Not sure exactly what this will mean for the future of radio, but Clear Channel was bought out for $19 billion from private equity firms.
Tidbits from Bloomberg:
• “The company also plans to sell 448 of its 1,150 radio stations and all of its 42 television stations.”
• “The company lost more than 60 percent of its market value since 2000…”
• “Now the company plans to sell almost 40 percent of its radio stations. None of those are in the top 100 U.S. markets and the assets represent less than 10 percent of revenue.”
• “The deal leaves current executives in charge of the company, including Mark Mays and his brother Randall Mays, 41, who is chief financial officer.”
• New owners “Lee and Bain have been buyers of media companies before… [They] partnered with Providence to buy Warner Music Group…”
Guessing this is just another “same as the old boss” type of scenario. But who knows?
Clear Channel and Citadel paid ridiculously idiotic amounts for many of these small and medium market stations. Now they’ll sell them to cut their losses and the new owners will probably make even more budget cuts in an attempt to make them profitable.
Funny how Clear Channel has gone from monolith to garage sale.