While running through the database, I became reminded that an important part of the Cumulus deal to acquire Westwood One was they “sold” a significant number of stations to Townsquare Media. “Sold” is in quotes because Townsquare Media and Westwood One were mostly owned by the same company – OakTree Capital.
The entire question is a bit misleading, as most companies now are not owned by anyone – they are owned by their debt. Who owns the debt is esoteric – the debt owns itself.
So with that nonsense out of the way… here are the nominal totals of AM+FM licenses that the FCC believes each company owns (as best I can sort it out)
+----------------------------+--------+ | Parent Company |Station | | parentname | Count | +----------------------------+--------+ | No Web Site | 1901 | | Independent | 7703 | | Clear Channel | 795 | | Cumulus | 444 | | State College / University | 377 | | EMF | 330 | | Townsquare Media | 311 | | Public TV/Radio Networks | 221 | | Private College | 191 | | American Family | 163 | | CBS | 96 | | Salem | 95 | | Saga | 82 | | Community College | 80 | | Alt/Confer Trusts | 66 | | Cherry Creek | 63 | | Univision | 62 | | Midwest | 61 | | Family Stations | 60 | | Cox Radio | 51 | | Radio One | 50 | | Entravision | 49 | | BiCoastal | 49 | | Three Eagles | 48 | | Cochise Media | 45 | | Minnesota Public Radio | 42 | +----------------------------+--------+
So who are all these owners with only one or two stations and what format are they? The answer is stunning.
+--------+----------+---------------------+ | fcount | formatid | formatname | +--------+----------+---------------------+ | 1454 | 5 | Country | | 1295 | 10 | Religious Ministry | | 727 | 30 | Public Radio | | 706 | 18 | Christian Music | | 704 | 27 | AC / Variety / Mix | | 697 | 9 | Educational | | 656 | 24 | Classic Rock / Hits | | 612 | 1 | News / Talk | | 521 | 6 | Oldies | +--------+----------+---------------------+
There is a little contradiction and arbitrary classification in that data – it concerns “Public Radio”. NPR does not own radio stations, although their programming is carried on most of them.
Public Radio itself falls under several different models – in some states, the “Big University” runs the state’s public radio stations. Most states have gone to the model to transfer the stations to a non-government broadcast authority, to keep the running of the stations (and their revenue stream) out of the hands of the University System and state Politicians who want to do things like “Defund NPR!”
Other stations that carry public broadcasting are licensed to public schools, high schools and small colleges – who gave up trying to run their little station and agreed to have the state broadcasters “take over their station”, but the license is retained by the original licensee for whatever reason.
So when I have nothing else to do, some cleanup would be helpful. You can clearly see however, that “Public Radio” controls more raio stations than the evil Clear Channel – which is stating the obvious if you turn your radio below 92 Mhz in any place in the country. Morning edition and All Things considered have many more outlets blaring to their mind numbed robots drinking their lattes and driving their sensible Europeans sedans than Rush Limbaugh – the reason is Rush has exclusivity agreements – only one station per market gets his show. In Public Radio, it’s not uncommon for 4 or 5 stations to be carrying the same programs in the same listening area.
The guy at Oaktree Capital who talked them into investing in radio just left.