Third largest U.S. radio broadcaster files for bankruptcy

NEW YORK, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- The third largest U.S. radio broadcaster, Citadel Broadcasting Corp., filed for bankruptcy protection here on Sunday, according to a company statement.

A press release on Citadel's official website said the company and certain subsidiaries filed voluntary petitions under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York.

Citadel has reached an accord with 60 percent of its senior secured lenders that its 2.1 billion U.S. dollars of secured credit facility would convert into a new term loan of 762.5 million dollars. This would wipe out approximately 1.4 billion dollars of debt, according to the statement.

Citadel's Chief Executive Officer Farid Suleman said their business "will continue as usual, and the company will work to emerge from the restructuring process as quickly as possible."

Citadel network owns 165 FM stations and 58 AM stations in the United States. It also bought ABC Radio Networks from the Walt Disney Co. in 2006. Citadel, along with the rest of the radio industry, has been suffering from a sharp decline in advertising revenues.

Citadel shares were moved to the OTC market in March this year. In the third quarter, the company reported a 14-percent drop in its revenue to 183 million dollars, and a quarterly loss of 8 cents per share compared with a profit of 10 cents per share one year ago.