Mitt Romney's VC Firm to Buy Clear Channel

http://www.chrisbrunner.com ^ | December 13th, 2007 | Chris Brunner

[Blue Collar Republican]

http://www.chrisbrunner.com/2007/12/13/mitt-romney-to-buy-clear-channel-communications/

Mitt Romney's VC Firm to Buy Clear Channel TOP del.icio.us digg

What would it cost to buy the support of just about every nationally-syndicated neocon talk show host in America? About $19.5 Billion, which is what Mitt Romney's private equity firm, Bain Capital, and Thomas H. Lee Partners have agreed to pay in a leveraged buyout agreement with Clear Channel Communications, the largest radio station owner in the country. This is part of a negotiation that has been pending for over a year.

Clear Channel owns over 1,100 full-power AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations, twelve radio channels on XM Satellite Radio, and more than 30 television stations in the United States. Premiere Radio Networks, which is the largest syndication company in the United States, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Clear Channel and is home to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and many others. Sean Hannity recently signed a large multi-market contract with Clear Channel, as well.

[Blue Collar Republican]

If the story was about Huckabee you would be singing a different tune. Partisan nuts are all the same.

[Blue Collar Republican]

Name calling? That’s what you got?

[napscoordinator]

It’s not about ownership, it’s about influence.

Oh please. That is ridiculous. It is not his fault the company bought this media. And if the media gives Mitt good press well then I guess it is good on Mitt but still does not prove anything. I guess the other candidates had the option to start a company from nothing and make it a multi-million dollar corporation too but they did not go that direction so really their loss.

[xjcsa]

Name calling? That’s what you got?

You made an unfalsifiable but unprovable smear against Romney, implying some kind of behind-the-scenes "influence." You provide no evidence of what you believe; you just expect us all to nod thoughtfully and agree. What kind of substantive response would be warranted to your silly accusation?

Your tactics and thought patterns look very similar to a friend of mine who is a 9/11 "Truther." If it looks, smells, and tastes like conspiratorial moonbattery, then that's probably what it is.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Radio Computing Services also known as RCS Inc., is a provider of scheduling and broadcast software for radio, Internet and television stations. It is owned by Clear Channel.

RCS offers scheduling software called GSelector and Linker. GSelector provides song lists based on broadcast rules and marketing needs. Linker is optimised to schedule non-music/non-commercial broadcast content: promos, jingles, liners, sweeps etc. commonly referred to as links.

It also allows to integrate traffic schedules (playlists with commercials) into the main schedule at designated positions (called spotsets). It is possible to operate Selector and Linker independently as separate programs but typically they are used as a pair since they complement each other.

However, as I said before, the end result is a generic and bland multi-market system whose primary advantage is giving advertisers collective market promotions at a somewhat higher price, than by dealing with individual stations. As such, it only works well when independent stations are swept away, as Clear Channel has successfully done in most major markets.

But this is not giving the listener what they want, just what they will tolerate. It is too brittle to survive when faced with real competition. Hopefully, there will be a political movement to bust up the major info-tainment media oligarchy, much like the trust busting of the early 20th Century.

[lentulusgracchus]

Then give station managers the authority to come up with their own play lists, instead of a generic one created by the corporate marketing department.

Local programming managers used to accept "dime bag special" promotions from record labels and their reps, and it created a scandal.

Part of centralization was corporate compliance issues associated with payola.

[lentulusgracchus]

That’s why we get reality shows and formula dramas on the Networks.....

I thought the reason for reality TV and primetime game shows was low-cost programming. A set. A familiar face. Generic graphics. No screenplays, no location shoots, no stars. No real content. Low, low, low cost.

[bleach]

Congratulations you know your RCS software, but what it is capable of and what it is used for are two different things.

Please explain why a number of stations are still on version 12 (dos based) and some still use Musicgen. The later a product of Prophet which was merged with RCS, I realize, but still they’re using it.

There is no centralized mandatory music playlist,Period. If there were it would affect me directly.

[awake-n-angry]

W. Mitt Romney is quitting Boston-based Bain Capital, the $13 billion investment firm he started with $35 million in 1984.
___________

I thought your post included an excerpt of a larger article but your reference was all that was in the article. I would like to know some more specific details before I buy this. Romney is a genius buisnessman and he just gave away a company worth 13 billion dollars without keeping a hand in it. How much did he get? What are his ties? I don’t believe that he just gave this company away.

[garyb]

Giving up control does not necessarily mean that he gave it away for free.

I have no idea how much, if any, compensation he received for relinquishing control.