Audacy has begun a new wave of layoffs tied to a regional operating overhaul and the long tail of its post‑bankruptcy restructuring, with cuts hitting programming, sales and management across multiple U.S. markets.
Overview
Audacy, one of the largest radio broadcasters in the United States, has initiated another round of staff reductions as it reshapes its market structure and continues to execute on its post‑Chapter 11 restructuring plan. Radio Facts understands that the cuts span multiple markets and coincide with a shift away from traditional local market management toward a regional oversight model that consolidates decision‑making and sales structures.
Who is being affected
The company has not published a total headcount for this latest round, but evidence from internal communications and market‑level reporting shows impacts across on‑air, programming, traffic, sales and market‑level leadership roles. In Houston, the Frito and Katy Morning Show hosted by Tucker “Frito” Young and Katy Dempsey has left 100.3 The Bull, ending a run of less than 18 months at the station following their move from Y100 in San Antonio. Additional exits have been reported in markets including Cleveland, Baltimore, Seattle and Atlanta, affecting both talent and support positions.
This follows major workforce reductions in 2025, when Audacy eliminated an estimated 200–300 positions across local and national operations as part of its first wave of post‑bankruptcy cost cuts. Those earlier reductions removed high‑profile on‑air talent, newsroom staff, producers and corporate employees and were accompanied by the closure of Pineapple Street Studios, the company’s podcast production unit, with around 30 additional jobs lost there.
New regional leadership structure
The current layoffs are closely linked to the rollout of a new regional leadership structure that effectively replaces the legacy Market Manager model. Under the plan, markets are being grouped into larger regions overseen by Regional Presidents, Regional Vice Presidents and senior sales leaders, rather than standalone local general managers. The intent is to centralize strategy, streamline sales operations and reduce overlapping management layers while still maintaining local brand presence and relationships at the station level.
Regional leadership already includes figures such as Jeff Federman in the West, Mark Hannon in the East, Claudia Menegus in the Southeast and Debbie Kenyon in the Central Region, whose remit covers markets including Detroit, Cleveland, Minneapolis, Chicago, Madison and Milwaukee. As the new structure beds in, some existing local leaders are transitioning into regional or senior sales roles while others are exiting the company, including St. Louis market head Becky Domyan; in Baltimore, market lead Tracy Brandys is shifting into a broader senior sales position.
Leadership turnover at the top
The restructuring and layoffs sit within a period of significant leadership change at Audacy. Longtime chief executive David Field stepped down after roughly 27 years at the helm of Entercom and then Audacy, handing the CEO role to board member and media executive Kelli Turner following the company’s emergence from Chapter 11. During the restructuring process, CFO Rich Schmaeling also departed, with new finance leadership brought in as part of the post‑bankruptcy governance reset demanded by creditors.
On the programming side, Senior Vice President of Programming and Music Initiatives Michael Martin is departing, with his final day set for early May, ending a tenure that saw him oversee major San Francisco music brands including Alice at 97.3, 99.7 Now and Live 105. In Philadelphia, longtime market manager and senior vice president David Yadgaroff plans to retire later in the year after more than three decades with the company, further underscoring the generational turnover in Audacy’s leadership ranks.
Bankruptcy and capital structure backdrop
These operational changes are the downstream effects of a dramatic balance‑sheet restructuring. In January 2024, Audacy filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after securing a restructuring support agreement with a supermajority of its debtholders that targeted the conversion of roughly €1.6 billion‑equivalent of funded debt into equity. That plan ultimately cut the company’s funded debt by around 80%, from about €1.9 billion‑equivalent to approximately €350 million, transferred control to its lenders and effectively wiped out most of the existing equity.
Audacy emerged from bankruptcy in late September 2024 following regulatory approvals and completion of the steps laid out in its pre‑packaged plan. By that point, filings showed the company had already reduced headcount by a little over 3% between January and May 2024, and leadership signaled that additional efficiency measures, including further workforce reductions, would be required to support the restructured capital structure and growth targets.
Shift toward “core” and digital audio
Post‑emergence, Audacy has tried to redefine its focus around what it describes as its core audio franchises while aggressively managing costs. That has included closing Pineapple Street Studios, trimming corporate overhead and reorganizing podcast distribution. In early 2026, the company removed a significant number of low‑engagement third‑party podcasts from the Audacy app in order to prioritize its own IP and higher‑performing partner shows, aiming to align catalog size with listener behavior and monetization opportunities.
At the same time, Audacy continues to market its 200‑plus local radio brands, digital streams and podcast network as a combined multi‑platform reach proposition for advertisers. Company communications around the restructuring have stressed digital revenue growth and selective share gains in key markets, while acknowledging ongoing pressure from volatile advertising demand and competition from digital‑first audio platforms.
Industry context and what it means
Audacy’s restructuring mirrors broader consolidation and cost‑cutting trends across U.S. commercial radio, where groups have centralized programming and sales, reduced local headcount and pushed more decisions up to regional or national teams in response to structural revenue challenges. The latest layoffs land as other legacy radio operations are also being wound down or reconfigured, including the planned closure of CBS News Radio’s long‑running national news service later this year.
For staff inside Audacy, the current changes cap a multi‑year period marked by repeated layoffs, a high‑profile bankruptcy, the shuttering of a marquee podcast studio and the exit of multiple longtime leaders. For the wider industry, the company’s shift to a leaner, regionalized model is another signal that legacy broadcast groups are still recalibrating around a smaller, more digitally oriented future.