Clear Channel breakup

[Doug Drown]

There's a possibility a local consortium of businesspeople and community
leaders may make a bid for one of CC's smaller FMs in Maine as a commercial
venture.  I'm part of that group.  Any suggestions as to how to go about it?
We're new to this.

-Doug

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Howard Glazer" <hmglaz@worldnet.att.net>
To: "Garrett Wollman" <wollman@csail.mit.edu>; <bri@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2006 5:49 PM
Subject: Re: Clear Channel breakup


>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Garrett Wollman <wollman@csail.mit.edu>
> To: <bri@bostonradio.org>
> Sent: Saturday, November 18, 2006 5:15 PM
> Subject: Clear Channel breakup
>
>
> > I'm somewhat surprised that nobody has brought up this past week's Big
> > Story in radio: the impending sale and breakup of Clear Channel.
> > According to press reports, the sale of the company (to Boston-based
> > private-equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital) will
> > involve the sale of about 450 of the company's 1100 stations, as well
> > as the entire television operation.  The station sales will be mainly
> > in smaller markets, including three out of five markets in northern
> > New England.  (The Globe's map suggested that the company will keep
> > its Manchester and Portsmouth/Dover clusters.)
> >
> > While this partial breakup would still leave Clear Channel as the
> > 800-pound gorilla in radio, putting those smaller-market stations back
> > into play cannot but help strengthen the radio business in those
> > markets, as we see other station groups jockeying for position and
> > possibly acquiring some of the spin-offs.
> >
>
> That might happen with the FMs -- although what's the difference between a
> smaller-market hit country or AC station owned by Clear Channel and the
same
> station owned by Cumulus or Citadel? I'd imagine many of the AMs will
> attract little market interest from anyone but operators of religious or
> ethnic leased-time operations. How would any of this strengthen the
> business? Would another station group be more likely to fill voicetracked
> airshifts with local talent ... or even increase their newly acquired
> station's payroll at all?
>
> Howard
>
>
>