SF's KRON-TV, Channel 4, once, a thriving NBC affiliate and home to station star sportscaster, Gary Radnich, is in, what one local broadcast exec calls, "dire straits", as news of YOUNG Broadcasting, which owns KRON, said it would skip a whopping $6.125 Million interest payment to keep from going under.
The payment, due Jan. 15 was on the company's 8.75% Senior subordinated notes due 2014. Young is holding off until it can restructure it nearly Billion, ($821 million) in debt.
Young is a casualty of the credit crisis that choked off lending following Lehman Brothers BK filing in September.
***A potential broadcasting quagmire for Radnich: the longtime sports anchor, who also does a morning radio show at Cumulus' KNBR; Radnich, who has openly joked about the lean times at KRON, has a huge, six-figure contract from YOUNG that runs out at the end of the year. The future of Radnich at KRON, given it's cumbersome financial picture, is now hot news in the Bay Area media market.
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Speaking of Radnich, a "prominent" sponsor called into his KNBR show today, (1-21) an was, we'll, a bit "discombobulated" and had to be "bye-byed" from the aiwaves. I don't know if it was exectly the "good sportstalk radio" Radnich loves, but it sure caught my ear.
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