NEW YORK — Exactly three years ago, the company formerly known as Entercom doubled down on its ownership of what was then-known as Radio.com by yanking its stations from the widely distributed global audio streaming platform TuneIn.
Today, Entercom is fiscally challenged Audacy; the company’s stock, which was trading in the mid-$7 range in late June 2018, is now just shy of 7 cents and trades on an Over-the-Counter market. The Radio.com domain name failed to attract a minimum bid in a GoDaddy auction.
Now, Audacy’s stations — along with its podcast library — are heading back to TuneIn.
No words were shared regarding the decision to come back to a service Audacy shunned, instead opting to create a walled garden where it could earn advertising dollars through exclusively accessible content. Today, “difficult economic headwinds” have extended to digital for Audacy. In Q1 2023, Digital revenue (including podcasting) declined to $56.93 million from $58.04 million.
As Audacy sees it, the partnership “bolsters the reach” of Audacy’s radio content and on-demand titles from the company’s Cadence13, Pineapple Street Studios and 2400Sports podcast businesses.
Importantly, the agreement will also give Audacy access to TuneIn’s advertising supply and bring select TuneIn original content to the Audacy digital platform.
Audacy Chief Digital Officer and Podcast and Streaming President J.D. Crowley commented, “Streaming of AM/FM Radio is one of the fastest growing segments of all digital audio today. As consumer demand for Audacy’s best-in-class local audio content continues to increase, we’re committed to meeting the listener wherever they wish to consume, and we’re delighted to expand the availability of our unique live sports, news, and personality-driven audio content to over 200 new TuneIn-supported platforms. We’re equally thrilled to welcome TuneIn’s premium exclusive content to the Audacy digital platform.”
TuneIn CEO Richard Stern, who will appear Thursday (6/22) on the InFOCUS Podcast, presented by dot.FM, said, “We’re very pleased that Audacy has selected TuneIn to extend its digital reach and monetization capabilities.”
The partnership also unlocks new monetization opportunities for Audacy and TuneIn’s advertising partners, leveraging the companies’ collective scale, precision targeting and analytics capabilities.
