Not well known is that Clear Channel was part owner of XM, which later merged with competitor Sirius. As a result of that investment, Clear Channel had a right to program some of XM’s channels – that’s why you hear Glenn Beck and Quinn & Rose on satellite radio.
Clear Channel just cashed out their investment in XM. The new CFO has $20.4 billion in debt staring at him, and the $134 million from the sale does not have restrictions in what it can be used for. Perhaps they’ll buy WGN in Chicago… Who knows
I had heard a host say a few days ago that Clear Channel’s programming would be ending. Sirius/XM has a policy against commercials on its channels and XM and Clear Channel butted heads originally that CC wanted ads on their channels, so I’m sure Sirius/XM is glad to hear this news.
Some Sirius/XM channels have ads – mainly the audio channels of the cable tv channels (CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, Fox News, etc) – when they go to commercial on cable, they have an audio commercial on SiriusXM. The music channels have been commercial free, with the exception of a few XM music channels that were programmed by CC (not me! 😉 ). Around the time of the merger with Sirius, all the music channels became commercial free, but SiriusXM rebroadcast several CC channels – 100.3 FM in NYC, WLS, and a station in Los Angeles and a few others. The rebroadcast included the local commercials for that market. <– all this from memory. If google says otherwise, trust google not CC on CC 😉
Your memory is correct – the no commercials rules applied to the music channels. My memory is CC had programming rights to maybe 5 channels. I’ve already suggested that Quinn & Rose are probably on the list when the firings start, and if they’re off Sirius/XM that seems pretty likely.
Almost… it was WLW i was thinking of when I wrote WLS.
$20 billion in debt ! How do management team at clear channel sleep at night?
crazy -town
Parrott
Clear Channel racked up large debts to buy up around 1,500 radio stations at highly inflated prices. Around 2007, they started the process of “going private”, using bank money (much of it from Europe) to refinance the original debt and buy out the publicly traded shareholders.
It was done at exactly the wrong moment – the value of station licensed were in free fall with other radio companies declaring bankruptcy. The bankers found that nobody was willing to buy the bonds and tried to back out of funding the deal, but the PE firms took them to court to force them to go through, with the bonds selling for $.10 on the dollar. Clear Channel also owns a billboard company called Clear Channel Outdoors that has a substantial amount of tangible assets (unlike the goodwill and intangible assets that back the radio business) – however you may remember that Los Angeles recently forced them to turn off their jumbotron billboards.
Jerry del Colliano has this theory that Pittman is deliberately driving Clear Channel into a ditch so he and his pals can loot the company. I don’t know if that’s true but it is an intriguing theory.
LA billboard update
http://touch.sun-sentinel.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-76831649/
It looks like Clear Channel and CBS are negotiating to allow the billboards in exchange for bri…. errr “fees”. The billboards were turned off by the judge specifically on the basis that the City Council didn’t have the right to permit digital billboards, so I don’t know how this would work.
Paging Michael Dell… 😉
Maybe CBS can use the LA billboards to show CBS programming, and simulcast the audio on KNX HD3 lol
Well, you might be onto something there – the return of the drive in theater without needing the land or the cars. Syncing the picture and digital streams might be a bit tricky.
Second idea is to refurb the LA Forum in time for the football season so fans can watch the CBS games on the jumbotron 😉
Try to fix that before your cable bill goes up… Petition so that the free over the air channels can not demand a peice of your cable bill:
http://contact.americantelevisionalliance.org/10757/write-congress-today/
but I don’t own a TV
Quinn & Rose web site says August 30th is the end of XM. Joe Pags is filling in this week. It’s summer, so it may just be routine fillin work.
Quinn the Eskimo?
Eskimo is to Aleut as cracker is to whitey
So, Eskimo’s are like us crackas and not really offended?
“Bulger!” I say…. it is as Inuit is to Quicken and Turbotax
It’s odd that Quicken is in the mortgage business right in the middle of a city where it is impossible to get a mortgage
Have you ever tried to buy a Bison Burger in Buffalo, NY?