
IHeartMedia, the adorable name assigned to the hungry beast once known as Clear Channel, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The company has come to terms with the majority of its creditors, however, so the Biblical destruction it so richly deserves in punishment for destroying radio in America has been staved off for the immediate future.
IHeartMedia was once known as Clear Channel, and under that name gobbled up huge vectors of the American radio spectrum and spit out sterile programming which ruined radio as a viable or even interesting medium for an entire generation. Taken private in a leverage buyout, the company has suffered because apparently young people don’t want to listen to what old people find most profitable.
The leveraged buyout in 2008 by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital left the company, which owns more than 800 radio stations nationwide, smothered in debt. Bain and Lee have agreed to a restructuring with the dying company, though one senior hold out owed more than $190 million in debt have thus far refused to go along with the plan, which is also still subject to court approval.
The $20 billion bankruptcy makes IHeartMedia’s case the largest bankruptcy of the year, and the 30th largest bankruptcy ever, according to Bloomberg.