{"id":188678,"date":"2026-05-10T15:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T15:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/188678\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T15:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T15:08:18","slug":"audacy-and-lower-merion-township-finalize-2-million-settlement-over-unpaid-taxes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/188678\/","title":{"rendered":"Audacy and Lower Merion Township finalize $2 million settlement over unpaid taxes"},"content":{"rendered":"

As it continues to work through bankruptcy proceedings<\/a>, broadcaster Audacy will pay Lower Merion Township $2 million in a settlement resolving a claim made over unpaid taxes during the time the company was based in Bala Cynwyd.<\/p>\n

That figure is $600,000 more than a previously reported $1.4 million settlement<\/a> in the matter, which court documents indicated Audacy and Lower Merion Township agreed to last month<\/a>. That settlement, however, had been \u201cerroneously\u201d recorded in the case\u2019s docket, and hadn\u2019t been approved by the Lower Merion Township Board of Commissioners amid ongoing negotiations, Township Manager Ernie B. McNeely said.<\/p>\n

Township commissioners, however, approved the $2 million settlement in a committee meeting last week. Notice of the settlement was recorded Monday, and it has since been finalized, McNeely said.<\/p>\n

Audacy declined to comment.<\/p>\n

The settlement comes amid Audacy\u2019s ongoing bankruptcy case, which was filed in January<\/a>. Lower Merion was named as an unsecured creditor in the proceedings, contending in filings that Audacy owed it almost $12 million in unpaid taxes<\/a> from a several-year period when it did business in the township. The company, formerly known as Entercom, left its Bala Cynwyd offices for Philadelphia in 2019.<\/p>\n

In its filings, Lower Merion alleged<\/a> that two branches of the larger Entercom Communications parent company owed it $4 million in local taxes and $7.7 million in business taxes, including interest, dating back to 2012. Audacy, however, argued <\/a>that its subsidiaries \u201cdid not have a physical presence or employees in the Township,\u201d and its bank accounts were not housed there.<\/p>\n

Now, as part of the settlement, both Audacy and Lower Merion agreed to \u201cdismiss all actions\u201d relating to the tax assessments. According to the settlement, the agreement was made \u201cwithout any admission or concession of liability by either party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Audacy is grappling with almost $2 billion in debt amid a substantial advertising slump. A reorganization plan for the company was approved in February, and an investment fund owned by progressive philanthropist George Soros<\/a> is set to become its largest shareholder, should the deal be approved by the Federal Communications Commission.<\/p>\n

At last week\u2019s township meeting<\/a>, Legal Affairs Committee chair Daniel S. Bernheim said that during talks with Audacy, the company presented \u201ccertain arguments,\u201d and \u201csome had merit, some did not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI am sure that we might be getting a little bit less than we prefer, and they\u2019re paying a little bit more than they would prefer,\u201d Bernheim said. \u201cSome might say that\u2019s the formula for a perfect settlement.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As it continues to work through bankruptcy proceedings, broadcaster Audacy will pay Lower Merion Township $2 million in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[84106,183,185,184,186],"class_list":["post-188678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lower-merion","tag-audacy-lower-merion-tax-settlement","tag-lower-merion","tag-lower-merion-headlines","tag-lower-merion-news","tag-lower-merion-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}