On Thursday morning, Cumulus Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, as the broadcaster entered into a prepackaged restructuring support agreement to eliminate roughly $600 million in debt between its more than 400 AM/FM stations and Westwood One network.
The move marks the second Chapter 11 for the company in the past decade, having previously undergone restructuring from November 2017 to June 2018.
The filing, made in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas, is designed to substantially reduce the broadcaster’s leverage and set a financial structure aimed at long-term stability and investment. Cumulus said the restructuring will not affect day-to-day station operations as usual for employees, advertisers, and listeners during the process.
According to the proposed Plan of Reorganization, all existing funded debt will be canceled in exchange for 100% of the reorganized equity and $50 million in new convertible notes. The company’s revolving credit facility would be amended and restated to provide ongoing liquidity. Cumulus expects the court to consider approval of the plan within 60 days, with emergence dependent on receiving FCC approvals.
The move comes amid sustained periods of difficulty for the group.
In 2024, the Singapore-based Renew Group, led by billionaire Manoj Bhargava, quietly accumulated a 10% stake in Cumulus and signaled plans to push that holding to 20%. As Renew had previously acquired Sports Illustrated parent The Arena Group through a hostile takeover, Cumulus responded by deploying a shareholder “poison pill” in February of that year, diluting any entity that crossed a 15% ownership threshold.
By early 2025, Bhargava had begun selling down his stake, and Cumulus allowed the poison pill to expire with the threat apparently neutralized.
On another front, Cumulus filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against Nielsen in October, accusing the ratings monopoly of using its market dominance to coerce broadcasters into purchasing local data products at set prices. The flashpoint was Nielsen’s “Network Policy,” which threatened to exclude markets from national ratings if local stations didn’t subscribe to Nielsen’s local service, a move Cumulus said would gut the value of Westwood One programming in the eyes of advertisers.
A federal judge granted Cumulus a preliminary injunction in December 2025, finding the company showed a strong likelihood of success on its claims. Nielsen then appealed, obtaining a stay of the injunction, and has since filed counterclaims alleging Cumulus secretly shared proprietary ratings data with rival Eastlan Ratings.
Cumulus’ Q3 2025 revenue fell 11.5% to $180.3 million year-over-year, and net loss widened to $20.5 million. Excluding political and the exits of The Daily Wire and The Dan Bongino Show, revenue declined 5%.
Broadcast radio posted steep dips. Combined broadcast revenue dropped 17.2% to $115 million, with spot down 13.1% and network revenue down 26.5% amid a soft national market. Digital Marketing Services grew 34% on the strength of new accounts and larger campaigns, and normalized total digital revenue rose 8%. Podcasting increased 15%. Without normalization, digital slipped 2.6% to $39 million.
The broadcaster reported $7 million in annualized fixed costs during Q3, bringing year-to-date savings to $20 million and total reductions since 2019 to $182 million. The company forecast mid–single-digit revenue declines in Q4, excluding political and the two departed shows, and mid- to high-teens declines on a reported basis.
Cumulus President and CEO Mary Berner said, “While we have outperformed the market on many of our most important metrics, including share gains in both local and digital revenue, the broader macroeconomic and industry-wide pressures we have faced have remained unrelenting. Against that backdrop, it became clear that Cumulus’s remaining debt burden limited our ability to fully realize the Company’s potential, and this agreement represents a major step forward.”
Berner continued, “The prepackaged process is intended to address the Company’s debt efficiently with no disruption to our operations, our people, and our strategies. On emergence, a stronger financial foundation will better position Cumulus to continue investing in premium content, enriched audience experiences, advertiser performance enhancements, and the ongoing growth of our digital marketing offerings.”
I know I will be called a Luddite, but the radio business chasing digital dollars and growing revenue with digital “new money” generates no more than 25% free cash flow seems ridiculous to me.
Additional spots on our radio stations generate 75% free cash flow and are more effective.
Selling digital because the sales team thinks digital is easier to sell is bad business. Bad business for our stations AND our advertisers. Full stop.
Commentator Wades is right. The dismantling of Cumulus, with once great radio stations, began in the 90’s under the Lew Dickey/Mike McVay era. Top talent was systematically fired, completely destroying legacy stations like KGO, KABC, WABC and other top stations. Just sad. Completely inept and incompetent management.
WBAP in Fort Worth Dallas is the finest radio station on earth and has lasted over a hundred years. They carry Westwood One Red eyed Radio at midnight CT and also own WLS in Chicago, not as good as WBAP but my backup when atmospheric conditions degrade WBAP.
This is the part of the business model that rarely gets talked about.
When large consolidators like Cumulus Media restructure hundreds of millions in debt through Chapter 11, it’s treated as normal corporate finance. And legally, that’s exactly what it is.
But independent broadcasters don’t have that luxury.
Local operators don’t have Wall Street lenders converting debt to equity. When times get tight, our vendors are the local tower crews, engineers, production companies, event partners, and small businesses that keep stations running. Those are real relationships in the same communities we serve every day.
If an independent broadcaster told their vendors “sorry, we wiped the balance sheet clean,” that wouldn’t be restructuring — that would be the end of their reputation in the market.
The irony is the industry talks endlessly about “live and local,” but true local broadcasting means accountability. You pay your bills, you stand by your partners, and you figure out how to make it work.
That’s the difference between running stations for Wall Street and running stations for Main Street
Wall Street can restructure debt. Main Street has to live with its reputation.
It’s amazing that Berner is still allowed to run this company after driving it into bankruptcy twice. She pulled the same playbook at Reader’s Digest. Most executives would be shown the door after sinking one company, let alone doing it multiple times. Yet somehow she keeps a $6 million a year salary while the company circles the drain.
Meanwhile the reps in the field are the ones getting squeezed. Their commissions get cut, their pay plans keep changing, and they’re constantly threatened with losing even more if they don’t push digital products whether the clients want them or not. The people actually generating revenue are the ones taking the hit while the person at the top keeps cashing the checks.
You have to wonder who is sitting on that board and why they continue to allow this. At some point accountability has to exist. Right now it looks like the captain of the Titanic is still steering the ship while everyone else is told to bail water.
One might be tempted to say “it couldn’t happen to nicer people,” but the grim reality is that the creditors will pay the price for decades of mismanagement. Since the 1990s, Cumulus has been bleeding the victim (radio) dry. Reorganize all you want, but the die is cast and radio has crossed the Rubicon.