The CBS model is to dump its smaller market clusters/stations...last I checked Dallas and Houston were Major Market outlets, major assets.
Some companies want to own major market outlets like CBS, some want to own more medium market stations like Entercom, and some want to own everything, like CC. Which having been a CC employee (with no axe to grind, but as a stock holder) they haven't learned really anything. Their theory is to corner a marketplace..i.e. to control market share in their respective locales..so that way advertisers, agencies, have to buy them because they have the 55% max market share or something close. Content really is secondary to CC. Not to say they don't have some very good Programmers, talent, and stations, but if the product is good, that is only an added benefit of their critical mass business plan. "Less Is More"...just common sense that you cannot have huge spot loads every hour and expect to retain listeners...hardly programming genius. Now they are offering blinks (1 second spots) and are told to sell :30 spots vs. :60 (which actually is better...word economy, say with less words get to the point, it sounds better, more intelligent, clears up the message) and :15's as well. But if they would just review the tons of perceptual research available on spot loads/stopsets, they would see it is more about the amount of spots, vs. the amount of time. 4-5 ads is still 4-5 ads to a listener, whether it is 5 minutes or 2 minutes.
Tookie, could CBS sell? Sure, and so could CC, look at ABC...they did. But you need to better understand the lay of the land and the business model before you do the "chicken little" routine. CBS will stay very entrenched in its Major Market operations(of which H-town and Big D are) and a few select markets 11-25 especially where they have an O&O TV station. But they will sell the rest and be more lean and mean in the major cities.
