Clear Channel is highly leveraged and a deck of cards waiting to collapse by all indications. I doubt they have the cash to pick up another station, especially in market #25. There have to be 45 stations for a company to own 8 stations (no more than 5 of the 8 being FM or AM). They currently own 5 FM and 1 AM so they could technically do it. It is possible though that they may be desperate to keep Rush from going back to KDKA which would probably put them back to #1. Everything Clear Channel does in Pittsburgh is designed to keep DVE on top so that they can charge the highest ad $. They really don’t do this by making DVE better, just by making sure that everything else in the market stays stale by comparison. Gotta love those new FCC rules.
CC is in financial problems. Did the same thing many owners did...bought stations at 10x...20x billing then used that equity to buy more. Yup, house of cards.
There is going to be a (another) blood bath at CC any day now. At least thats what everyone thinks.
Not naming names but some owners had to sell off property because as the economy dropped the banks weren’t happy with the equity arrangements even though payments were being made, just late.
Well that and getting fined for stupid management decisions like getting in trouble with Arbitron....but that is another story.
What I don’t get is why CC or anyone would want or pay big bucks for an AM. Personally I like AM but there is just too much background RFI what with all the electrial gadgets around.