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69-469: Satellite Music Network was the first satellite delivered network to provide complete live 24-hour-a-day music programming to local stations , under several different formats. Affiliate stations, mostly in small and medium markets , could operate their stations virtually unmanned with nothing more than its existing tape-based playback equipment, a computer and a satellite hookup offering high quality air talent that they could never afford. The concept

138-408: A cease and desist order, in which the company claimed that production of The Dumb Zone podcast by the two former radio hosts violated the noncompete agreements in their contracts barring them from competing with their former employer. In September 2023, the case was resolved after US District Judge Karen Gren Scholer ruled that Susquehanna had failed to meet the "burden of persuasion" to have

207-680: A TRO granted and the podcast was allowed to resume production. On December 30, 2008, Cumulus Media was issued a $ 14,000 Notice of Apparent Liability by the Federal Communications Commission related to the stations in the Macon, Georgia , cluster. According to the FCC, Cumulus failed to comply with record-keeping requirements and its Equal Employment Opportunity rules regarding information on recruitment sources. Cumulus, along with two other companies, had 30 days to pay or file

276-482: A common infrastructure to reduce operating expenses but enrich programming. Each station would be programmed with a unique music format, live programming, brand, and target audience. The central idea was to create a cluster of radio stations that could compete with newspapers by offering advertisers a range of target demographic choices comparable to the range of content sections in print. At the time of Cumulus' founding, newspaper display and classified advertising claimed

345-434: A concept called trunking is commonly used to achieve better efficiency of radio spectrum use and provide very wide-ranging coverage with no switching of channels required by the mobile radio user as it roams throughout the system coverage. Trunking of two-way radio is identical to the concept used for cellular phone systems where each fixed and mobile radio is specifically identified to the system controller and its operation

414-408: A lawsuit filed by seven former employees who said the fee practices and investment selections of the company's 401(k) plan violated ERISA." In August 2023, Cumulus-owned Susquehanna Radio sued two former employees of Dallas , Texas-based radio station KTCK 1310 The Ticket, Dan McDowell and Jake Kemp, seeking to impose a temporary restraining order (TRO) on them after they refused to comply with

483-507: A lawsuit launched in 2012 and dropped in 2014 by the same plaintiff. In June 2016, Cumulus Media and Westwood One moved to have the new suit dismissed. In June 2016, Cumulus Media announced the resignation of its executive vice president, treasurer and chief financial officer, Joseph P. Hannan, to "pursue other interests" after six years with the company, to be replaced by John F. Abbot. It had previously been reported in April 2016 that Cumulus

552-571: A limited-partnership interest in San Francisco Baseball Associates LP, the owner of the San Francisco Giants baseball club. In July 2010, Cumulus publicly announced formation of a similar venture with Crestview Partners to acquire up to $ 1 billion of additional radio assets. In July 2007, the company announced its intention to "go private", however on May 11, 2008, the company announced it

621-422: A local station's call sign and frequency (referred to as "magicalls") at the receiving station that was pre-recorded by the talent. The talent would then wait anywhere from 3 to 5 seconds before beginning to speak. Another button pressed at the end of a talk break by the talent would trigger a cluster of local commercials at the receiving station, or a closure tone at the receiving station would send control back to

690-602: A reputation as an advertising sales leader, Bungeroth oversaw market-level tactical execution, including the integration of newly acquired stations into market operating units. John Dickey, brother of Lewis and himself an experienced radio programming consultant. would oversee station content. SWIB's investment was soon followed by another $ 50 million from Wisconsin-based Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company and $ 25 million from NationsBank Capital Corporation. With this financial backing secured, Dickey and Weening began acquiring radio stations yet managed to stay "under

759-447: A smooth transition". Noble Financial Analyst Michael Kupinski was reported to say that the resignation of CFO JP Hannan for John Abbot was "not a good sign" for the company and as a result of the change, a restructuring was likely. On November 29, 2017, Cumulus filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a restructuring of the company. Cumulus exited bankruptcy on June 4, 2018. On January 6, 2021, in response to attempts to overturn

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828-410: A start-up CEO in book and magazine publishing, online services and enterprise software systems. He was then CEO of Quaestus & Co., Inc., a private equity firm specializing in media and technology startups. For the new radio company, Weening chose the name Cumulus for the type of cloud formation for their ubiquity in the sky, which Weening and Dickey hoped would be the same for their stations across

