> A friend of mine just discovered something very interesting
> over at fcc.gov
>
> If you do an AM or FM license query..this pops up..
>
> Seems that the listed owner of the license for WHBC AM/FM in
> Canton is...drumroll please..CBS Networks Inc.
>
> WTF?
>
> Did CBS pay off NextMedia's 200 million dollar debt, which
> was purchased during the fourth quarter of 2005..and
> detailed at nextmediaradio.com?
>
> O-A? Donnie? Anybody wanna explain this one?
Will I do?
NextMedia (well, NM Licensing LLC) bought two San Jose stations, KBAY and KEZR, that CBS had to sell due to market-concentration issues. (The stations were actually placed in trust for a few months before being sold.)
It's not uncommon, generally for tax or liability reasons, for a company buying a station or group of stations to also buy the corporate shell under which those stations operated. That's why WTAM, for instance, is still licensed to "Jacor Broadcasting Corporation."
For whatever reason, it apparently made legal sense for NextMedia, in the process of acquiring KBAY and KEZR, to also acquire the "CBS Networks Inc." shell corporation, and apparently to extend that operating name to its other licenses as well. (I'm not ruling out the possibility that a quirk in the FCC's CDBS database system may have placed the "CBS Networks Inc." name on the other licenses, where it shouldn't belong.)
In any event, drilling down far enough in the KBAY transfer application shows that "CBS Networks Inc.," despite the name, is in fact 100% controlled by NM Licensing LLC, and not at all by CBS Corporation, the ultimate corporate parent of the various entities ("CBS Radio Stations, Inc." and so on) that are the licensees of the CBS stations.
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