Back in the 1980s, the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News were engaged in a battle to death. The Detroit News mocked their competitor in ads as the “Detroit Free You Know What”, letting people use their imagination what they meant.
Here is a big clue….. this is the Detroit Free Press story about the announcement about Cumulus in negotiations to acquire Citadel
A really really big problem with that story is the headline and the lead paragraph talk about the deal in past tense “Stations sold”. Citadel went way out of their way to make it clear it isn’t a done deal and could easily fall apart. They’re just negotiating, albeit with the apparent goal of a merger. The Crain’s Detroit Business Journal also paraphrased the story (or vice versa) announcing it as a “done deal”.
The second really bizarre thing is the correction before the story… it explains it made a mistake with the “call code” of the station. Either the editor is very young or is not from the United States. I can’t imagine anyone doesn’t know the term is “Call Sign”.
(The Detroit Free Press and News operate now as a failed newspaper which allows merged operations without antitrust issues – the joint paper ceased daily home delivery in late 2008)
