Radio News: Industry might be near a breaking point

May 19, 2016 11:20 pm
John Anderson in DIYMedia.net, after the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas, looks at the big-picture with radio. While television broadcasters are about to make a bundle selling off spectrum, the radio industry is hearing lots of bad news recently. iHeartMedia is staving off angry bond-holders over its several billion dollars’ worth of its debt, while the next biggest radio company, Cumulus Media, is fighting off bankruptcy. Emmis may be delisting by NASDAQ in early June. And CBS is spinning off its entire radio division, and might sell. The collapse of the radio conglomerates may mean some major industry sea-change, Anderson posits. And future-thinkers are wondering if radio is keeping up with multi-platform interactivity, and, if cars become driverless, listeners will be even more distracted by thousands of other options. (Anderson is on Wave Farm's board.)