897-578: A statement asking for reduction or cancellation of the forfeitures . In January 2016, the Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau reached a "record-setting" $ 540,000 settlement with Cumulus over sponsorship identification in radio ads promoting a proposed energy project, reported to be the largest payment in FCC history for a single-station violation of the Commission's sponsorship ID laws. In August 2019,

966-500: A strip mall with two formats: AC (adult contemporary) – signed on by Bob Leonard (not the basketball player of the same name), and country music – signed on by Gary Semro . In less than three years, the network had signed more than 300 affiliates. By the late 1980s, SMN was broadcasting to more than 600 stations nationwide and in the Caribbean . In late 1989, SMN merged into ABC Radio and moved operations to Dallas , and expanded

1035-600: A variety of networks. Radio networks rose rapidly with the growth of regular broadcasting of radio to home listeners in the 1920s. This growth took various paths in different places. In Britain the BBC was developed with public funding , in the form of a broadcast receiver license , and a broadcasting monopoly in its early decades. In contrast, in the United States various competing commercial broadcasting networks arose funded by advertising revenue. In that instance,

1104-508: A year later in May 2002 at prices ranging from $ 17 to $ 21.50 per share not The $ 55 high but considerably higher than share prices after their sale. The new CEO of Cumulus Media, as of September 2015 is Mary G Berner. In April 2016, Talk Radio Network filed a lawsuit against Cumulus Media and associated defendants, alleging " antitrust violations, unfair competition, breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty, among other claims", similar to

1173-620: Is a broadcasting company of the United States and is the second largest owner and operator of AM and FM radio stations in the United States ahead of Audacy and behind iHeartMedia . As of June 2019, Cumulus lists ownership of 428 stations in 87 media markets . It also owns and operates Westwood One . Its headquarters are located in Atlanta , Georgia. Its subsidiaries include Cumulus Broadcasting LLC , Cumulus Licensing LLC and Broadcast Software International Inc. Cumulus Media

1242-540: Is switched by the controller. The broadcast type of radio network is a network system which distributes programming to multiple stations simultaneously, or slightly delayed, for the purpose of extending total coverage beyond the limits of a single broadcast signal. The resulting expanded audience for radio programming or information essentially applies the benefits of mass-production to the broadcasting enterprise. A radio network has two sales departments, one to package and sell programs to radio stations, and one to sell

1311-451: The 2020 United States presidential election and the U.S. Capitol attack , Cumulus Media executives directed its on-air personalities to stop spreading misinformation about unsubstantiated claims of Biden stealing the election or face termination. By May 2002 the share price recovered to above the IPO price to a short-lived high of $ 22 on May 31, 2002. Dickey garnered some strong partners in

1380-449: The FCC proposed Cumulus Media pay another $ 233,000 fine for additional violations of its sponsorship identification rules and not reporting them to the FCC after agreeing to do so under its 2016 consent decree. On March 17, 2000, the company was forced to restate revenue and broadcast cash flow for three-quarters of 1999 after discovering that some of its sales force had prematurely booked revenue to meet sales goals. On November 8, 2005,

1449-478: The Nash family of properties. In July 2014, Cumulus announced that it would end its partnership with ABC News Radio , and enter into a new partnership with CNN to syndicate news content for its stations through Westwood One beginning in 2015. The network will provide its content on a white label basis, allowing individual stations to use their own brands for the content. In turn, ABC announced that it would take

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1518-453: The SEC over his proposal to reverse some of his and Dickey's 1999 compensation to help offset the earnings miss. While the proposal was never implemented, the SEC maintained it would have amounted to earnings management and was therefore an infraction. Weening finally agreed to pay a fine of $ 75,000 without conceding wrongdoing to settle the matter in 2003. As the dust began to settle in April 2000

1587-508: The audience of those programs to advertisers. Most radio networks also produce much of their programming. Originally, radio networks owned some or all of the stations that broadcast the network's radio format programming. Presently however, there are many networks that do not own any stations and only produce and/or distribute programming. Similarly station ownership does not always indicate network affiliation. A company might own stations in several different markets and purchase programming from

1656-506: The backing of 3 venture capital firms ( Bain Capital Partners LLC , The Blackstone Group and Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P. ) for a price of $ 1.2 Billion. The 33 Susquehanna stations were privately held in a separate partnership called Cumulus Media Partners, LLC (commonly referred to as CMP on the company's quarterly earnings calls) that was the subject of an equity-for-debt swap in May 2009 in an attempt to avoid defaulting on

