When Clear Channel decided that it didn’t want to play any longer in small market radio, private equity firm OakTree Capital formed a company called GAP to buy those stations. There was a GAP West that handled the West Coast and upper West (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, etc…) and GAP Central in Texas handling the Great Plains and middle America.
A year ago, Oaktree announced the formation of GAP East that was going to acquire radio stations East of the Mississippi River. It never acquired a single station and was announced today that GAP East will be dissolved shortly.
Oaktree has had their hands in many areas of the radio business – they just got through navigating Regency through Chapter 11 bankruptcy. For people who are hoping for a turnaround soon in private equity money bidding up prices again, you may be waiting a while.
