Cumulus to Divest Four, Responds to Plan Objections

RADIO ONLINE | Wednesday, March 28, 2018 | 2:44pm CT

Cumulus Media has filed plans with the FCC to divest four medium and small market outlets in order to bring it into compliance with the agency's ownership rules, while seeking to gain the Commission's approval of its bankruptcy reorganization plan. In the filing, Cumulus said it "currently holds a grandfathered attributable interest in more radio stations than is permitted under the Commission's local radio ownership rules."

The stations that Cumulus wants to divest include Sports WTOD-FM (106.5 The Ticket)/Toledo OH, Country WPCK-FM (Nash FM 104.9)/Green Bay WI, Oldies KJMO-FM (Cool 97.5)/Columbia MO and Country WNUQ-FM (102.1 FM Nash Icon)/Albany GA. All will be placed into the newly-created Mainstay Station Trust headed by San Francisco-based media broker Elliot Evers of MVP Capital.

Cumulus also told the Commission that it had revised two of it local marketing agreements (LMA). The company is now paying $15,000 per month to Merlin Media to continue operating Alternative WKQX-FM/Chicago. It was paying a whopping $600,000 per month. The filing also reveals that it's paying $583,333 per month to operate Sports KESN-FM (ESPN 103.3) Dallas under a lease agreement with Disney/ESPN Radio.

Meanwhile, UCC and Cross Holders have filed objections to the company's Plan of Reorganization under Chapter 11. In a statement, a Cumulus spokesperson said, "Today's objections to our Plan of Reorganization by the UCC and the Cross Holders were anticipated -- they are normal parts of the restructuring process and will not impact our restructuring timeline."

The statement continued, "We look forward to emerging from the restructuring process with a stronger foundation and to continuing to execute our turnaround plan which remains on track both operationally and financially. Both objections largely reiterate statements that have already been made through the restructuring, which we believe have no merit, and we remain confident that we will successfully address these claims through the Court process."