http://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=n22098
As was known for some time, the last of the Mays family has left the building. [He is still Chairman of the Board, but not involved in operations now]. The Mays family got into the radio business in San Antonia, TX, originally with WOAI-AM and slowly acquired other radio stations.
When Congress deregulated radio in 1996 under the leadership of Bill Clinton, the Mays family became the front people behind the money that was put together to buy up over 1,200 of the country’s radio stations to become the icon for Deregulation gone bad.
Because of FCC rules against foreign ownership, it was important that Americans be seen to be running the company and not global bankers who might be using money borrowed from foreign sources. In 2007, Clear Channel “went private” with about $20 billion in borrowed money – much of it from European banks. Clear Channel has little hope of eventually avoiding default on those loans.
So today’s news is that nobody is running Clear Channel. With Mr Mays gone, they have created an “interim” CEO job, but filled it with two people – both accountants. One is the current CFO, and the other is a recent hire who used to be the CFO of the failed Washinton Mutual (WaMu) currently in bankruptcy after being seized by the FDIC – the folks who were a substantial part of the collapse of the mortage underwriting business in 2008.
