Web domain registrar GoDaddy is running an auction for the domain name Radio.com, which is currently owned by Audacy.
The auction, first spotted on Thursday by Radio Ink‘s sister publication Radio & Television Business Report, is asking for a minimum bid of $2.5 million for the domain name, though it will almost certainly command a higher sale price.
The Radio.com website launched in the mid-1990s as an offshoot of the technology news site CNET. CBS Interactive purchase CNET and its related properties in the mid-2000s. The web address later came under the control of CBS Radio, with the company using it as part of a broader brand refresh in 2010.
Entercom acquired the Radio.com address as part of its purchase of CBS Radio in November 2017. The merged company relaunched as Audacy early last year.
A listing on GoDaddy’s auction portal doesn’t necessarily mean the Radio.com address will be sold to another company. Like other auction websites, GoDaddy allows sellers to place a “reserve price” that is hidden to bidders but must otherwise be met in order for a sale to go through.
It wasn’t clear if Audacy placed a reserve price for the Radio.com domain name, or whether the company merely listed the address on GoDaddy’s auction platform to gauge potential interest in the address. A spokesperson for Audacy has not yet returned a request for comment.
In November, Audacy executives affirmed that the company was experiencing “a challenging time…as we navigate through macroeconomic pressures and advertising headwinds.”
Like other media companies, Audacy has experienced a dip in advertising revenue as companies tighten their marketing budgets due to long-term economic uncertainty.
Local and national spot advertising revenue was reported at $204.7 million during the three-month period ending September 30, 2022, a decline of about 7.8% compared to the same quarter in 2021. Overall revenue was reported at around $317 million for the quarter, about 3.8% lower than the same quarter last year.
On a conference call with investors last month, Audacy CEO David Field said the company sold around $56 million worth of non-strategic real estate assets to help offset some of the revenue losses, and was looking toward other asset sales to help offset future revenue deprivation.
“We have a number of other real estate assets that we plan to monetize and will continue to pursue other tools at our disposal to weather the storm,” Field said.
Audacy’s non-real estate assets were not discussed on the conference call, but executives left the door open for more information to be revealed about the company’s additional sales transactions during its next quarterly earnings call.
That could include the auction for Radio.com, which is scheduled to end in late March 2023, according to the listing on GoDaddy’s website.
Starting bid of 2.5 million! Someone is really getting bad advice to think this will help save Audacity. Anyone who is foolish enough to throw away this much money on a domain name is also foolish.
How about these large corporations operate within their means? Don’t over-extend your financial means. Do not buy up radio stations, run them in the ground and expect advertisers to jump on board. Sell under performing radio stations, terminate employees that are not meeting expectations……but to auction off a website starting at 2.5m…..come on! Let’s get real.