Next Radio Bankrupcy: NextMedia

Just after a day after #3 radio company Citadel goes bankrupt, now we have NextMedia going BR...(chapter 11 in a debt-for-equity swap that will give ownership to creditors). It owns outdoor advertising and 36 stations in various states including 2 in San Jose and 5 in my hometown Saginaw, MI (including the big talk radio stations WSGW). Once again blogger Jerry del Colliano is on top of things -- love the way he cuts the corporate speak to get down to the essentials:

"These are piranhas – they prey on growth industries, feed their borrowers by
reissuing loans at ever increasing rates of interest – loans that would make
Tony Soprano’s family envious.And as you heard in the Citadel bankruptcy you get
the usual assurances that there will be no more cutbacks and I finally believe
them – but I also believe in the Fairy God Mother (full disclosure)."

Jerrry's right: Citadel Bankrupt, CC and Cumulus Layoffs Coming? Ah... Media Consolidation; Hello Kitty Radio!

Another one bites the dust? not really, but the bankrupcy filing by #3 radio consolidated radio company Citadel may mean more firings, according to InsideMusicMedia.com and InsideRadio.com's Jerry del Colliano -- a straight-talking insider and USC prof. He's such a thorn in big radio's side that #1 biggie Clear Channel created a website to make fun of him called InsideInsideRadio.com -- which doesn't seem to exist anymore...
Anyway make sure to check out RadioSurvivor.com's post about Jerry and his correct prediction about Citadel's fall. including their own view that the Citadel situation is a fallout from the Telecom Act 1996 which opened the door for massive radio consolidation...

Jerry says look out for CC layoffs around Christmas and for similar action from #2 radio owner, Cumulus, also facing financially tough times:
“Cumulus will continue its methodical execution of broadcast careers and work around-the-clock if necessary to get the company to become a simple series of towers and transmitters that can be virtually programmed by Atlanta, marketed through Harvard-style new age cockamamie radio sales logic and run on the cheap by the few, the shamed, the Dickeys.”

On a lighter note, see RadioSurvivor.com holiday list for radio lovers -- think my daughter Genevieve might like the Hello Kitty Radio -- too bad there's no radio stations for toddlers, and for my ear, only schlock and right-wing rabble-rousing to listen to... there's always 88.3 jazz for comfort. and 89.5/KPBS is decent sometimes.

Also see the Golden Turkey radio award winners /losers. it's the CEO's for #1, #2 & #3 radio corps mentioned above -- for dragging their companies into the gutter. lots of great comments there too.

NEW MEGA MEDIA MERGER -- furthers dangerous road to media oligopoly

Is it a done deal ? The nation's largest cable and broadband provider (Comcast) is merging with NBC Universal. What is the Obama adminsitration about? will it start enforcing anti-trust laws as promised, will the FCC impose conditions for approval (will that matter?) or the status quo of more and more ginormous behemoths owning the public airvwaves. Not opposing this merger and seemingly uninterested in repealing the 1996 Telecom Act which allowed -- no encouraged -- media consolidation to create large, well-capitalized companies that could own multiple media platforms. Just great... that's exactly what's happened here --an unprecedented merger across media platforms: cable, broadccast TV, and Internet, anda corresponding explosion of power to control what people see and hear and what they PAY for that right.

Que sera sera... at least no radio radio stations are involved, and (after GE spins off NBC/Universal) - weapons builder GE will no longer own a controlling interest in media.

Josh Silver of free press.net, writing on huff post
Mega-Media Era Begins: GE-Vivendi Deal Clears Way for Comcast-NBC Merger
December 1.2009
French media giant Vivendi and General Electric agreed to terms that clear the way for cable giant Comcast to take a controlling stake in NBC Universal. The proposed merger would create a media behemoth, and clear the way for an unprecedented era of media consolidation across cable, the Internet and broadcast television. Consumers should be afraid ...
[use link for entire article] .

[Excerpt from Silver article]:
The merged Comcast would be to media what Goldman Sachs is to Wall Street: "a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money," as Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi once described the latter.

excellent discussion of the merger at
http://www.democraticunderground.org/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=433x27223#27422