Clear Channel owner of Premiere Radio Network the distributor of the Rush Limbaugh Show is in trouble.
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/...
Clear Channel Communications made more staffing cuts yesterday at its radio stations. The elimination of 590 positions came just three months after the Jan. 20 purge of almost 2,000 employees, including about 40 from San Diego stations. Clear Channel did not specify the latest cuts by geography or job function but said they include some on-air personalities, whose identities weren't disclosed.
According to the Radio & Records and All Access Web sites, local country station KUSS-FM (95.7) cut morning host and program director Mike O'Brian, morning co-host Linda Welby and producer Nikki French. The SDRadio Web site reported that Rock 105.3 FM personalities Robin Roth and Clint also lost their jobs.
http://www.radioink.com/...
NEW YORK -- April 30, 2009: The New York Times headlined a story on Clear Channel in Thursday's edition "Radio Giant Faces Crisis in Cash Flow," and said the company is vying to be the "biggest loser among media companies in this recession."
The story, by Geraldine Fabrikant, notes that Clear Channel was taken private in 2008 in the biggest leveraged buyout ever in the media business. Fabrikant writes of CC, "Now its revenues are plunging and so is its cash flow, making it harder to meet the payments on the billions in debt accumulated in the process of buying out its public investors."
The story cites Wachovia analyst Bishop Cheen as saying that Clear Channel is on track to become the biggest default among media companies and continues, "The company's options may be limited. Many financially pressed concerns have been able to persuade creditors to exchange debt for equity and thus avoid a default and a bankruptcy filing. At Clear Channel, getting creditors to go along with such a plan could be tough because the original deal was fraught with so much ill will, including an unusual court fight."
Limbaugh's contract renewal was compared to Howard Stern's
http://www.nytimes.com/...
The A.M. radio host will be paid about $400 million to continue serving up his daily dose of conservative patter through 2016. His $50 million a year paycheck represents a raise of about $14.4 million a year over his current contract, which was paying him $285 million over eight years and was set to expire in 2009.
The deal — struck a month short of the 20th anniversary of "The Rush Limbaugh Show" — is thought to be the most expensive in radio since Howard Stern moved to Sirius Satellite Radio for a reported $500 million in 2004.
"I’m not retiring until every American agrees with me," Mr. Limbaugh, 57, said on his radio program Wednesday
Limbaugh it turns out is given away free in small markets..
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
It's because -- ready for this? -- Rush's show was, and presumably still is, given away for free to many local radio stations.
This shocker is because of a little-known practice in broadcast syndication called a "barter deal." (Barter deals were briefly mentioned in Michael Wolff's first-rate recent piece on Rush in Vanity Fair).
Here's how a barter deal works: To launch the show, Limbaugh's syndicator, Premiere Radio Networks -- the same folks who syndicate wingnut du jour Glen Beck -- gave Limbaugh's three hours away -- that's right, no cash -- to local radio stations, mostly in medium and smaller markets, back in the early 1990's.
So the Last Piece, remember Howard Stern.
http://www.businessweek.com/...
Satellite radio provider Sirius XM Radio Inc. on Wednesday adopted measures that would make it less attractive to buy chunks of company stock without board approval.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company said the poison pill-type plan is designed to protect its ability to carry forward existing losses to offset future earnings and reduce its federal income tax liability. If the company were to face a takeover, it said the value of the losses it is carrying forward could be impaired.
Under the plan, the satellite radio company will give its shareholders of record as of May 11 one "right" for every share of common stock they own.
Thoughts?