The hosts have been teasing this for the past week or so -- probably against instructions, and, since Cumulus and Citadel are both public, potentially illegally -- but today the deal got announced.
Cumulus Media agreed to acquire Citadel Broadcasting, a deal that will approximately double Cumulus's size. The price -- $2.4 billion in cash and Cumulus stock.
This article says nothing will change at the stations.
Right.
It's bizarre to think that WBAP and the little Ticket will become sibling stations. Do you think they'll have to share a bedroom and then suddenly realize they both love karate, velociraptors and Good Housekeeping?
ReplyDeleteI think this will work, as long as Citadel doesn't touch Cumulus' drums.
ReplyDelete-Anon B
Actually, back on Feb 17 it was announced that Citadel was entering exclusive negotiations to sell itself to Cumulus. That's when the Hardline started making references to it. Today is when the final agreement/price got announced.
ReplyDeleteCumulus is also due to announce earnings on Monday.
Shaggy, you're absolutely right. My comment about "potentially illegal" assumed these guys had some info that the deal was actually going to happen. Of course, broadcasting it to the entire world (or at least that portion of it that The Ticket's signal dribbles out to) probably doesn't qualifiy as passing along inside information.
ReplyDeleteI remember reading an article awhile back about the troubles of Greg "The Hammer" Williams - written after he was fired from The Ticket. The article said he was making $500,000/yr at his peak there. Due to the downtown in the ecomomy, I wonder if the major Ticket hosts (such as the Musers and the Hardline) are now making the same, or more, or less than that ($500k) today?
ReplyDelete