Entercom CEO David Field Talks Up Radio During iHeart Bankruptcy

David Field

In a message to ENTERCOM staffers, CEO DAVID FIELDS talked up ENTERCOM -- and radio in general -- in the wake of iHEARTMEDIA going through bankruptcy and with CUMULUS not far behind.

"First, iHEART and CUMULUS went bankrupt because years ago, prior management teams made ill-advised decisions to place too much debt on their companies. Period, full stop," shared FIELDS. "The bankruptcies have nothing to do with radio. In fact, any company in any industry that takes on too much debt will suffer a similar fate. Unfortunately, some reporters and observers have created an erroneous and misleading narrative that the bankruptcies are a result of challenges within the radio industry. They could not be more wrong. The fact is that radio is a healthy business that generates large amounts of earnings and operating cash flow. If radio has an issue, it isn’t the size of our audiences, or the value of our product, or the health of our business model. No, our issue is that we are highly undervalued and receive far less than our fair share of total ad spending. With ENTERCOM’s newly enhanced scale, advocacy efforts, marketing capabilities, and customer outreach, we intend to change that. And, with iHEART and CUMULUS emerging from bankruptcy, the industry will be even healthier going forward and that’s good news for all of us." Read the entire memo here.

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