Maybe. Cumulus turned down a deal two years for roughly six times the current trading price of the stock. Jeff Warshaw, who made the offer, said the investors in the company seemed to have no interest in selling at any price. Much, however, can change over the course of two years. Given how many times it has extended the poison pill offer to its shareholders, it wouldn't seem to be finding many takers.
Inside Music Media is the National Enquirer of the radio business. I wouldn't use it as a source without verification from somewhere else.
If an Audacy/Cumulus merger will meet current ownership laws, the FCC can't stop it. The FCC can only do what the law entitles it to do. Unless one party or the other has roaches under the fridge we don't know about, it'll happen if both parties want it.
At the moment, there's a lot more smoke than fire. We don't know what's going to happen yet, but it seems like a shotgun marriage of the two is at least somewhere on the table. Doesn't mean it's going to happen, but there's little doubt it's at least on a few people's radars and has been since last summer. You're right that Buffalo isn't going to be all that attractive to the big boys, but they'll happily take it if it's included with what they really want. You can still make money in Buffalo, and they'll take it if it comes at the right price. Billionaires might be able to find better places to put their money, but larger markets, in particular, still have plenty of revenue coming in. The US still has stations that bill north of $50 million per year. Despite obvious problems radio faces, that shows no signs of abating anytime soon.