Feb. 24 (Bloomberg) — A winter storm threatened to dump more than a foot (30 centimeters) of snow across parts of upstate New York and New England, while forecasters warned of an even more powerful system hitting the northeast tomorrow.

“You may hear it called a ‘snow hurricane’ because blizzard may not even do it justice,” said Alex Sosnowski, an expert senior meteorologist with AccuWeather Inc. in State College, Pennsylvania. “It is like we’re getting a decade’s worth of storms all in one season.”

Warnings for the current storm stretch from Maine through New Hampshire, Vermont and New York state as well as Massachusetts and Connecticut, according to the National Weather Service. Rain was falling today in New York, while inland, it was snowing in Albany, where up to 13 inches of snow were forecast through the night and today, the agency said.

The next storm will develop off the U.S. East Coast out of a system coming up from the Gulf of Mexico, Sosnowski said. They’ll add to what’s already been a benchmark winter in the eastern U.S., where seasonal snowfall records have already been set for Washington and Baltimore.

AccuWeather’s Web site describes the coming storm as “nothing short of a monster” and predicts high winds and heavy rain across Long Island, Connecticut and New York.

“Midday models show a region from Cape Cod to northern Maine receiving hurricane-force winds at the storm’s peak, Thursday afternoon and overnight,” private forecaster MDA Federal Inc. said in a statement. The lowest hurricane-force wind is 74 miles per hour (119 kilometers per hour).

NYC Snow

The storm is forecast to enter New York’s metropolitan area early in the morning on Feb. 25, said Joe Pollina, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Upton, New York. The weather service Web site said up to five inches of snow may fall there tomorrow, with winds gusting as high as 36 miles an hour.

In coastal areas, the storm is likely to draw in warm air that will mean rain, while areas from upstate New York to Ottawa may receive 12 inches or more of snow, Sosnowski said.

“This thing is a little different animal,” Sosnowski said by telephone. “Instead of passing on by, it looks like it is going to hook back.”
[BusinessWeek]

The Citadel Broadcasting Corporation, one of the nation’s largest radio broadcasters, filed for bankruptcy in New York on Sunday after agreeing to turn over control of the company to its creditors in exchange for reducing its debt.

The filing by the company, which owns 224 stations across the country and syndicates Don Imus’s radio show, was not unexpected but does reflect the troubles plaguing the radio industry amid steep declines in advertising revenue and big debt loads.

For now, some media companies facing debt problems have been able to buy themselves some time by refinancing as the capital markets recover. Clear Channel Communications, Citadel’s biggest rival, sold $2.5 billion in bonds last week through its Clear Channel Outdoor affiliate, which will go toward paying down some of its debt. But many others are still trying to find ways to address their shrinking revenues.

Citadel chose to address its debt burden by filing for what is known as a prearranged bankruptcy, in which a company secures the consent of a wide swath of its creditors. The broadcaster said Sunday that its Chapter 11 filing was supported by more than 60 percent of its lenders.

“We are pleased with the support from the majority of our senior lenders, and we look forward to working with the remaining senior lenders and other stakeholders to ensure a complete and expeditious restructuring,” Farid Suleman, Citadel’s chief executive, said in a statement. “Our business will continue as usual and the company will work to emerge from the restructuring process as quickly as possible.”

Under the terms of Citadel’s agreement with its creditors, the company will reduce its $2.1 billion of loans to $762.5 million in exchange for its secured lenders owning 90 percent of the reorganized broadcaster’s equity. Its bondholders will receive the bulk of the remaining equity.

In its bankruptcy petition, Citadel listed $1.4 billion in assets and $2.5 billion in debts. Its largest unsecured creditors include JPMorgan Chase, which holds an unknown amount of debt; the Wilmington Trust Company, which oversees $49.1 million worth of bonds; and the Walt Disney Company, which holds $11.2 million worth of claims.

The company’s largest stakeholder is the investment firm Forstmann Little, which owns a 28.7 percent stake.

Citadel, which is based in Las Vegas, also distributes news and talk radio programming to stations, including “The Mark Levin Show” and “The Huckabee Report.”

The troubles of Citadel have been well documented. Citadel took on billions of dollars in debt in 2006 to finance its purchase of Disney’s ABC Radio stations. But in the years that followed the deal, its revenues have plummeted as advertising dried up.

In a regulatory filing last month, Citadel reported a 14 percent drop in revenue to $183.8 million, and a 16 percent drop in operating income to about $38 million. The company also warned then that it would most likely breach certain financial covenants early next year.

Citadel hired the investment bank Lazard and the law firm Kirkland & Ellis earlier this year to negotiate with the company’s creditors, but the talks were contentious at times.

[nytimes]

Disney biographer remembers Roy E. Disney

LOS ANGELES — The scene was Van Nuys Airport in the San Fernando Valley. Patty and Roy E. Disney were preparing for a flight to New York to help promote a book about Roy’s father who found the money to realize the dreams of his brother, Walt Disney. Patty and Roy were seated in the right front row. They were holding hands as the plane, which Roy owned, trundled down the runway to prepare for the flight.

They still held hands as the plane climbed over Burbank and began the flight east. They finally loosened their grips over the mountains and Roy commented to a fellow traveler, “We always hold hands at the takeoff. So far we’ve never had a problem.”

It was 1998 and we were on our way to New York to tout the book I had written about Roy O. Disney, older brother of Walt Disney. We would also visit where both Disneys were born in Illinois, and Kansas City, Mo., where they lived before their arrival to Los Angeles.

Roy Edward Disney, who died Wednesday at age 79, had been an ideal source about his father and Uncle Walt, whose biography I had also written. He recalled that his father was ambivalent about whether his son should join the studio.

“I think he was apprehensive about that if I did get involved in doing things for Walt, that he would not treat me as well as he did other people,” Roy told me, adding “Of course he treated everybody pretty rough.

“I have always said he was very, very fair to me, If I did crappy work, he told me so. If he liked what I did, he told me that too.”

Young Roy tried out on the studio’s “True Life Adventures” nature film series and suggested two scripts to Walt but got no reply. Then he clicked on the idea for “An Otter in the Family.” He made four more “True Life Adventures” before Walt died.

Roy found cooperative co-workers in far-off locations, but the studio workers were not as understanding. They concocted derogatory terms for the son of the boss. It would be a long time before they would recognize his contributions.

Roy Edward’s work required long periods in the wilds, but he was able to court Patricia Dailly, New Orleans-born daughter of newsman Pete Dailly. On one of his flights back to L.A. from Utah, Roy was greeted by his mother and Patricia. His mother said to her son, “Well, aren’t you going to kiss her?” He did.

When Roy started on a trip back to Utah, he mused, “I’ve got to go back and propose to the girl.” But out of his shyness he didn’t. Instead, when he got to Salt Lake City, Roy wrote a five-page letter to Patty. At the end he suggested, “By the way, I think we ought to think about getting married.” She sent a telegram: “Hell yes!”

[Google]