Cumulus Completes Nashville, Huntsville Deals

With its latest deals in place, Cumulus Media will own and operate 270 radio stations in 55 mid-size U.S. markets. It is the second-largest U.S. radio group.
Cumulus has just completed its acquisitions of two stations in Nashville, Tenn., from Gaylord Entertainment Company and four stations in Huntsville, Ala. from Athens Broadcasting Company, Inc.
Chairman/CEO, Lew Dickey said, “The Nashville acquisition completes our cluster and positions us to become the market leader in our largest market. The Huntsville acquisition, which we paid for entirely with stock, should prove to be accretive to our stockholders, have a de-leveraging effect on our balance sheet and strengthen our competitive position in the Southeast.”
The Nashville stations are WSM(FM) and WWTN(FM); they cost $65 million in cash. Cumulus also continues to manage sales for Gaylord’s WSM(AM), under a JSA.
The Huntsville stations are WZYP(FM), WUSX(FM), WVNN(AM) and WUMP(AM). They cost 1.2 million shares of stock.