IT ISN'T JUST NEWSPAPERS - AT 7:30 P.M. ET:  There's a myth that it's only the print press that's in trouble.  Not true.  From The New York Times:

The Citadel Broadcasting Corporation, one of the biggest radio companies in the United States, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday in New York after reaching a pact with its creditors over an accelerated Chapter 11 filing.

Radio companies like Citadel and Clear Channel Communications have struggled with mounting debt woes and declining advertising revenue.

The troubles of Citadel, which owns 223 stations across the country and syndicates Don Imus’s radio show, have been well documented over the last year. Its chief problem has been coping with debt acquired in a 2006 merger with the Walt Disney Company’s ABC Radio.

In its most recent regulatory filing, made last month, Citadel reported a 16 percent drop in operating income, to about $38 million. The company also warned then that it was likely to breach certain financial covenants early next year.

COMMENT:  Again, the issue is debt.  Another big deal gone wrong.  And we keep increasing our national debt, as if there are no consequences down the road.  There are.  Happy birthday, kids.

December 20, 2009