On the heels of Cumulus filing for bankruptcy this week, a bigger player in the storm-tossed radio sector, iHeartMedia, also could be headed to Chapter 11. Struggling all year to refinance more than $15B in debt, iHeart, which is led by original MTV (and then AOL) exec Bob Pittman, its proposal to restructure that…

Another awards show is joining the primetime fray. Fox has teamed with Cumulus and dick clark prods. for American Country Countdown Awards, based on the long-running country radio countdown show. The two-hour live concert event will be broadcast from Nashville on December 15. It will feature awards, including a new…

Radio or Rdio? For Cumulus, it’s both: In a deal announced this morning the station owner will wind up with “a significant equity stake” in Pulser Media, which owns Rdio — a subscription music service that competes with companies including Spotify. In return, the companies say, Cumulus will provide “exclusive content…

The agreement will expand the reach of radio’s No. 2 talk show host on Clear Channel stations next year. Details will be announced later, and they’ll probably indicate where Sean Hannity‘s shows will be heard in markets where he had been syndicated to stations controlled by Cumulus following reports over the summer tha…

Rush Limbaugh made sure today to goose those media reports that suggested his longtime radio partnership with Cumulus Media was over when he announced on his radio show that he had re-upped with the company in a new three-year deal. Reports first surfaced in July that the broadcaster was planning to not renew deals wit…

UPDATE, 10:40 AM: "Suffice it to say, nothing is going to happen that you will notice," Rush Limbaugh said today in response to a Politico story that says Cumulus plans to drop his syndicated show, as well as one from Sean Hannity. Limbaugh assured listeners that “you will be able to get this radio program on as many…

CBS Corp said today that it is forming CBS Sports Radio, a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week lineup of national programming from CBS Radio and CBS Sports that will debut January 2, 2013. CBS Sports-branded hourly updates will kick off on affiliate stations beginning September 4. Cumulus Media will be the network's exclusive…

The Dow Jones U.S. Media Index was down 3.5% today while the DJ Industrial Average was off 2.4% — and Goldman Sachs may have contributed to the imbalance: It downgraded the entertainment sector today to “neutral” from “attractive” saying that ad sales will be weaker than expected as the overall economy softens. That…

Media stocks suffered along with just about everyone else today after the Federal Reserve stirred recession fears by reporting “significant downside risks to the economic outlook” — and World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned that global economies are in a "danger zone." The Dow Jones U.S. Media Index fell 3.9%…

UPDATE, THURSDAY AM: Citadel stockholders approved the merger with Cumulus this morning, the last hurdle in the process. The deal is set to close Friday. ATLANTA & LAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Cumulus Media Inc. ("Cumulus Media") (NASDAQ: CMLS) and Citadel Broadcasting Corporation ("Citadel") (OTCQB: CDELA) (OTCQB…