It's about time CC finally let go of its death grip on the smaller markets and its many jockless stations. 1,150 stations = 1,146 underserved markets. CC has never given a poop about those smaller stations, so it'll be nice to see the company turn them loose to real people who will actually invest in airstaff and promotions departments. I bet we'll see quite a few "old radio guys" buying small stations. Dare we dream of a return to the concept of local stations serving their local markets and playing what the listeners want to hear?
My understanding and suspicion is that the agreement to dump the smaller markets was the first bargaining chip in CC's petition to get the FCC to increase the station caps in their largest markets, but I don't really keep up with the business anymore, so I'm uncertain of that. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong. I wouldn't be surprised to hear of a CC station trade in the future wherein Cumulus gets back some of its smaller markets in exchange for its underperforming stations in the big cities. Ahem.
I bought CCO stock but refused to touch CCU because it peaked in the late 90's and then began its steady decline/flatline. CCO shares have crawled up a couple of cents for me, but I admit smirking a bit each time I check the CCU stocks and see that I made the right decision, for what it's worth. Should I dump my CCO and take a couple of bucks so my family can have a really nice Christmas courtesy of the Mays family, or should I hang on and take a "wait and see" approach with it? (Any advice on this would be welcomed.)