1725-414: The best course for Cumulus was to focus on the radio strategy and drop the internet projects. Weening who had started a Silicon Valley e-commerce software company in the early 1990s had conceived and was overseeing development of the employment platform. Weening advocated for continuance of the project as a key potential source of revenue with a service that would be unique among radio companies. Ultimately,

1794-526: The board backed Dickey not Weening and the Internet project was scrapped. According to interviews with two former members of the Cumulus board, Lew Dickey and his brother John convinced the board to let them run the company. Dickey, whose family had just sold an Atlanta station for a reported $ 250 million, offered to invest in Cumulus if needed to close pending acquisitions. The board was concerned about

1863-432: The board to consider a sale. On March 10, 2011, Citadel Broadcasting stations announced via email that Cumulus had purchased Citadel Broadcasting. Citadel was made up of 225 radio stations in over 50 markets, as well as Citadel Media , one of the largest radio networks in the United States; it included the stations that made up the former ABC Radio group (like flagship stations KABC-AM , WLS-AM and WABC-AM ). The deal

1932-414: The chance to post available positions on the web and promote their company and the position on the radio stations. At the time of the dot-com bust the system was in beta test in two markets. One of the short-lived but important impacts of the dot-com bubble burst was a loss of confidence that the promise of the internet would ever happen. Many professional radio people like Dickey were skeptical and believed

2001-592: The company for its vaccine mandate. On December 1, 2023, former 107.5 The Game in South Carolina sports talk radio host Tim Hill filed a civil rights lawsuit against Cumulus for firing him back in 2021 over their vaccine mandate. Hill is claiming a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, making him the second former Cumulus host to sue the company over this vaccine mandate. On February 15, 2023, Cumulus Media paid "$ 1 million to settle

2070-413: The company issued revised annual 10K reports for 1998 and 1999 that showed minor variations in quarterly revenue and adjusted net loss for 1999 from $ 20.8 million to $ 13.6 million and net loss for 1998 was restated from $ 13.7 million to $ 8 million, after the company found a $ 4.9 million tax benefit that had been under-reported. The restatement as it turns out had no material impact on

2139-449: The company owned or operated pending closing 246 stations in 45 markets. In a period of two years and six months, Cumulus became the second largest U.S. broadcasting group in terms of stations operated. It also raised a staggering $ 1.3 billion when considering sales of common and preferred stock shares, senior bank lines of credit, and senior subordinated debt or junk bonds which when issued were rated CCC+. The stock market acknowledged

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2208-410: The company with artificially inflating revenue and profit in 1999. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the company's auditors resigned in April citing material weaknesses in the Cumulus' financial controls arising from the possible revenue restatements. Meanwhile, Dickey had taken over day-to-day station operations from Bungeroth who resigned in mid January. During this same period Weening got into a dispute with

2277-603: The country. Quaestus provided the seed capital to make the first station acquisitions as a model for the Cumulus business strategy. The next significant milestone was obtaining a $ 50 million investment from the State of Wisconsin Investment Board (SWIB), which previously invested in Weening's magazine publishing company. With this capital in place, Cumulus began full-scale operations on May 22, 1997. Weening assumed

2346-481: The day and weekends. The clock included options for a 2-, 3-, or 5-minute newscasts at the top of the hour, followed by other holes for local spots. While the programming was live , DJs had to avoid references to the weather or anything else that would not be appropriate in many time zones . An 800-line was eventually added, allowing the live DJs to take phoned in requests. SMN began in 1981 in Mokena, Illinois in

2415-544: The deal, Cumulus partnered with the competing iHeartRadio service. However, in November 2015, Rdio filed for bankruptcy and sold its assets to Pandora Radio . On August 11, 2021, Cumulus Media CEO Mary Berner announced a company wide COVID-19 vaccine mandate . She stated that employees must be fully vaccinated by September 27, 2021. Unvaccinated employees had their employment terminated on October 11, 2021. Terminated employees were denied unemployment benefits . It

2484-434: The financials but in the context of the dot-com bust hysteria rumours of accounting irregularities drove a significant decrease in share price which threatened the company's ability to finance pending acquisitions. Since November 1998 the company had been developing an internet platform for classified employment advertising. The new system would operate in tandem with the radio station cluster in each market and offer employers

2553-770: The first mid-size market radio conglomerate. Following the company's IPO, its stock fell from $ 14 to $ 8 per share on October 2, 1998 before beginning a climb to close 1999 at $ 50.75. Some radio executives familiar with small markets thought that Cumulus was overpaying to buy top stations in markets that did not have a great upside potential. For 1998, Cumulus reported revenue of $ 98.8 million, with broadcast cash flow of $ 26.6 million. Its cash-flow margin reached 27 percent. For 1999, Cumulus reported $ 180 million in revenue and $ 46.7 million broadcast cash flow. On November 19, 1999, Cumulus sold an additional 10 million shares at $ 24.93, raising $ 250 million. Acquisitions continued at an accelerating pace. At this point,

