From the folks who bring you Rush Limbaugh

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday March 26, 2008 · 1:10 PM PDT

2008/03/26 · 13:10

The Wall Street Journal has been abuzz recently over Clear Channel. First came a doom and gloom piece. But the agreement is full of gotchas and ways Clear Channel can force the potential buyers in ways from either keeping it alive or denying that its dying.

If the deal falls through, the private-equity firms would likely have to pay a breakup fee to Clear Channel that could be as high as $600 million. The firms would probably try to force the banks to pick up the bill.

One of the issues surrounding the deal is what one banker called the "onerous" requirements on the deal's debt. One person involved in the deal said that the banks want the two private-equity firms to sell Clear Channel assets to pay down the future maturities on some of the company's debt. The first of those maturities occurs in 2011, which would give the firms three years to figure out how to refinance, this person said, but the two firms have balked.

But then came all the articles and commentaries about how the deal is going to force some very strange statements and some dissonant actions among the parties.

What does Rush Limbaugh have to do with this? Follow me into the ether...

Clear Channel owns Limbaugh's syndicator, Premiere, and a pretty serious percentage of the actual kilowatts used to blast him into our lives. Their stations like KFI, Los Angeles and WIOD Miami dominate the AM signals in their respective markets, and are used to provide a nearly steady diet of right wing reactionary rhetoric. That's true too in scores of markets more.

But they've been in severe financial decline, and the Mays family, which put the chain together as the aggregation of major radio groups that were too big themselves (like AM/FM and Paxon's radio properties), wants to get out through privatization.

They've already dumped many of their television properties, though those buyers tried to get cold feet and a lawsuit was required to force the close of the deal. But things are worse now, and radio doesn't have the lingering value that television does.

So it may benefit the big banks that would back this to walk away from the deal while acting like they're not, and taking the hit in penalties and fees for walking away.

There are strange times for right wing radio. The front people on are are singing the praises and urging the reelection of the very people who presided over their potential catastrophic failures.

Maybe Rush can take up a collection among the dittoheads, because the future for AM radio doesn't look bright.

This content was created by a Daily Kos Community member.

Make YOUR voice heard!

Comments are closed on this story.