Citadel Broadcasting Files for IPO

Citadel Broadcasting Corp., the sixth-largest U.S. radio broadcaster and Forstmann Little & Co.’s biggest acquisition, filed Wednesday to raise $575 million in an initial stock offering amid rising prices for radio stocks.

Citadel didn’t specify the number of shares to be sold or any price per share in a filing with the SEC. The offering will be managed by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Credit Suisse First Boston.

Forstmann Little, the third-largest leveraged buyout firm, paid $2.1 billion in cash and debt for Citadel a year ago, and in February named Farid Suleman, chief executive of rival Infinity Broadcasting Corp., as Citadel’s CEO.

The U.S. radio market is recovering after the recession crimped spending last year. A Bloomberg index of broadcasting and cable stocks is up 14% this year.

Las Vegas-based Citadel has 138 FM and 61 AM stations in 41 markets.

Citadel had a loss in the first quarter of $90.9 million, reflecting a noncash expense of $82.8 million under new accounting rules related to goodwill. Revenue dropped to $72.6 million from $73.1 million.