The ongoing U.S. recession stemming from the spread of the coronavirus has already led to a reduction in spending on radio advertising. We believe the decline in radio advertising revenue will cause Townsquare Media Inc.'s leverage to increase above our 6.5x downgrade threshold in 2020, although we believe there is a path for leverage to return below this level in 2021. Therefore, we are affirming our 'B' issuer credit rating on the company and revising our outlook on Townsquare to negative from stable. The negative outlook reflects uncertainty around the extent of the pandemic's impact on Townsquare's performance and the potential that steeper-than-expected declines or a delayed recovery in radio advertising could cause leverage to remain elevated above our 6.5x
