest but apologized and added that he took full responsibility.
"I want the public to know that alcohol was not involved," he said.
"What happened was an unexpected reaction to prescribed medications. I didn’t realize the mix of medications had affected me so strongly.
"I would like to apologize with all my heart to my family, friends and the fans. I expect more from myself, too."
Woods, who is second on the all-time list with 14 major titles, said he cooperated with police and wanted to thank the Jupiter Police Department and the Palm Beach County Sheriff's office for their professionalism.
"I will do everything in my power to ensure this never happens again," he added.
The incident occurred less than a week after Woods expressed optimism about his future following back surgery, saying on his website that he experienced "instant relief" and had not "felt this good in years."
Woods has previously made headlines away from the golf course. His private life unraveled in late 2009 over allegations about affairs with several women and ultimately led to the end of his marriage.
Those allegations followed a bizarre early morning car accident outside his Florida home that rapidly ballooned into a fully-fledged sex scandal which turned his previously unblemished life and career upside down.
The scandal ultimately cost Woods a number of lucrative endorsement deals, while other sponsors shifted away from using him in marketing but did not end their contracts with him.
Woods, whose current sponsors include Nike, Bridgestone, Hero, Kowa, Upper Deck, and Monster Energy was ranked 12th on Forbes' list of the highest-paid athletes in 2016, with total earnings of $45.3 million, despite missing much of the year recovering from back surgery.
A 79-time winner on the PGA Tour who was world number one for a record 683 weeks, Woods lost form in recent years due to injuries and the mastering of a new swing while his ranking has plummeted to 876 after his long spell on the sidelines.
He has competed in only 19 events on the PGA Tour since the end of 2013, recording just one top-10 during that period along with seven missed cuts and three withdrawals.
Ryan Seacrest isn’t happy with how much money he’s being offered to host the new “American Idol” on ABC — and it is Katy Perry’s fault.
The NY Post reports Seacrest, who hosted the show on Fox for 15 seasons, was set to emcee the reboot until Perry — said to be getting $25 million as an “Idol” judge — bragged last week on WKTU 103.5 FM: “I’m really proud that, as a woman, I got paid. And you know why? I got paid, like, more than like pretty much any guy that’s been on that show.”
Sources say ABC initially offered Seacrest over $10 million.
“[He] was suddenly asking himself why he would come back for a 16th season at a salary [much smaller than that] of the newcomer judge,” Richard Rushfield, author of “American Idol: The Untold Story,” wrote in his e-mail newsletter, the Ankler.
Since Seacrest is already employed in New York at “Live With Kelly & Ryan,” and “Idol” would require weekly cross-country trips to LA, he “has grown notably cooler on the prospect,” Rushfield reported.
An ABC spokesman told me: “We don’t comment on negotiations or salary.”
Former Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez has sealed a deal with ABC News, which will see him appearing in segments across the news division including for “Good Morning America” and even “World News Tonight.”
A network insider told Page Six at the NYPost A-Rod, 41, had been in talks with ABC News brass about appearing as an on-air contributor for sports, family and even financial segments for shows across the network, also including “Nightline.”
The source said, “This doesn’t mean that George Stephanopoulos and Michael Strahan should watch their backs — but ABC is talking to Alex about taking a role in the news division and expanding his appearances across a number of shows. Viewers are not going to see Alex weekly, more like once a month. But it could be more if he does well. He will be an ABC News contributor and he’ll also be doing stuff for ‘Nightline’ and ‘World News Tonight With David Muir.’ ”
Another source close to the star — who is already a full-time MLB analyst for Fox Sports — said, “Alex is interested in doing lifestyle, family-oriented programming, such as a piece on how much your kids should be working out, or business and personal-finance reports, like how to overhaul your bills.”
RadioShack — once the go-to chain for consumer electronics — shuttered 1,000 stores during the Memorial Day weekend as it undergoes its second round of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.
RadioShack will continue to operate 70 brick-and-mortar stores across the U.S. as the retailer migrates most of its sales operations to its website, RadioShack said in a news release Friday. This round of closures does not affect the company’s 500 “dealers” — or franchisee-run stores.
The specialty chain has struggled as shoppers have increasingly purchased electronics from online retailers like Amazon and big-box stores like Best Buy.
According to the San Antonio News-Express, General Wireless paid more than $26 million for 1,700 RadioShack stores in July 2015 after the Fort Worth-based chain filed for its first Chapter 11 bankruptcy in April 2015. General Wireless partnered with Sprint Corp. to push a store-within-a-store concept in an effort to revitalize the chain.
The efforts didn’t pan out. RadioShack filed for its second Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March, a move that CEO Dene Rogers attributed primarily to the “surprisingly poor performance of mobility sales.” At that time, RadioShack said it planned to close about 200 of its 1,300 stores.
RadioShack may have to lay off 150 employees and close its Fort Worth headquarters if the company is “unable to develop a viable restructuring plan,” the company told the Texas Workforce Commission in a March 24 letter.
Ken Ackerman, whose classic, stentorian radio announcer’s voice graced Bay Area airwaves for more than five decades, has died.
He was 95 and died early Sunday of natural causes, according to SFgate.com.
Ackerman is best remembered as the soothing announcer on the overnight music program, “Music ’Til Dawn,” on KCBS. He joined the station in 1942, at age 20, when it was still KQW. He retired in 1982 but continued to work on KCBS on a part-time basis until 1995.
Stan Bunger, co-anchor of KCBS’ morning news, noted, “When I joined KCBS in 1982, Ken Ackerman had already been there for 40 years! He was truly a link to a completely different era of radio.”
