Radio broadcaster Audacy’s bankruptcy restructuring won't signal a huge shift for radio but could discourage outside investment in the medium, industry analysts and media brokers said in interviews this week. Audacy’s bankruptcy is expected to proceed much like those of Cumulus and iHeartMedia, they added. “The industry has been through this before,” Tideline Partners media broker Gregory Guy said. Audacy has 230 radio stations in 46 markets and is the country’s second-largest radio group.
Provisions in the 2018 quadrennial review order could inject uncertainty into negotiations between broadcasters and networks, several broadcast attorneys told us. The order’s extension of the top-four prohibition allows networks to switch an affiliation from one station to another even if that would create a same-market duopoly but only as long as there isn’t “any undue direct or indirect influence from a broadcast entity.” Attorneys told us it isn’t clear what constitutes undue influence. The QR "creates more confusion," said Rob Folliard, Gray Television senior vice president-government relations and distribution. “You can’t have a transaction where there’s confusion.”
Broadcast attorneys expect likely legal challenges against the FCC’s 2018 quadrennial review order will focus on two questions: Does the Communications Act allow the FCC to tighten regulations during the QR process? And do restrictions on shifting top-four network programming to low-power stations and multicast streams violate the Constitution?