2622-455: The form of Bain Capital and Crestview partners who helped finance a series of ambitious acquisitions and partnerships which were creative, made Cumulus a significantly larger company but these acquisitions and Cumulus itself have struggled in the face of slow to no radio ad growth. (another researcher is working on this section) In 2006, Cumulus acquired control of Susquehanna Radio , with

2691-450: The largest share of local advertising dollars. By offering a range of audiences like newspapers, Cumulus could gain a greater share of the local advertising dollar than the individual stations could garner separately. In addition, acquiring the top-performing stations in a given market as part of the operating cluster would yield more national advertising. The market focus would be on those deemed to offer substantial growth opportunities, while

2760-477: The mandate. On May 9, 2023, former News/Talk 98.9 WKIM Memphis morning show co-host Bob Boccia, who has Crohn's disease , sued Cumulus Media after failing to accommodate his medical condition and religious beliefs. His suit details violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 , as well as breach of contract. He is the first former Cumulus employee to sue

2829-458: The network if there were no commercials. The network provided music and DJs, localized talent-matching liners, limited promotions support consisting of ideas used by other affiliates, and years later, a website. As the network moved from analog to digital satellite, it also provided receivers to affiliates to use on a loaned basis. A "clock" was provided to affiliates outlining the placement of news and commercial cut-aways, and differed throughout

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2898-430: The number of available formats to ten. ABC sold the former SMN suite to Citadel Broadcasting in 2007, who in turn sold it to Cumulus Media in 2011; Cumulus then merged its suite with competitors. In 2019, ABC Radio re-entered the 24/7 music format with a partnership with Local Radio Networks. Bonneville Broadcasting also signed on with an easy listening format simultaneously to SMN – signed on by Tim Kolody from

2967-447: The radar", not attracting much notice or competition. In its first 12 months in operation, Cumulus acquired over 100 stations in 31 markets. Soon it was clear that the company would need over a billion dollars for its desired acquisitions, and an initial public offering of stock was soon made. The Cumulus strategy, as articulated in public filings, was to acquire multiple stations in a city or market, consolidate them physically to share

3036-434: The range of coverage required by the jurisdiction or authority implementing the system: conventional wireless links in numerous frequency bands, fibre-optic links, or microwave links. In all of these cases the signals are typically backhauled to a central switch of some type where the radio message is processed and resent (repeated) to all transmitter sites where it is required to be heard. In contemporary two-way radio systems

3105-503: The rapid growth might be false. The first quarter of 2000 proved to be troubling at Cumulus. A perfect storm of events drove the company's share price from $ 50 to $ 13 between January 1 and March 17 when over 30 million shares traded hands. Driving the decline was persistent rumours of possible accounting irregularities in the rapidly assembled radio group. On January 14 respected Wall Street analyst Frank Bodenchak advised institutional clients that Cumulus may miss his estimates for Q4 1999 and

3174-438: The remarkable growth with a share price that rose to a high of $ 51.00 on December 31, 1999. Cumulus was a part-time participant in the euphoria of the dot-com bubble and was impacted by the hysteria that followed its burst. The reasons included very rapid growth and skyrocketing share price which in the euphoria period fed on itself. The hysteria which followed was driven by both the absence of earnings and rumors which suggested

3243-783: The restatement of revenues and the shareholder lawsuits. This is consistent with reports in a radio industry newsletter which reported that it was a widely held belief in the Radio industry was that the Dickey brothers orchestrated events that lead to the board's decision not to back the Internet project, placing Dickey at the helm of Cumulus, moving the Cumulus headquarters from Milwaukee to Atlanta and to Weening's ultimate resignation as an employee and director in January 2001. According to public filings Weening, QUAESTUS management company and other Weening related interests sold their interests in Cumulus

3312-568: The role of Executive chairman focusing on acquisitions deal structuring, corporate finance, and internet from the company's original headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin . Dickey selected stations to buy and oversaw radio programming, operations and strategy as Executive vice-chairman. Dickey brought in highly regarded radio operator William Bungeroth to serve as President of Cumulus Broadcasting from new offices in Chicago's Hancock Center . Having

