Clear Channel GMs Called On The Carpet…

Friday, January, 2, 2009 by Mel Phillips.

(Weekend Edition) 

There’s no agenda for Clear Channel’s two-day General Manager’s meeting that begins on Tuesday in Dallas but it can’t be good news for the GM’s.  There are rumors that corporate will be calling more of the shots for struggling stations and will ask GM’s to evaluate the high-priced talent that’s taking chunks of whatever revenue is being generated at many stations.  Management at failing stations may be evaluated as well.  The Seattle Post-Intelligencer cites the canning of KZOK-FM’s longtime veteran Steve Slaton and mentions that more cuts might be coming…

It’s no secret that the Mays family and Bain/Lee, owners of Clear Channel are looking for a higher return on the dollar for their privately held radio and media group.  Despite the sell off of 161 radio stations they remain the largest owner of full-power AM, FM and shortwave radio stations and twelve radio channels on XM Satellite Radio.  Although they sold off all of their television properties, they continue to invest in other media sources including Outdoor advertising where their interests have spread to 25 countries…

Last summer, Clear Channel granted the majority of its shareholders a revised $36-per-share offer from Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners.  The company announced on July 30 that the offer was either $36 in cash or one share of CC Media Class A common stock for each share of Clear Channel common stock held.  I hope the GM’s who might not survive Tuesday’s meeting took advantage of that offer…   

10 Timeline Memories:

1. 1847] The name game: Yerba Buena (CA) is wisely renamed San Francisco (1/3) otherwise Tony Bennett would be singing “I left my heart in Yerba Buena”…
2. 1872] Busted: Brigham Young, 71-year old leader of the Mormon Church is arrested on a charge of bigamy for having 25 wives (1/2). Your commish had the over on 24…1968] Newark (NJ) police confiscate an entire shipment of John Lennon & Yoko Ono’s “Two Virgins” LP which showed full frontal nudity of the couple on the album. The albums are wrapped in plain brown paper and placed at retail (1/2). Anyone have the original album???  Wikipedia has the photo…
3. 1885] Scalpel!: Dr. William Grant performs the first successful appendectomy on Mary Gartside (1/4), only to discover that her gall bladder was supposed to be removed…
4. 1929] Inherit the network: 27-year old William S. Paley becomes CBS President, inheriting the Tiffany network from his father (1/3)…
5. 1935] Guilty as charged: Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial on charges of kidnapping and murdering the Lindbergh baby (1/2). Hauptmann is found guilty and executed in New Jersey…1979] The trial of ex-Sex Pistol Sid Vicious for the October, 1978 murder of girlfriend Nancy Spungen opens in Manhattan (1/2).  Vicious will die from a heroin overdose and not live to hear the verdict…
6. 1965] Broadway bound: Alabama QB Joe Namath signs a 3-year contract worth $427,000 with the New York Jets while standing under the goalpost of the Orange Bowl where his team lost to Texas one day earlier (1/2)…
7. 1967] “Happy Trails“: Jack Ruby, 55, the man that shot JFK assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, dies in a Dallas hospital of a pulmonary embolism (1/3). His secrets about the assassination died with him.  This clip is titled “The Men Who Killed Kennedy”..1980] Larry Williams of “Short Fat Fannie” and “Bony Maronie” fame is found dead in his Los Angeles home (1/2). A gunshot wound to the head is never confirmed as a suicide…
8. 1973] The worst sale of a sports franchise: This award goes to CBS which sells the Yankees to a Cleveland group headed by George Steinbrenner for $10 million (1/3). CBS bought the team for $13.2 million…
9. 1993] The comeback kid: Backup Buffalo Bills QB Frank Reich overcomes a 32-point deficit to beat Houston 41-38 in OT in a Wild Card playoff game (1/3). It’s the biggest comeback in NFL history. Reich did the same thing in college at Maryland as a backup to Boomer Esiason…
10. 2007] I am woman hear me roar: Nancy Pelosi is the first female elected to the post of Speaker of the House (1/4). Somewhere, Tip O’Neill gets stinking rotten drunk…

Music Memories:

• 1936] Number One on this date: “Stop! Look! Listen!” - Joe Venuti (on 78) is the first chart topper based on record sales in Billboard (1/4), founded in 1894 as a trade paper for the bill posting industry.  This Joe Venuti release is from 1933…
• 1954] Recorded on this date: “Casual Love Affair“/”I’ll Never Stand In Your Way” - 19 year-old Elvis Presley for mom Gladys at Sun Studios (1/4). Sam Phillips hears the demo and signs Elvis to Sun Records…1957] “I’m Walkin’” - Fats Domino (1/3)…1962] “Point of No Return” - Gene McDaniels (1/4)…
• 1964] The Beatles debut on U.S. television: The first known footage of the Beatles on a news show was seen on December 7, 1963 on the Walter Cronkite CBS Evening News. The first viewing on a non-news show is this film clip shown on “The Jack Paar Show” (1/3)…

“Happy Birthday…happy birthday”:

(1/2)
Kate Bosworth (26), Taye Diggs (38), Christy Turlington (40), Cuba Gooding Jr. (41), Tia Carrere (42), Lynn Phillips Brough (45), Jim Bakker (70) and Julius LaRosa (79)…(1/3) Eli Manning (28), Mel Gibson (53), Victoria Principal (59), Stephen Stills (64), Bobby Hull (70), Dabney Coleman (77), Robert Loggia (79) and George Martin (83)…(1/4) Michael Stipe (49), Patty Loveless (52), Dyan Cannon (72), Don Shula (79) and Herman Franks (85)…

Timeline Countdown: One day until the NFL Wild Card Playoffs, 18 days until MLK JR. Day, 19 days until the presidential inauguration and 30 days until the Super Bowl…

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