iHeartMedia is no longer a radio operator that happens to own a podcast studio. Digital Audio now produces more Adjusted EBITDA than the Multiplatform radio franchise for a sixth consecutive quarter, and that inversion is the investment debate. The capital structure is still sized for a broadcast cash machine. The cash machine is the part of the print that is fading. Podcast demand, video-podcast distribution on Netflix and Hulu, and a push to place radio spots inside digital buying platforms are the offsets management is selling. Whether those offsets convert cash fast enough to service a multi-billion debt stack is the question the second half of the year has to answer. Total debt still sits near $5.0 billion. That stack, not the share count, is what prices the firm.
The second-quarter print looks like modest growth until the mix is unpacked. Consolidated revenue rose to $977 million. Growth was 4.7% and only 3.5% once political advertising is stripped out. Digital Audio revenue climbed to $364 million. Podcasting alone delivered $162 million. Multiplatform revenue slipped to $536 million even as a midterm political tailwind began to appear. The profit split is sharper than the revenue split. Digital Audio Adjusted EBITDA of $123 million now dwarfs Multiplatform profit of $59 million. That is not a rounding difference. It is a franchise whose economic center of gravity has already moved, while the balance sheet has not.
The bear case is already visible in the same quarter. Multiplatform Adjusted EBITDA fell 39% as non-cash trade and barter marketing for the AudioGraph and programmatic push inflated expense faster than cash spots recovered. Consolidated Adjusted EBITDA slipped to $152 million. Free cash flow flipped to $46 million from an outflow a year earlier. That swing is the one cash fact bulls want to compound across the back half. Net interest still consumed $96 million in the quarter. Cash on the balance sheet is $174 million. The August extension of the asset-based revolving facility buys time, not a thinner capital structure.
Management reaffirmed full-year Adjusted EBITDA of about $800 million. Free cash flow guidance is about $200 million. Both figures are back-weighted into political months and a $125 million in-year cost-save program. The equity is capitalized at $418 million. Enterprise value near $6.0 billion implies the credit stack, not the shares, owns almost all of the firm. Three variables decide whether that residual is cheap or a claim on nothing. Those variables are cash broadcast spots excluding barter and political, podcast growth staying near the recent 20% run-rate, and second-half free cash actually landing near the guide. The counterargument that deserves respect is that barter-funded marketing and a midterm political pulse can manufacture a prettier second half without repairing the radio cash engine.