Ahead of CBS Radio and Entercom Merger- iHeartMedia Gains 7 Stations in Boston and Seattle

iHeartMedia announced today a strategic station exchange with Entercom Communications (NYSE: ETM) across four U.S. markets.  Under the agreement, iHeartMedia will acquire seven radio stations from Entercom in Boston, MA and Seattle, WA and Entercom will acquire 10 stations from iHeartMedia in Richmond, VA and Chattanooga, TN.  The agreement is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018.

Under the agreement, WRKO-AM, WZLX-FM, WKAF-FM and WBZ-AM in Boston and KZOK-FM, KJAQ-FM and KFNQ-AM in Seattle will join iHeartMedia, which currently operates more than 850 radio stations in 150 markets that reach over a quarter of a billion monthly listeners to its broadcast stations alone; in addition to broadcast, the company reaches audiences across digital, mobile, social and live events. These seven stations will also be available on iHeartRadio, the all-in-one streaming music and live radio service with more than 1.4 billion downloads and 100 million registered users.

Entercom will acquire WRVA-AM, WRXL-FM, WTVR-FM, WBTJ-FM, WRNL-AM and WRVQ-FM in Richmond and WKXJ-FM, WLND-FM, WRXR-FM and WUSY-FM in Chattanooga.  The deal is part of Entercom’s broader divestiture and acquisition package to facilitate the company’s pending merger with CBS Radio.

“We’re excited to add these stations to iHeartMedia across broadcast, digital, mobile, social and our spectrum of iHeartRadio-branded live events,” said Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia.  “This exchange is an opportunity for us to expand our presence and further strengthen our position in two markets  – Seattle and Boston – even though we have to give up two smaller markets that have been an important part of this company.  This was a difficult decision for us, but we think we arrived at the best decision for our company, and we are pleased that we’ll continue to have a presence in the Richmond and Chattanooga markets through the iHeartRadio platform, Premiere Networks, the Total Traffic and Weather Network and the Virginia News Network.”

Pittman added, “These markets are two of the few where we did not have a full complement of stations; now we will have a full complement in Boston and a full complement of FM stations in Seattle.”