The huge mistake called Merlin Media – which talked a PE firm into buying radio stations to go head to head against CBS in the All News business – has turned over the keys to their last two stations. Merlin Media was formed in 2011 as a joint venture of Emmis Communications and GTCR, a Chicago based private equity firm. The concept was from the brain of Randy Michaels, formerly of Tribune Corporation and Clear Channel and consisted of $198 million in cash and equity
WLUP-FM and WIQI-FM have been leased (LMA) with an option to buy to Cumulus Media – terms have not yet been disclosed. The current industry practice of all the big guys is to operate 4 or 5 radio stations from the same facility, sharing offices, production facilities, sales staff, etc… to reduce costs. Since Cumulus only owns WLS AM/FM in Chicago, this is consistent with their general operations approach and surely explains why Mr Dickey was in Chicago in December.
http://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=b13828
http://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/news/2014/01/03/cumulus-radio-to-acquire-merlin-medias-chicago.html