http://www.charter.net/news/read.php?ps=1014&id=13243029&_LT=HOME_LARSDCCL3_UNEW S

Wont affect the Portland stations... "Clear Channel also said Thursday it plans to sell 448 of its radio stations, all located outside the top 100 markets."

Wonder about the proggy programming? Will be interesting to see if they just remain investors, or if they have other plans.

We've already seen the big companies refuse to buy ADS.

IMHO, that's probably not good longer term (unless they have great plans) for CC people in general. Almost everytime I've seen a solid company become owned by one of these investment holding firms, the goodness slowly seeps away...

Allaccess.com published a list of CC stations to be sold, all OR markets except Portland are on the list.

I saw that. I really didn't mean stations dropping from ownership. I'm wondering if they are going to take a role in high level programming decisions, that's all.

KSKD...

Get your facts straight. The companies that wouldn't buy ads on AAR. for the most part, also wouldn't buy ads on the likes of Limbaugh, Savage, O'Reilly and Hannity. It wasn't an objection to leftie radio, it was that they didn't want to be on any controvesial programs.

I think I do have then straight.

There was at least one instance of talk programming being altered and or changed based on a change of ownership. This happened to AAR in Arizona I believe.

That's really what I was getting at. I'm also not really taking a stand on the merits of the programming either way.

Was just wondering if this holding company will just hold, or take an active role. The answer to that question could easily affect current CC employees and hosts in PDX.

I'm not sure who wrote this, but it is worth reading.

800-Lb. Gorilla Slims Down To 750 Pounds
Well, well, well, Clear Channel is going private.

While that news may not have been a total surprise last week, the speed
(three weeks) at which the media behemoth went from announcing that it was
taking bids, to selecting one was lightning-fast in the world of big deal
making.

While nearly everyone who follows the radio industry is already familiar
with the details, here's a quick recap. The country's largest radio group
(by a wide margin) announced it would be sold to a group of private equity
firms, led by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners, in a deal
valued at $26.7 billion. The deal is expected to close at the end of 2007.
The company also announced plans to sell off 448 of its 1,150 radio
stations. The stations now on the block are in 90 markets outside of
Arbitron's top 100 metros. Additionally, the San Antonio-based company is
selling all 42 of its TV stations, which are located in 24 small and
mid-sized markets. CC says the radio and TV stations now on the block
represented less than 10% of the company's revenues in 2005.
The company's key management team, CEO Mark Mays and president/CFO Randall
Mays, will remain in place. Their father, company co-founder Lowry Mays,
will also continue to serve a management role. All three will invest in the
newly private company.
Almost from its earliest days, and particularly during a period of time in
the '90s when the flamboyant Randy Michaels ran the radio group, Clear
Channel has been controversial. Since it took advantage of the 1996
Telecommunications Act to super size its radio holdings, the company has
been viewed - rightly or wrongly - as the poster child for all things wrong
with the radio business. Both the consumer and trade press routinely
vilified Clear Channel, sometimes unfairly. Case in point: after the Dixie
Chicks' Natalie Maines made her now infamous comment about President Bush on
a London stage three years ago, a couple of radio groups banned the Chicks
music from their airwaves. Clear Channel was not one of them, yet it was
widely reported as fact in the media that Clear Channel stations were
boycotting the group.

Similarly, after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, a handful of CC
programmers began compiling a list of songs that might be inappropriate in
light of recent events. And while the list was mainly put together as a way
for programmers to help each other out, in media reports it became a
corporate-mandated banned songs list.

That's not to say Clear Channel was a martyred victim. It is, after all, the
company that made voice tracking the norm at many radio stations, thus
shooting its own industry in the foot by eliminating the "starter jobs"
where many radio up-and-comers cut their teeth, and drastically reducing the
future talent pool. More recently, the company has been consolidating jobs
left and right, as documented in this column three weeks ago ("What On Earth
is Clear Channel Thinking," Radio-Info.com).

Whatever your opinion of Clear Channel, its sale hardly marks the end of an
era. Even in losing 39% of its radio stations, the company still remains a
dominant player in the industry, regardless of whether it's public or
private.

Sadly, the company may never be able to overcome the negative associations
that have become attached to it over the years. I recently got this
well-written letter from a reader who asked to be identified as "a 40-year
veteran radio executive who watched it happen from fairly close range."
Because it represents the view many hold about Clear Channel's lasting
legacy to the radio industry, I wanted to share it with you.

"Radio's consolidation scheme was hatched by a couple of Texas financiers to
attract Wall Street money into radio," he writes. "The mom and pop nature of
the industry through its first 70 years made business units too small to
make huge profits, and restrictive trafficking rules limited liquidity. The
Texans [at Clear Channel] first worked the FCC to get regulations changed to
make radio as liquid as real estate, and then worked Congress to lift
ownership caps and create larger business entities.

"And Wall Street rushed in. Although the Texans only scooped up one-tenth of
America's radio stations (and one quarter of the revenue), their operating
methods became the blueprint for the industry. To do otherwise was to risk
becoming an acquisition target. So now, even privately held radio companies
dance to Wall Street's tune.

"But while mom and pop were content to make a comfortable profit, public
investors are never content with mere profit. Every year, every quarter,
revenue and cash flow have to continue upward or they lose interest and
stock prices go down.

"During early consolidation, showing spectacular increases in both revenue
and cash flow was easy. By merging six stations into one, revenues
multiplied. By merging six stations into one, the salaries of five general
managers, five receptionists, five bookkeepers and five news talents created
instant cash flow. Digital technology eliminated virtually all engineering
jobs, while digital automation and voice-tracking eliminated two of the five
(40%) daily jock shifts and nearly all weekend shifts, creating even more
cash flow (and eliminating nearly all entry-level jobs). The consolidators
traded people for profit. It was easy.

"What wasn't easy was increasing radio's share of the overall advertising
pie. It stayed [at] around 7%. So after initial mergers, revenues flattened
out. The only way to show significant cash flow increases was to trim staff.
So the ranks of program directors began to shrink [as their jobs were
consolidated too].

"Cuts have come at the high end, too. Regional management positions have all
but disappeared; and most recently, market management positions in adjacent
markets have been combined and even more general managers have been let go.
One could argue that many of these people had earned their leadership
positions through high performance over many years.

"So, in a little more than a decade, the radio industry has effectively
blocked all newcomers to the field and chased away its highest achievers.
And, now, with threats emerging from Internet radio, satellite radio and
digital music systems, the two Texas financiers who wrought this mess are
cashing out.

"Thanks, Lowry. Thanks, Tom. Radio may only be a shell of the industry you
entered decades ago, but you'll leave with billions of dollars in investor
money. America is a great place!"

Valid points that those at the top refuse to see.

good piece.

Bigger wasn't better, and the loss of listeners to other sources is their own doing..

Still business is business......

Basically they can eliminate $8B in debt and they are going to give serverance options to some employees in due time......mentioned by Hogan during his Q&A for employees. He did say they won't be doing the servance options....."at least not right now"