3381-537: The same corporation that owned or operated the network often manufactured and marketed the listener's radio. Major technical challenges to be overcome when distributing programs over long distances are maintaining signal quality and managing the number of switching/relay points in the signal chain . Early on, programs were sent to remote stations (either owned or affiliated) by various methods, including leased telephone lines, pre-recorded gramophone records and audio tape. The world's first all-radio, non-wireline network

3450-712: The same studios in August 1981. Bonneville pulled out of SMN in June 1984. Among the talent that was employed at SMN was Chicago radio legend Eddie Hubbard and Joe Lacina on the Stardust format, Dean Richards who can be heard on WGN and WGN-TV in Chicago; Karen Williams of WNUA ; Dennis Jon Bailey, now morning show host and Marconi Award winner at WIKY Radio in Evansville; News was done by Larry Langford also of WIND at

3519-514: The same technologies and components as the broadcast-type radio network but is generally set up with fixed broadcast points ( transmitters ) with co-located receivers and mobile receivers/transmitters or transceivers . In this way both the fixed and mobile radio units can communicate with each other over broad geographic regions ranging in size from small single cities to entire states/provinces or countries. There are many ways in which multiple fixed transmit/receive sites can be interconnected to achieve

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3588-632: The station focus was the leading station in the market and other stations well-positioned for significant growth. Cumulus became a publicly traded company on June 26, 1998. The company raised $ 400 million selling 7.6 million common shares at $ 14.00 each, $ 125 million in preferred stock , and $ 160 million in Senior Subordinated Bonds. At that time Cumulus owned or was committed to buy 176 stations – 124 FM stations and 52 am stations in 34 U.S. markets. In its first 17 months, Cumulus acquired 207 stations, creating

3657-576: The syndication of its radio content in-house, with distribution handled by Skyview Networks. On September 15, 2013, Cumulus announced that it had entered into a partnership with music streaming service Rdio ; Cumulus took a stake in Rdio, and provided the company with access to its advertising sales team for a freemium tier, the ability to offer Cumulus radio stations on the Rdio service, and $ 75 million in marketing on Cumulus stations over five years. The stations launched on Rdio in August 2015; prior to

3726-616: The talent included: Peter Stewart, Bob Leonard, John Lacy, Janice Williams and others. Country Coast to Coast in the early 1990s had the phone number 1 (800) US-SONGS; which later changed to 1 (800) 457-6647; Starstation 1 (800) 832-0208. [REDACTED] = Currently active on ABC Radio . [REDACTED] = Active on ABC Radio on a seasonal basis. [REDACTED] = Divested to other companies. [REDACTED] = Formats combined. [REDACTED] = Currently discontinued . [REDACTED] = Retained by origin of network. Radio network The two-way type of radio network shares many of

3795-454: The terms of the CMP lending agreement. While Cumulus operated the CMP stations, they initially held only a minor ownership interest in them. On January 31, 2011, Cumulus announced a deal to acquire the remaining ownership of CMP from its equity partners in a stock transaction valued at approximately $ 740 million that is closed in August 2011. As a result of the CMP acquisition, Cumulus now owns

3864-611: The time and later WMAQ in Chicago; and John Calhoun , who continues to broadcast in the Chicago metropolitan area . A top 40 network called "The Heat" also existed, but little historical information is available for this network. "The Heat" was originally called "ALL Hit Radio", air staff included: Monty Foster (MoFo), Vic Saint John, Jason Taylor, Pat Clarke. The networks were later moved to Dallas, Texas, where talent on Country Coast to Coast included: Jim Beedle, Jim Casey, Ted Clark, Steve Sharp, Jerry Walker, R.J. Steele, Mark Edwards, Jim Brady, Becky Wight, Catfish Prewitt. On StarStation

3933-464: The year. A combination of the possible earnings miss and the rumours of accounting problems created a significant loss of investor confidence. On March 17, Cumulus reported a loss of $ 0.20 per share vs $ 0.15 per share expectation. Broadcast cash flow was $ 12.3 million vs estimates around $ 17 million. In addition the Company reported that company CFO Rick Bonick had left earlier in January. It

4002-411: Was "going to great lengths to keep two of its executives on board" and that Hannan had been offered "a big bonus to stay" as incentive to remain with the company. In October 2016, it was announced Hannan had taken the role of chief financial officer at programmatic advertising company, Social Reality, Inc. [NASDAQ: SRAX]. Per SEC filings, Hannan would also "assist the company for several months to ensure

