Update 1/6 at 10:00am - Regent CEO Bill Stakelin tells Tom Taylor on Radio-Info that "we could've made the payment, that wasn't the issue." Rather, the company "decided to conserve cash" as a strategic decision.
CINCINNATI, OH - Regent Communications, the owner of four Utica-Rome radio stations, released a public filing today stating it "did not make a scheduled payment of interest and principal" to its lenders on December 31. Additionally, Regent says it skipped a $1.2 million payment related to "certain interest rate swap agreements" related to its credit agreement. Learn how to payback loan.
The details are spelled out in a Form 8-K filed today with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In the report, Regent says "the outstanding balance under the Credit Agreement" with Bank of America stood at more than $190 million, as of December 31.
According to Radio-Info, the filing was released just before the markets opened today, causing Regent stock (RGCI - Yahoo Finance) to fall slightly, then gain a few cents. As of noon, the stock is at 28¢ a share, down a penny from today's open.
Regent Communications owns and operates four stations in the Utica-Rome market: country Big Frog 104 (WFRG), AC Lite 98.7 (WLZW), Oldiez 96 (WODZ) and Newsradio 950 WIBX. CNYRadio.com Editor Peter Naughton has previously disclosed he has been working as a part-time weekend personality for WLZW since November 2009.