Re: Citadel sales?

[Nostaticatall <nostaticatall@comcast.net>]

It's actually happening more as of late. Clear Channel has also spun off 
a few smaller stations as well.  Most of the time the stations are 
graveyard AM's in sparsely populated areas, but like with the PA deal, 
FM's are being dealt as well.  I'm wondering if Citadel's recent IPO had 
anything to do with this transaction.  They've sold off some other 
smaller stations over the last few months, including the AM/FM combo in 
Athol.

A lot of these small market stations aren't generating the cash flow 
percentages the chains were hoping for when they acquired them, so the 
big guys are starting to sell out to local interests.  It makes 
sense--local or regional owners may have the ability to stimulate ad 
revenues from local clients better than a big chain, and they don't have 
the pressures of answering to Wall Street either.   Plus, with the 
chains so dependent on national advertising, I would imagine airtime on 
these small market stations isn't all that attractive to their client 
bases.

Mike Thomas

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