iHeart Media (iHeart Radio) files for bankruptcy

  • 15 March 2018
  • 8 replies
  • 428 views

What I've seen in the new so far, it probably won't have a significant impact here, but still, worth watching:

http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/15/media/iheartmedia-bankruptcy/index.html

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8 replies

Userlevel 7
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Glad to see this happening. I never liked Clear Channel Communications (the company's name prior to changing it to iHeartMedia). The consolidation and homogenization that they brought to the world of "terrestrial" radio stations only drove me to listen to music through other sources. The fact that they own over 850 stations throughout the US is horrible, IMHO. They made it worse getting into concert promotion and advertising/billboards... because they tied it all back to their radio stations as well. And it's all failing. And I'm glad.

I've never installed their app. I never will. I've only listened to a couple of their stations recently while doing Alexa testing, and believe me, it was for as little time as possible. Good luck on the bankruptcy proceedings!
Can’t say I’ve ever used them on Sonos, TuneIn has all the same stations, and I definitely don’t listen to their far-right fraudcasters on terrestrial radio.
Well, I'm actually the same. But I figured it might be impactful to some people here 🙂
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
We have IHeart and TuneIn both set to play our favorite stations, that way when one dies for whatever reason we can try switching to the other to continue listening. sometimes it is a station problem and we are out of luck but most of the time one or the other will be working.
Can’t say I’ve ever used them on Sonos, TuneIn has all the same stations, and I definitely don’t listen to their far-right fraudcasters on terrestrial radio.

Huh? iheart isn't just the streaming mechanism to get the radio station to you, it owns the radio stations. With iHeart going bankrupt, there is a chance your radio stations disappear as well as the streaming service. I actually would think the streaming service is more likely to survive over many of the stations.

Glad to see this happening. I never liked Clear Channel Communications (the company's name prior to changing it to iHeartMedia). The consolidation and homogenization that they brought to the world of "terrestrial" radio stations only drove me to listen to music through other sources. The fact that they own over 850 stations throughout the US is horrible, IMHO. They made it worse getting into concert promotion and advertising/billboards... because they tied it all back to their radio stations as well. And it's all failing. And I'm glad.


I get this, but I don't know if local radio stations can survive without this level of consolidation. Many of the costs needed to run a station were shared amongst the iheart stations in the same area with different formats. Things like office space, advertising sales, weather/news services, equipment, promotions, and so on. If a single station can't leverage this, I don't know that it can survive in the current market. Streaming services and such have really put a dent in radio listenership.

Maybe that's progress, I don't know. I'll only be disappointed if local sports coverage goes away. If that ends up being available through streaming then I won't have any issues. In fact, that could make it easier for live video of streaming of games to be more readily available...which I'd absolutely love.
Can’t say I’ve ever used them on Sonos, TuneIn has all the same stations, and I definitely don’t listen to their far-right fraudcasters on terrestrial radio.

Huh? iheart isn't just the streaming mechanism to get the radio station to you, it owns the radio stations.


Well duh! Are you trying to make some sort of point, or have you simply read something into my post that isn’t there?
I'm saying that if you listen to an iheart station, then you've 'used' iheart, whether you got the station from iheart streaming or tunein streaming. The bankruptcy definitely could effect you.

Unless 'same stations' meant you listen to a TuneIn station that has the exact same format of an iheart station.

Personally, iheart produces the radio broadcast for my local sports team. It doesn't matter if I listen to it on AM, XM radio, or stream. If they go, it's gone...until a new contract is signed with someone else or the rights are sold.
I'm saying that if you listen to an iheart station, then you've 'used' iheart, whether you got the station from iheart streaming or tunein streaming. The bankruptcy definitely could effect you.

Unless 'same stations' meant you listen to a TuneIn station that has the exact same format of an iheart station.


Yes, this is what I meant. And no, I don’t listen to any iHeartMedia-owned stations. Always campus, independent or NPR affiliates.