Report: Clear Channel to keep Midcoast Maine stations

[Barry Cabbage]

Do not waste time trying to decipher which small market stations Clear 
Channel wants to sell.

Everything is for sale.

The company is being bought by money traders.  Nobody is spending $18b in 
real money and assuming $8b in debt to run a bunch of radio stations. This 
is American Radio Systems Part II:  you buy stations, you let buffoons run 
them to maximize cash flow for a short period while destroying their 
futures, then you dump them. Trading radio stations like pork bellies.

Here is what will happen:  Major market managers will do leveraged buyouts 
of properties. Stations acquired in an LBO will then be sold off to reduce 
the debt. Some clusters will go to other chains.

Any announced sale of piddling groups in small markets are merely 
invitations to bid, and negotiations will center on getting the buyers to 
take more stations, not less.

Clear Channel as an operator of radio stations is dead, dead, dead.  Venture 
capitalists don't invest in radio to run businesses, they invest to sell at 
a  profit.

7-7-7 anyone?

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