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Clear Channel may sell off smaller radio stations

Posted by Cory Bergman on September 15, 2006

Now that anyone can burn their own CDs, create their own iPod playlists and listen to commercial-free satellite radio, the prospects for radio broadcasting are dwindling by the day. For example, 12-34 year olds listen to 17 hours a week, down 3 hours from 1999. And the stocks of the five largest radio companies are down between 30 and 60 percent in the last 3 years. So Clear Channel is may sell some of its 1200 radio stations in smaller markets, and CBS said its looking to sell more of its radio properties. If you ask me, music stations need to stop playing the same playlists over and over and focus on exploring new music. The only time I listen to the radio, besides traffic reports, is to find new music to buy and download on my iPod. Seattle’s KEXP is the best example of this new approach, playing a wide range of music with few repeats. When I hear one I like, I go to KEXP.org, look up the time it played, and I can find the artist and name of the song, with a link to buy it. Smart.

  • Mike Escutia

    Dang… that site puts the yes.com service to shame. Awesome.

  • Dan

    KEXP isn’t a commercial station.
    I don’t think there is a metro area in the country
    that doesn’t have a non commercial station
    that isn’t playing new music, college or otherwise.
    KEXP is one of the better ones however.

    The problem is commercial radio and 24 minutes of commercial time per hour and 8 minute commercial breaks. And stations like JackFM that are basically radio stations on a laptop using MegaSeg or some other mp3-playing software, with no local content at all.
    The people who run these stations have lost there way.
    Customers (listeners) are not buying it anymore.

    Dan

  • Anonymous

    After building their radio empires, Clear Channel (and CBS Radio before them) finally figured out that it takes as much effort to operate in smaller markets as in larger ones. Since larger markets, even with the more expensive buy-in, are far more profitable than smaller markets, why not get out of the rat race and fatten the bottom line?

  • Jack

    Radio is still a big business. Les Moonves said last week that CBS Radio generated 14 percent of CBS Corps revenue and 27 percent of their profit. Not too shabby a return.

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