Cumulus Media has offered a target date for its Chapter 11 emergence for the first time since filing for bankruptcy protection in March, as the clock keeps running on two simultaneous high-stakes proceedings that will shape what the broadcaster’s ratings access on the other side.
Per a filing in United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, the audio content creation and distribution company led by CEO Mary Berner is projecting emergence from bankruptcy by late summer or early fall, pending FCC approval of its reorganization plan.
Cumulus filed for Chapter 11 on March 5 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, pursuing a prepackaged restructuring that allowed it to secure creditor support before entering bankruptcy. Federal Bankruptcy Judge Alfredo R. Pérez confirmed the reorganization plan on April 15, some 41 days after filing and inside the 60-day window Cumulus had projected at the outset. The company filed its FCC applications on May 20.
The reorganization converts roughly $660 million in debt to equity, handing control of the 400-plus station group to its secured lenders. Upon emergence, Cumulus will simultaneously move to deregister under the Exchange Act and go private, with the current board replaced and new securities unlisted on any US or foreign exchange.
Both Berner and Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Development Collin Jones got face time with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr within the past week, in the name of continuing the sustained push from radio’s top executives for quick and substantial relaxation of the radio ownership rules under the Commission’s 2022 Quadrennial Regulatory Review.
The June 9 joint status letter puts the full process at roughly five to six months from petition to exit. The New York filing stems from Cumulus’s lawsuit against The Nielsen Company, which has been on hold since the bankruptcy stay took effect in March, but a parallel Second Circuit appeal is running on a separate track and is now before the panel following oral arguments heard May 7.
Nielsen is seeking a permanent end to the preliminary injunction; Cumulus wants it upheld. Cumulus’s access to Nielsen’s Nationwide product expires when the next data set is released around Labor Day, putting the appeals court’s deliberations on a collision course with the broadcaster’s projected bankruptcy exit window. In local market ratings from Nielsen Audio, Cumulus stations remain conspicuously absent from the publicly shared overall data appearing in trade publications.