4071-676: Was acting as a consultant to a small radio group in which Weening had a personal investment. Weening signed onto Dickey's idea to acquire and operate radio stations in mid-size markets as opposed to the largest markets on which competing radio group Clear Channel Communications was focusing. Dickey was the radio expert and Weening was the corporate finance and start-up CEO. Dickey was president of both radio consulting firm Stratford Research and his family company, Midwestern Broadcasting, with two stations in Toledo, Ohio ; these stations would later be acquired by Cumulus. Weening had successful experience as

4140-418: Was as low as $ 0.45 per share toward the end of 2008. Starting in June 2010, Cumulus made multiple unsuccessful offers to buy out Citadel Broadcasting after its emergence from bankruptcy. In February 2011, Cumulus was again said to be in "exclusive negotiations" to acquire Citadel for $ 2.5 billion paid to Citadel shareholders, according to CNBC . Some Citadel shareholders were said to have been pushing

4209-513: Was claimed to be the Rural Radio Network , a group of six upstate New York FM stations that began operation in June 1948. Terrestrial microwave relay, a technology later introduced to link stations, has been largely supplanted by coaxial cable , fiber , and satellite , which usually offer superior cost-benefit ratios. Many early radio networks evolved into Television networks . Cumulus Media Cumulus Media, Inc.

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4278-576: Was completed on November 14, 2013. On January 11, 2013, after acquiring the station from Family Radio , Cumulus re-launched WFME in New York City as a country music station under its new Nash FM brand. Nash was designed to serve as an umbrella brand for all country music-related content across the company's properties, including radio, digital, and live events such as the "Nash Bash". All country stations owned by Cumulus would either be branded as Nash FM, or be strongly cross-promoted as part of

4347-400: Was established in August 1998 by radio consultant Lewis Dickey Jr. and media and technology entrepreneur Richard Weening. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 , among other legislation, relaxed media ownership restrictions, allowing a single owner to possess or control an unprecedented number of radio stations per market and nationwide. Dickey, then a nationally known radio programming consultant,

4416-460: Was finalized on September 16, 2011, after acceptance by the FCC and Citadel's shareholders. As part of the deal, Cumulus Media will have to place 14 stations into a separate trust to comply with ownership limits. Following the acquisition, in an effort to focus on larger markets, Cumulus reached a deal with Townsquare Media to swap 65 radio stations in 13 markets, with the majority of the 65 stations being sold to Townsquare. On August 29, 2013, it

4485-451: Was not officially announced a fact that CNN Money says "roiled the already active rumour mill about accounting irregularities. The company also reported it would restate quarterly revenues in 1999 as some markets did not comply with Cumulus' revenue recognition policies and booked some advertising contracts for their full value rather than recognizing revenue as the ads aired. As a result, class-action lawsuits were filed against Cumulus charging

4554-712: Was reported by The Wall Street Journal that Cumulus would purchase the syndicator Dial Global for $ 260 million. To fund the sale, Cumulus, sold 53 more stations to Townsquare Media for $ 238 million, in markets such as Danbury, CT , Rockford, IL , Cedar Rapids, IA , Quad Cities IA/IL , Waterloo, IA , Portland, ME , Battle Creek, MI , Kalamazoo, MI , Lansing, MI , Faribault, MN , Rochester, MN , and Portsmouth, NH . Additionally, Townsquare Media acquired Peak Broadcasting, and Cumulus swapped 15 more stations in Dubuque, IA and Poughkeepsie, NY in exchange for Peak Broadcasting's Fresno cluster. The sale to Cumulus

4623-414: Was reported that most exemption claims were being rejected. The rejections were reported to use boilerplate messages. In December 2021, political commentator, radio show host, and author Dan Bongino , who has railed against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, volunteered in an interview with The New Yorker and said that he was vaccinated against COVID-19 upon advice of his doctor. He threatened to quit over

4692-427: Was the presentation of live, carefully selected and rotated hit music, presented by experienced major market industry veterans over a satellite channel in real time. Though nationally distributed, the presentation was localized by the network's talent pushing a button sending a subaudible tone over the network that would trigger a tape machine at the receiving station. For example, a button would be pressed triggering

4761-434: Was unable to come to terms with the parties involved and the merger/acquisition agreement was terminated. Like most major American radio station owners, Cumulus has been forced to write down the value of its radio station licenses, resulting in large non-cash losses – $ 498.9 million in 2008, $ 230.6 million in 2007, and $ 63.4 million in 2006. The company's stock, priced over $ 56 in 1999, then over $ 22 in 2004,

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