The radio broadcast industry has continued its struggles since iHeartRadio, the nation’s largest radio station chain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2018, handing control of the network to its lenders in exchange for $10 billion in debt.
Competition against other media, such as television stations and online streaming, has pushed traditional AM and FM radio stations into financial distress.
After iHeart, Audacy, the second-largest radio station owner in the country, on Jan. 5, 2024, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, seeking to reduce its debt from $1.9 billion to $350 million and hand ownership of the company to its bondholders.
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“The perfect storm of sustained macroeconomic challenges over the past four years facing the traditional advertising market has led to a sharp reduction of several billion dollars in cumulative radio ad spending,” the company’s CEO David Field, said at the time.
Related: Popular radio network files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Audacy was known as Entercom Communications in 1968 when it was founded by Joseph Field, the father of David Field. The company bought CBS Radio and its 117 stations in 2017, before changing its name to Audacy in 2021. Â
After the top two radio station chains filed for bankruptcy, several smaller radio station owners followed their lead and filed for bankruptcy protection.
High Plains Radio Network, which operated 18 radio stations in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Arkansas, filed for bankruptcy in March 2024.
Then, online music streaming service AccuRadio filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 14, 2025, after reaching an impasse in negotiations with SoundExchange in seeking a lawsuit settlement over royalties owed for its services, according to a company statement.
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Local First Media files for bankruptcy protection
And now, distressed radio station operator Local First Media Group Inc. and six affiliates, which were placed into receivership in Canada on Feb. 21, 2025, filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection, seeking recognition as a foreign main proceeding to protect their assets in the U.S.
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The receiver for the Canada-based radio station companies filed its Chapter 15 petition on May 13 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Texas, seeking court protections to prevent the debtors’ stakeholders from commencing or continuing actions in U.S. courts that would interfere with the receiver’s Canadian case.
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The Chapter 15 filing invokes an automatic stay on any court proceedings against the debtors while the case proceeds in Canada.
The six other debtors in the case are Local First Properties Inc., BTC USA Holdings Management Inc., Local First Properties USA Inc., Alaska Broadcast Communications Inc., Broadcast 2 Podcast Inc., and Frontier Media LLC.
The debtor’s receiver, FTI Consulting Canada, was appointed by receivership order by the Court of King’s Bench of Alberta in Calgary with similar rights as a trustee in a U.S. Chapter 7 liquidation case. The receiver plans to sell the debtors’ assets through a Canadian court proceeding to settle debts owed to creditors.
Debtors defaulted on a secured loan
The debtors owe about $8.2 million on a secured loan to creditor ATB Financial, which is based in Alberta, on which the debtors defaulted in November 2023, according to court papers. The debtors subsequently defaulted on a forbearance agreement in August 2024 and another in January 2025.
The debtors operate three studios with cell towers and an additional cell tower site in Alaska, a studio with cell tower and two additional cell tower sites in Texas, and a cell tower site in Arkansas.
The owners of the debtors include Alberta-based Woodruff Media Inc. and Creator Capital Corp., which are not debtors in the Canadian proceeding or the Chapter 15 cases. Together, they own 90% of Local First Media, according to court papers.
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