Great read

[Chris Hall]

While slumming in Dollar Tree a book caught my eye “Right of the dial..... The rise of Clear Channel and the fall of commercial Radio”.  This book
is a great fast and enjoyable read, I came away with mixed feelings about Clear Channel.  They started the company with intelligent business models 
(for those who believe commercial broadcasting is a business) that took seriously failing operations out of bankruptcy and turned them into very
decent local operations. The industry disaster started with the insane idea of deregulation allowing one company to own more than one AM-FM-TV
in a market.  The US government, Broadcast mavens, Wall Street and Investment Bankers started looking at finite broadcast spectrum in the same light
as a Walgreens, CVS or Rite Aide on every corner......as much as each local market can bare. Deregulation was like a snowball rolling down 
a mountain getting bigger as it goes picking up cars and houses along the way. These companies became so top heavy that they are themselves
crushed under the weight and have to resort to destroying what they have just to stay alive.
Years back I had an inkling that such ideas were a disastrous view of the future.  When John Kluge sold Metromedia to a leveraged buyout led by
several managers.  Within a short period of time they had to cannibalize the properties to pay the notes leaving large debt and little of what they purchased. Excellent insight to 50’s birth of modern radio starting with the Gordon McLendon days lots of industry insight for $1.00