Clear Channel with their problems of paying their debt?

Clear Channel Communications, In. is an American mass media company founded in San Antonio, TX in 1972. The company was taken private by Bain Capital, LLC and Thomas H. Lee Partners in a buyout deal in 2008, resulting for the company operating as a wholly owned subsidiary of CC Media Holdings, Inc. owning 850 radio stations around the country, making them the largest radio conglomerate in the US.

Clear Channel is the largest owner of full-power AM, FM, and shortwave radio stations and several radio channels on XM Satellite Radio. It consist of two main media businesses: Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, and the wholly owned Clear Channel Media and Entertainment. Between these divisions, Clear Channel focuses on providing a range of multi-platform advertising and marketing opportunities for partners and world-class entertainment for listeners and users.

Clear Channel focuses on developing innovative and dynamic campaigns for advertisers.
Its Outdoor division operates near one million displays in 45 countries, and continues to expand upon traditional billboard advertising by packaging different displays in airports, rails, malls, and more worldwide. The company focuses on investing in new technologies has led to the growth of its digital footprint. It helped to create the advertising for new features such as countdowns, video, time-sensitive updates and social media integration. Their own Clear Channel’s Media and Entertainment division has the largest radio or television outlet in America with 239 million monthly listeners.

The company also operates online and through mobile services, including iHeartRadio. This is Clear Channel’s free, digital service for live concerts and events such as the iHeartRadio Music Festival; music research services, and program syndication, and many more.

Their goal is to continue their path towards a creative, dynamic and innovative future.

However, in 2007, for Clear Channel to become a privately held company, they sold almost half of their 1,200 radio stations and all of its 51 television stations partly because of their move and the FCC regulations. Even with these sales, Clear Channel is still known as the largest of the radio groups, with its number of stations and markets more than the next three radio groups combined, with the total of 844 stations.

Furthermore though, because of the numerous layoffs in 2008 that they faced, right now Clear Channel has been strategically firing employees in small numbers to fire their way to pay that debt down. According to toledoblade, the company’s debt must be repaid throughout the decade and comes due as soon as 2014.

It also looks like that they analyzed the radio industry is not without its challenges. The widespread changes occurring with the advent of digital radio and the Internet, with this change, there a lot of opportunities that aren’t traditional media therefore the trends may look negative to the normal broadcast industry.