Radio used to have a monopoly on entertaining and informing people.
If you go back to before the advent of television, radio was literally the only way to get live news and entertainment. Even after television became the dominant medium, radio had a place in people’s cars and when they were on go, where being audio only was an advantage.
Streaming music services and podcasts have eaten into that advantage.
Since the 1960s, every car had a radio and that gave the industry a captive audience. That has changed.
“Podcasts have officially overtaken AM/FM talk radio as the more popular medium for spoken-word audio in the United States,” according to Edison Research’s Share of Ear survey.
Radio has lost ground quickly and not just in spoken content.
“Between April and June of 2024, listeners gave 67% of their daily time with ad-supported audio to radio, 19% to podcasts, 11% to streaming audio services and 3% to satellite radio,” Nielsen shared in its The Record: Q2 U.S. audio listening trends report,
Radio still has a sizeable audience, but it’s much smaller than it once was which has led to a number of Chapter 11 filings, including an April 8 filing by Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS), first reported Inside Radio.
SBS was running out of cash
SBS is a multimedia company serving the over 60 million people that comprise the $4 Trillion U.S. Hispanic market, the world’s fifth-largest economy, with top radio brands and mass appeal personalities in the largest U.S. metro areas including Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco/San Jose, Orlando, Tampa and Puerto Rico including La Mega in NewYork City, according to the company’s website.
The company opperates AIRE Radio Networks, the Mega TV Network, the LaMusica digital ecosystem, including the LaMusica and HitzMaker mobile apps and the CTV platform LaMusica TV, as well as its live events and promotional arm, SBS Entertainment.
In March, the company entered a forbearance agreement with its key debtholders as part of an ongoing discussion about its debt.
“SBS disclosed as far back as its second-quarter 2025 earnings that it lacked sufficient cash to repay the $310 million in notes and had no firm commitment for refinancing, triggering a going concern warning,” Radio Ink reported.
SBS files Chapter 11 bankruptcy
The forbearance period and discussions have led the company to a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
“Spanish Broadcasting System is moving forward with a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing under a Restructuring Support Agreement with a group of major lenders, a step the company says will strengthen its balance sheet and position it for long-term growth,” according to Radio Ink.
SBS shared some details of the filing in a press release.
- The agreement is backed by funds and accounts managed by Brigade Capital Management, subsidiaries of Man Group, and Bayside Capital, which together hold more than 72% of the outstanding principal on SBS’s 9.750% Senior Secured Notes due 2026.
- Under the terms of the deal, those noteholders will receive 100% of the equity in the reorganized company, subject to a new management incentive plan and the issuance of new secured notes.
“SBS said the restructuring will ‘significantly’ reduce debt, lower interest expense and extend the maturity of its obligations by more than four years, while also improving liquidity. The company expects the streamlined capital structure to free up resources for reinvestment across its core business,” Inside Radio reported.
Radio has been in a steady decline
Radio’s decline has been slow and steady. The drop in market share for spoken-word content illustrates that.
“In 2015, AM/FM radio accounted for 75% of the time Americans spent with spoken-word audio sources. AM/FM radio was not only the most dominant spoken-word audio listening platform, but it was fully sixty-five percentage points higher than podcasts, which accounted for 10% of listening time back then,” according to the Edison Research report.
Those numbers continue to drop, which has contributed to the many industry bankruptcy filings.
“Quarter by quarter and year over year, time spent using AM/FM radio to listen to spoken-word audio has declined significantly and shifted to time spent with podcasts,.” the data showed.
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A number of big radio chains have filed for Chapter 11
Advertising drives the radio business and that has been shrinking, according to a report from S&P Global.
“The US radio industry is undergoing a bifurcation, with traditional spot ad revenue either flat or declining, while digital avenues such as podcasting, streaming, and connected device integration are driving growth…However, the national and local spot ad markets are expected to decline over the forecast period,” the data showed.
- Cumulus Media, Chapter 11 (March 5, 2026): Cumulus Media, one of the largest U.S. radio broadcasters with around 395 stations and the Westwood One network, filed for Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas under a prepackaged restructuring support agreement with lenders to eliminate about $592 million of debt and continue operations, according to court filings on Pacer Monitor.
- Audacy, Inc., Chapter 11 (January 7, 2024): Audacy, the major U.S. radio operator owning more than 220 stations, filed prepackaged Chapter 11 in early 2024 to reduce nearly $1.9 billion in debt by about 80%, enabling creditors (including major investors) to take ownership stakes; the plan was confirmed by the bankruptcy court as part of its reorganization, according to documents on PacerMonitor.
Earlier Chapter 11 filings include:
- iHeartMedia. Chapter 11 (ended 2019): Unlike the others above, IHeartMedia underwent a major 15‑month Chapter 11 from 2018 to 2019, reducing debt and emerging from bankruptcy, a significant radio industry restructuring, according to court documents filed on Kroll.
- AMFM Broadcasting, Inc., Chapter 11 (2018): Filed Chapter 11 in March 2018 as a broadcast radio/television entity; case closed by 2019, reported The Wall Street Journal.
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