Clear Channel Liquidation Company

If you had a doubt as to what Clear Channel was up to when its actions proved it wasn't up to running a large radio group, you can now rest easy. The latest news is that Clear Channel plans on selling an additional 75 grandfathered stations for an approximate $1.1 billion dollar minimum take. That's on top of what they will earn from their already announced strategy of selling 448 stations below the top 100 markets. Clear Channel is doing better getting out of the business than it did by being in it. The same can't be said for their brethren -- the owners who lived in their shadow and sold ads against their mighty combos. But that's not important right now. It's all about about Clear Channel. I am not one who thinks the "new" Clear Channel will be a radio operator five or ten years down the line. They own a lot of real estate and they're now selling some of it off. If they hold what remains of the company and sell off pieces of or all of it in going forward, another obscenely huge payday is coming. Do you think their money investors don't know this? Since when do Wall Street bankers spend this kind of money to operate? There's always the chance that Clear Channel will do some swapping of the grandfathered stations instead of selling (for tax benefits, of course), but don't confuse the "new" Clear Channel for an operator. They are a liquidator -- and a damn fine one at that.