Company that owns four top radio stations in KC files for bankruptcy

A company that owns four top radio stations in Kansas City filed for bankruptcy Tuesday, according to a news release.

Steel City Media, which is based in Pittsburgh, owns the following stations: Country 94.1 (KFKF); KC 102.1 (KCKC); Mix 93.3 (KMXV); and Q 104 (KBEQ).

They are all among the top 11 most-listened to stations, according to the most recent ratings report from Nielsen Audio Ratings, and they're among Yelp's 10 highest-ranked stations.

Steel City Media filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri in St. Louis and will continue to operate while it seeks to reorganize.

"The Company remains very profitable and expects to be able to generate sufficient cash from operations to meet the expenses of running our business during the Chapter 11 proceedings," said Michael Frischling, vice president of Steel City Media. "Despite having paid down our senior lender by more than $20 million, or more than 35 percent, since 2014, softness in our markets has resulted in non-compliance with certain technical covenants. We believe that Chapter 11 is the appropriate venue to seek to resolve these issues."

The company has hired Gordon Broadcast Technologies, a financial advising company, and is exploring "stand-alone recapitalization and potential third-party investment scenarios."

The Kansas City Business Journal reported that the company listed $50 million to $100 million in both assets and liabilities. It purchased the Kansas City stations in 2014 from Wilks Broadcasting Group.

Steel City Media said it hopes to not adversely affect its trade partners, employees and customers, but "there can be no assurance of such outcome."

This story was originally published March 21, 2018 at 11:14 PM with the headline "Company that owns four top radio stations in KC files for bankruptcy."