Radio used to have a monopoly on entertaining and informing people.
Going back to before the advent of television, radio was literally the only way to get live news and entertainment. Even after television became the dominant medium, radio had a place in people’s cars and when they were on the go, where having only audio was an advantage.
Music streaming services and podcasts have eaten into that advantage.
Since the 1960s, every car had a radio, and that gave the industry a captive audience. That has changed.
“Podcasts have officially surpassed AM/FM radio as the most popular medium for spoken audio in the United States,” according to Edison Research’s Share of Ear survey.
Radio has rapidly lost ground, and not only in spoken content.
“Between April and June 2024, listeners spent 67% of their daily ad-supported audio time on radio, 19% on podcasts, 11% on streaming audio services, and 3% on satellite radio,” Nielsen shared in its The Record: Q2 US report on audio listening trends.
Radio still has a sizable audience, but it is much smaller than it was before, which has led to a series of Chapter 11 filings, including an April 8 filing by the Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS), Inside Radio first reported.
SBS is a multimedia company serving more than 60 million people who make up the $4 trillion U.S. Hispanic market, the fifth-largest economy in the world, according to the company’s website. Top radio brands and high-appeal personalities in the largest US metropolitan areas include Los Angeles, Miami, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco/San Jose, Orlando, Tampa and Puerto Rico, including The Mega in New York City.
The company operates AIRE Radio Networks, Mega TV Network, the LaMusica digital ecosystem, including the LaMusica and HitzMaker mobile applications and the CTV LaMusica TV platform, as well as its live events and promotional arm, SBS Entertainment.
In March, the company signed a forbearance agreement with its largest debtholders as part of an ongoing discussion over its debt.
“SBS revealed, as early as its Q2 2025 earnings, that it lacked sufficient cash to repay the $310 million in notes and had no firm commitment to refinancing, triggering a going concern warning,” Radio Ink reported.
The forbearance period and discussions have led the company into a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
“Spanish Broadcasting System is moving forward with a pre-packaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing under a Restructuring Support Agreement with a group of major lenders, a move the company says will strengthen its balance sheet and position it for long-term growth,” according to Radio Ink.
SBS shared some details of the presentation in a press release.
The deal is backed by funds and accounts managed by Brigade Capital Management, subsidiaries of Man Group and Bayside Capital, which together hold more than 72% of the outstanding principal of SBS’s 9.750% Senior Secured Notes due 2026.
Under the terms of the agreement, those bondholders will receive 100% of the equity capital of the reorganized company, subject to a new management incentive plan and the issuance of new secured bonds.
“SBS said the restructuring will ‘significantly’ reduce debt, lower interest expenses and extend the maturity of its obligations by more than four years, while improving liquidity. The company expects the simplified capital structure to free up resources for reinvestment across its core business,” Inside Radio reported.
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The decline of radio has been slow and steady. The falling market share of spoken content illustrates this.
“In 2015, AM/FM radio accounted for 75% of the time Americans spent with spoken word audio sources. Not only was AM/FM radio the most dominant spoken word audio listening platform, it was sixty-five percentage points higher than podcasts, which accounted for 10% of listening time back then,” according to the Edison Research report.
Those numbers continue to fall, which has contributed to many industries filing for bankruptcy.
“Quarter over quarter and year over year, time spent using AM/FM radio to listen to spoken audio has decreased significantly and shifted to time spent on podcasts,” the data showed.
Radio has lost market share to podcasts and streaming music.Shutterstock
Advertising drives the radio business and it has been shrinking, according to a report from S&P Global.
“The US radio industry is undergoing a bifurcation, with traditional spot advertising revenues stagnating or declining, while digital avenues such as podcasting, streaming and connected device integration are driving growth… However, the national and local spot advertising markets are expected to decline over the forecast period,” the data showed.
Cumulus Media, Chapter 11 (March 5, 2026): Cumulus Media, one of the largest U.S. radio broadcasters with about 395 stations and the Westwood One network, filed for Chapter 11 in the Southern District of Texas under a pre-packaged restructuring support agreement, with lenders to eliminate about $592 million of debt and continue operations, according to court filings in Pacer Monitor.
Audacy, Inc., Chapter 11 (January 7, 2024): Audacy, the largest U.S. radio operator that owns more than 220 stations, filed pre-packaged Chapter 11 in early 2024 to reduce nearly $1.9 billion of debt by approximately 80%, allowing creditors (including major investors) to take ownership stakes. The plan was confirmed by the bankruptcy court as part of its reorganization, according to PacerMonitor documents.
Previous Chapter 11 filings include:
iHeartMedia. Chapter 11 (completed 2019): Unlike the others mentioned above, IHeartMedia underwent a major 15-month Chapter 11 from 2018 to 2019, reducing debt and emerging from bankruptcy, a significant restructuring of the radio industry, according to court documents filed against Kroll.
AMFM Broadcasting, Inc., Chapter 11 (2018): Filed Chapter 11 in March 2018 as a radio/television broadcast entity; case closed in 2019, The Wall Street Journal reported.
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This story was originally published by TheStreet on April 9, 2026, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a preferred source by clicking here.
