Las Vegas-based Citadel Broadcasting granted first-day motions
Las Vegas-based Citadel Broadcasting Corp., which owners major radio stations throughout the U.S., said Monday that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York has granted all of its first-day motions — including allowing the company access to more than $36 million in cash it has on hand and cash it brings in from daily operations to pay workers and vendors.
Citadel, the nation’s third-largest radio broadcasting company, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sunday in a move meant to restructure its heavy debt load. In documents, the company listed its total assets as of Oct. 30 at $1.4 billion and total debt at $2.46 billion.
The company, which has headquarters at 7201 W. Lake Mead Blvd., Suite 400, has an agreement with more than 60 percent of its senior secured lenders as part of a prenegotiated financial restructuring that will eliminate $1.4 billion of its debt. According to hoovers.com, the company employed 4,430 people in 2008, the most recent year with available data.
Citadel’s Las Vegas office referred a question on how many people work for the company locally and how the bankruptcy would affect those people to media relations agents in New York. Those agents were unavailable late Monday.
Citadel said Monday that having access to the money will let it keep satisfying financial obligations as it restructures its business. The company received court approval to pay wages, salaries, health benefits and other obligations it has to employees as it restructures.
Citadel owns and operates 224 radio stations, including KABC-AM (790) in Los Angeles, WLS-AM (890) in Chicago, WABC-AM (770) and WPLJ-FM (95.5) in New York and KGO-AM (810) in San Francisco.
Citadel Broadcasting operates four radio stations in Reno, KBUL-FM, KWYL-FM, KNEV-FM and KKOH-AM, but none in Las Vegas. The company’s stock, which trades on the over-the-counter Bulletin Board, closed Monday at 1.4 cents.
Review-Journal writer Matthew Crowley contributed to this report.
