I am pondering the merger names as I compose this post: Clear Citadus? Cumulo Citichannel? Citaclear Channelculus? My meditation is inspired by Clear Channel’s announcement on Monday that Cumulus’ 570 radio stations will be featured on the former company’s iHeartRadio application “wherever it is offered.” In exchange: Clear Channel Radio will also advertise daily deals from Cumulus […]
Tag Archives | Citadel
Citadel and Cumulus want to merge into Son-of-Clear-Channel
I’m not sure how I missed this bit of news, but I just learned that Cumulus, which boasts being the second largest owner of radio stations in the US, is bidding to buy the third largest, Citadel Broadcasting. Such a merger would create a conglomeration of 572 stations nationwide. This would still be about 300 […]
Conservative AM talk is the new home for aging shock jocks
Long-time Chicago radio host Mancow Muller lost his last hometown gig last February when he was canned from Citadel Broadcasting‘s AM talk powerhouse WLS. But the Mancow has many lives, it seems. While he won’t be back on the air in Chicago, Vocalo’s Robert Feder reports that Mancow will be the new Sunday evening host […]
FCC ponders the future of radio consolidation
The Federal Communications Commission is reviewing its media ownership rules again. That ordeal took up quite a bit of public bandwidth over the last decade, especially after former FCC Chair Michael Powell proposed scotching most of them. Now we’re back to square one, with the Commission launching a Notice of Inquiry about its current ownership […]
Hopeful week for radio/media stocks?
Given the state of the economy, last week wasn’t so bad for radio/media company investors. And this week might improve depending on what Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke says, and what Sirius XM reports in its fourth quarter and full 2009 earnings press conference on Thursday. Saga Communications, Cumulus Media, Entercom, and Citadel all reported […]
The decade’s most important radio trends #10: Clear Channel Goes Private Equity
At the start of the decade the nation’s largest owner of radio stations, Clear Channel Communications, was flying high with a stock price over $90 a share in January, 2000. While public interest advocates and media reformers continued to batter the company with criticism over its tactics, Wall Street was still in love with the […]
Greed and Consolidation Trigger Another Bankruptcy in Radioland
On Friday the Wall Street Journal reported news that’s no surprise to radio industry watchers, that the third largest radio owners in the country, Citadel Communications, is about to declare bankruptcy in a deal pre-arranged with its creditors. The loudest critic of Citadel has been industry-insider Jerry Del Colliano who predicted last week that the […]
The FCC's new 'payola' rules
Four radio giants have agreed to pay the United States government a total $12.5 million dollars to settle an Federal Communications Commission investigation into their “payola” practices—the undisclosed play of music in exchange for cash, gifts, or favors. The FCC says that CBS radio, Entercom Communications, Clear Channel Communications, and Citadel Broadcasting will agree to: […]