Townsquare Media Announces Plans to Acquire Cherry Creek Broadcasting in $18.75 Million Deal

Townsquare Media (NYSE: TSQ) has officially revealed plans to purchase Cherry Creek Broadcasting, the owner and operator of 43 radio stations in the western United States, for $18.75 million.

Townsquare Media, which chiefly operates “outside the top 50 markets in the U.S.” and currently has 330 terrestrial radio stations in its own portfolio, according to its website, announced the Cherry Creek Broadcasting buyout today.

As mentioned, the deal is expected to set 12-year-old Townsquare back a cool $18.75 million – to “be funded with cash on hand” – and higher-ups relayed that they will divest six Missoula, Montana, stations “due to FCC ownership limitations.”

Anderson Broadcasting as well as non-profits Legacy Broadcasting and Missoula Community Radio are poised to acquire these six stations, Purchase, New York-headquartered Townsquare communicated. Additionally, Townsquare intends to place two Tri-Cities, Washington stations “in a divestiture trust.”

Once the transactions wrap – that is, the Cherry Creek Broadcasting deal and the highlighted divestitures – Townsquare will add 35 local stations (in nine markets) to its portfolio, execs said, for a total of 356 stations in 74 markets. Officials anticipate that the involved agreements will close sometime during 2022’s third quarter, “pending regulatory approval.”

(The nine markets in which Townsquare is preparing to bolster its presence with the Cherry Creek investment are Butte, Montana; Great Falls, MT; the above-noted Missoula, MT; Montrose, Colorado; Sierra Vista, Arizona; St. George-Cedar City, Utah; the previously covered Tri-Cities, Washington; Wenatchee, WA; and Williston, North Dakota.)

Addressing the announcement in a statement, Townsquare CEO Bill Wilson emphasized his company’s plans to accelerate “the digital growth in these markets as we implement our flywheel of powerful and effective marketing and advertising (digital and radio) solutions.”

“The acquisition includes many local heritage brands with strong competitive positions, meaningful audience share, and very talented local teams,” the former AOL exec Wilson said in part. “We look forward to accelerating the digital growth in these markets as we implement our flywheel of powerful and effective marketing and advertising (digital and radio) solutions and technology platforms, in combination with our highly relevant, localized content on-air and online.”

During today’s trading hours, Townsquare Media stock (NYSE: TSQ, once again) dipped slightly from Wednesday’s close, to a per-share price of $12.75. The figure reflects a nearly six percent falloff since 2022’s start but a more than 23 percent boost from late March of 2021.

Townsquare reported net revenue of $110.6 million for 2021’s final quarter (up 1.9 percent from Q4 2020), and net revenue for all of 2021 jumped 12.6 percent YoY and finished at an even $418 million. Meanwhile, Townsquare’s net income on the year totaled $18.8 million.