WPRO’s Parent Company May Enter Bankruptcy Reports Wall St. Journal

WPRO’s Parent Company May Enter Bankruptcy Reports Wall St. Journal

RI’s largest radio group will enter a “pre-packaged bankruptcy or push through an out of court debt for equity swap with bondholders if it can win sufficient back from creditors,” reports the Wall Street Journal on Monday night.

Cumulus missed a scheduled interest payment on its bonds on Nov. 1. Cumulus has a 30-day grace period to make up the $23.6 million interest payment.

Cumulus who owns WPRO AM, WPRO FM, Hot 106, Lite 105 and 790 AM. If the bankruptcy sparks feelings of deja vu, that is because Cumulus purchased Citadel then the owner of the Providence cluster of stations and it went into bankruptcy in 2009.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

Cumulus’ stock has been pounded over the past couple of years. The company pushed through an eight-to-one stock swap in October of 2016. That move was an effort to resuscitate the stock price.

On Monday, Cumulus stock closed at $0.29 per share. Down from a 52-week high of $1.61 per share shortly after the stock swap.

On an investor call last Thursday, Cumulus CEO Mary Berner said, “Our heavy debt load restrains our ability to do business in the short term and achieve full potential in the long term. We are using this time to continue to develop and we hope to commence the implementation of a restructuring with one or both of our creditor groups that will allow us to continue the momentum of our turnaround efforts.”