• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, June 25, 2014

Another big broadcast radio group is about to hit Wall Street. This week, Townsquare Media Group, which owns 312 radio stations in 66 small and mid-sized markets across the U.S., announced plans to go public as early as next month.
 
According to the Form S-1 documents filed with the SEC ahead of the IPO, it will raise around $144 million, although the volume and offering price of the shares has yet to be decided.

Townsquare’s current owner, Oaktree Capital, will continue to hold a majority of the company’s shares. The banks managing the IPO include BofA Merrill Lynch, Jefferies, RBC Capital Markets, Guggenheim Securities, and Macquarie Capital.
 
Measured by the number of stations it owns, Townsquare is the third-largest broadcast radio group in the country, after Clear Channel Media and Entertainment and Cumulus Media, and it has around 2,500 employees.
 
According to the SEC filing, Townsquare’s total revenues increased 2.2% from $338 million in 2012 to $345 million in 2013, when revenues from stations acquired from Cumulus Media are included in the results. Interestingly, around a quarter of its net revenues come from sources other than radio advertising, including ticket sales, sponsorships and concessions at some of its 500 live events, and digital marketing services.
 
Townsquare was previously known as Regent Communication, which filed for bankruptcy in 2010, at which point Oaktree and GE Capital took control of the company and renamed it. After the IPO, it will be renamed again, to Townsquare Media Inc. It currently carries approximately $645 million in debt.
 
In September of last year, Townsquare acquired 55 stations in 11 smaller markets from Cumulus Media in return for 10 stations, also located in smaller markets, plus $116 million in cash.

As part of the deal, Townsquare picked up stations in Augusta-Waterville, Presque Isle and Bangor, Maine; Binghamton, New York; Bismarck, North Dakota; Grand Junction, Colorado; Killeen-Temple and Odessa-Midland, Texas; New Bedford, Massachusetts; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In return, it gave Cumulus stations in Bloomington and Peoria, Illinois .