CEO Bill Wilson had been dropping hints over the past few months that, despite proclaiming Townsquare as a digital first company, he had something in the works to grow the company’s radio portfolio. Wilson last mentioned a possible deal when he appeared on a panel at the Country Radio Seminar in Nashville earlier this month. He was finally able to make the announcement official on Thursday.
Townsquare is buying Cherry Creek Broadcasting’s 35 radio stations for $18.75 million. The deal will force Townsquare to divest a number of stations due to the FCC’s ownership caps.
They will divest six stations in Missoula, MT, to Anderson Broadcasting, and two non-profits; Legacy Broadcasting and Missoula Community Radio. Townsquare will also place two stations in Tri-Cities, WA in a divestiture trust.
Following those divestitures, Townsquare will net 35 radio stations in nine markets, increasing its portfolio to 356 stations in 74 markets. The Cherry Creek deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022.
“We are very excited to announce the acquisition of Cherry Creek’s market leading local media brands. The acquisition includes many local heritage brands with strong competitive positions, meaningful audience share, and very talented local teams,” commented Townsquare Chief Executive Officer, Bill Wilson. “This represents an excellent opportunity to deploy our Digital First Local Media strategy across a broader footprint, bringing our national scale, strong digital platform, and resources to the local communities and local businesses in these markets, building upon the strong relationships these local teams have already built with their communities. We look forward to accelerating the digital growth in these markets as we implement our flywheel of powerful and effective marketing and advertising (digital and radio) solutions and technology platforms, in combination with our highly relevant, localized content on-air and online. We believe this acquisition furthers our goal of being the #1 Digital First Local Media Company in markets outside of the Top 50 in the United States.”
“This acquisition represents a compelling use of capital that aligns with our priorities of investing in our local business through both organic investments and prudent acquisitions that support our revenue and profit growth,” added Townsquare Chief Financial Officer, Stuart Rosenstein. “This acquisition is net leverage neutral and due to the strong cash generation of our business and the acquired assets, will not impact our ability to reach our goal of 4x net leverage by year end.”
McDermott, Will & Emery and Wilkinson Barker Knauer served respectively as transaction and FCC counsel to Townsquare in connection with the Transaction. Kalil & Co., Inc. acted as exclusive broker for Cherry Creek.
Nice move, Townsquare! It’s also refreshing to read a release that isn’t exaggerating or fibbing about who they are and what they do.
And for the record, I can assure you that there are cost-efficient ways to make locally-focused broadcast radio pay dividends for stations, if and when the strategy and tools are available (wink, wink).
Yep, less local radio for more markets now!
If Cherry Creek is live and local now, they won’t be next year at this time.