Ackerman, who was born in 1922 and raised in Sacramento, got into radio announcing a student program that aired on KROY. Graduating in 1940, he landed a part-time announcing job on KFBK there after a brief audition. He decided to give San Francisco a shot in 1942 and, after a brief audition for KQW, “they hired me on the spot.” He seemed to have been born with a radio voice.
KQW became KCBS in 1949, and in 1953, the CBS network began “Music ’Til Dawn,” offering “beautiful music” and light classics, and featuring a local announcer for each of its owned and operated stations.
➦In 1894...Radio comedian, Fred Allen, was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Best known for "The Fred Allen Show".
From 1942...
Allen has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame: a radio star at 6713 Hollywood Blvd. and a TV star at 7001 Hollywood Blvd
➦In 1908...American voice actor and comic actor Mel Blanc was born.
Blanc began his radio career at the age of 19 when in 1927 he debuted as a voice actor on the KGW (Portland OR) program The Hoot Owls, where his ability to provide voices for multiple characters first attracted attention. He moved to Los Angeles in 1932, where he met Estelle Rosenbaum (1909 - 2003), whom he married a year later, before returning to Portland. He moved to KEX in 1933 to produce and co-host his Cobweb And Nuts show with his wife Estelle, which debuted on June 15. The program played Monday through Saturday from 11:00 pm to midnight, and by the time the show ended two years later, it appeared from 10:30 pm to 11:00 pm.
Mel Blanc and Characters
With his wife's encouragement, Blanc returned to Los Angeles and joined Warner Bros.-owned KFWB in Hollywood, California, in 1935. He joined The Johnny Murray Show, but the following year switched to CBS Radio and The Joe Penner Show.
Blanc was a regular on the NBC Red Network show The Jack Benny Program in various roles, including voicing Benny's Maxwell automobile (in desperate need of a tune-up), violin teacher Professor LeBlanc, Polly the Parrot, Benny's pet polar bear Carmichael, the tormented department store clerk, and the train announcer. The first role came from a mishap when the recording of the automobile's sounds failed to play on cue, prompting Blanc to take the microphone and improvise the sounds himself. The audience reacted so positively that Benny decided to dispense with the recording altogether and have Blanc continue in that role.
By 1946, Blanc appeared on over 15 radio programs in supporting roles. His success on The Jack Benny Program led to his own radio show on the CBS Radio Network, The Mel Blanc Show, which ran from September 3, 1946, to June 24, 1947. Blanc played himself as the hapless owner of a fix-it shop, as well as his young cousin Zookie.
Blanc also appeared on such other national radio programs as The Abbott and Costello Show, the Happy Postman on Burns and Allen, and as August Moon on Point Sublime. During World War II, he appeared as Private Sad Sack on various radio shows, most notably G.I. Journal. Blanc recorded a song titled "Big Bear Lake."
He passed away on July 10, 1989.
'Similin' Ed McConnell
➦In 1922...“Smilin'” Ed McConnell debuted on radio, smiling and playing his banjo. McConnell quickly became a legend in the medium, and 22 years later was still entertaining young people as Smilin’ Ed’s Buster Brown Gang debuted on NBC radio. That series ran for 9 years, with a TV series running parallel starting in 1950.
➦In 1928...Legendary radio personality Herb Oscar Anderson, who was the morning deejay at Musicradio WABC 770 AM in New York City from 1960 to 1968, was born.
HOA also worked at KSTP and WDGY St. Paul-Minneapolis during the '50s. Also in the '50s HOA appeared on a number of shows for the ABC Radio network. He started in 1958 at WMCA NYC, worked WMGM in '59 and became the Morning Mayor on WABC in 1960.
Today, he continues to serve up some wonderful music at his current station in Vero Beach, FL. HOA died January 29, 2017 at age 88..
➦In 1935…"America's Town Meeting of the Air" began its 21-year run, mainly on the NBC Blue Network and its successor, ABC Radio. The moderator during the first 17 years was George V. Denny, Jr., executive director of the League for Political Education, which produced the program.
➦In 1943...the "Archie" comic strip was first broadcast on the Radio.
➦In 1989...the 20,000th "Rambling with Gambling" Radio show aired on WOR-AM, New York City. (Several generations of Gamblings kept the program going continuously)
John A, John R, John B Gambling
John B. Gambling started the show in March 1925, when WOR was a promotional arm of the Bamberger's department store in Newark. His son, John A. Gambling became host in 1959. He brought his son, John R. Gambling, to the show as co-host from 1985 until his retirement in 1991. John R. Gambling has been solo host since that time.
In September 2000, WOR cancelled the program. At the time, it was the longest continually-running radio broadcast in America, a position now held by the Grand Ole Opry.
After a brief hiatus, WABC hired John R. Gambling.
WOR owned the rights to the name Rambling with Gambling, so the revived show was renamed The John Gambling Show.
In January 2008, WABC laid off Gambling in a cost-cutting measure.
On Wednesday, April 30, 2008, WOR and John R. Gambling announced the return of the show to its original station.
They began broadcasting on Monday, May 5, 2008, from 6 AM to 10 AM. despite the return to WOR.
Gambling retired from WOR radio at the end of 2013, bringing an end to the almost 89-year combined run of The John Gambling Show and Rambling with Gambling.
He has since returned to the NYC airwaves hosting 11am to 1pm on WNYM 970 AM The Answer.
➦In 2014...actress Joan Lorring, who began her career in 1940’s Hollywood radio, who was regularly cast on CBS Radio’s Mystery Theater in the 70’s, who was featured in the early TV series ‘Norby,” and guested in anthology & episodic TV until 1980, died at age 88. Her many small screen appearances included The Star Wagon, a 1966 movie with Dustin Hoffman and Orson Bean, and The Love Boat in 1980.
