Townsquare Media - History

History

Regent Communications (former Pink Sheets ticker symbol RGCI) was founded in 1996 by Terry Jacobs and Bill Stakelin. Jacobs later since retired from the company and Stakelin became its CEO.

On October 27, 2008 Regent Broadcasting joined Radiolicious and began streaming on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Regent is the first major radio group to contract for all of its streaming stations to be available through the Radiolicious application.

Regent filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 1, 2010, with $211.3 million in debt, $166.5 million in assets, and a pre-arranged plan for exiting bankruptcy, with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. The filing plan made Oaktree Capital Management the majority owner of Regent after the bankruptcy and gave the old shareholders 12.8 cents per share. After the company privatization, the company was given its new name, Townsquare Media.

Oaktree Capital Management owned the radio group Gap Broadcasting. On August 13, 2010, Townsquare, which had about 62 radio stations in 13 radio markets in 2008, acquired Gap and its 111 stations in 23 markets. The combination gave Townsquare ownership of 171 radio stations in 36 markets.

On December 13, 2010, Townsquare launched a new country music news website called Taste of Country.

Townsquare acquired Double O Radio in August 2011.

On April 30, 2012 Townsquare Media announced a deal to acquire 55 stations in 11 markets from Cumulus Media, in exchange for Townsquare's stations in the markets of Bloomington and Peoria, IL and $126 million in cash.

On August 24, 2012, Townsquare reached a deal to acquire the MOG Music Network, an advertising network for music blogs, from MOG, a streaming music service that had reached a deal to be acquired by headphone maker Beats Electronics.