Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Radio and Private Equity: I've fallen and I can't get up.


The vibes the private equity firms are giving off are anything but good for Clear Channel. Radio’s fallen – and it can’t get up.

Expect Mark Mays to be summoned to the barber chair where reps from BainCapital and Thomas H. Lee will be waiting, straight-razors in hands, to give the number one son a haircut and a shave that’ll forever be ingrained in the annals of the broadcast industry.

If he wants Clear Channel go private, he’d better be ready to learn how to live without his parts.
*
Markie’s learned of his haircut appointment on Tuesday following a news report by Reuters from the Super Return, a private equity conference in Munich, Germany.

That’s where Scott Sperling, co-President of Thomas H. Lee – the firm handling one-half of the $19.5 billion Clear Channel buyout deal, said, “The forces that have limited the liquidity that's available will continue to work in a negative way in certainly the next three to six months and maybe somewhat longer, and that needs to be washed out of the system." He added that any company for sale “…will look at the situation that we’ve confronted in the last year and say, 'I may need to change the terms of the deal.'” *

Don't confuse Scott with Sy. Sy puts hair on your head. Scott scalps.

Sperling also predicted that the billions of dollars in debt left by the credit crisis will freeze large leverage buyout deals.

Read between the lines.
*
There’s more. Reuters reported that Credit Suisse may back out of the Clear Channel-Bain/Lee deal by pawning…er…selling a share of its loans in the deal.

Firms are walking – in some cases running – from deals and banks are backing out of commitments. That means to get a deal done private equity firms will have to depend on hedge funds and mutual funds to pull off deal loans.

Translation: It’s not their pension fund whose money they’ll be using.
*
The banks jumped on these deals because they got their piece by charging outrageous financing fees. If the deals got iffy – they’d just cut and run.

But the subprime mortgage scandal has left the banks with billions of dollars in debt, which puts them out of the running for getting their beaks wet in any large leverage buyout schemes.

There’s also that other predicament no one wants to talk above a whisper about. Should the credit market continue its tumble; they’ll be concerns on whether any over-leveraged company can ride out a deep recession.
*
Mark, we know it’s been a rough week. You still can’t buy a clue on the if’s or when’s your deal to unload TV stations with Providence will clear – even following that expensive 10 percent haircut now that Wachovia wants out of anything to do with Clear Channel.
*
Then there’s that new Clear Channel book.
*
On Wednesday, Tom Taylor’s Taylor on Radio from Radio-Info.com broke the story on Alec Foege’s forthcoming book, Right of the Dial: the Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio, which will be released on April 15.

Question: Did the Mays family refuse to be interviewed for the book?
*
Answer: Yes.
*
Uh-oh.
*
Don’t write this off as the tome of a disgruntled Clear Channel employee. Foege’s a former contributing editor of Rolling Stone – and has also written for the New York Times, Mediaweek, AdWeek, and Fortune, among others.

In the mid nineties, Foege wrote The Empire God Built: Inside Pat Robertson’s Media Machine. That’s the one the religious right tried to create book-burning rallies around.
*
So how does Clear Channel plan to combat Foege’s book?

Do their own revisionist history version. Would you expect anything less?
*
They hired Reed Bunzel to rush-write a complementary book to the slavish devotion to Saints Lowry, Mark and Randy of the House of Clear Channel.

You don’t get wealthy writing a book unless you’re established on the New York Times best-seller list– and this party line piece hardly appears to be of that caliber (Foege’s, on the other hand, does) - so the question begs to be asked. How much did Mark Mays pay you to write this book? Free tip: Hope it was cash up-front.
*
Reed Bunzel. Name sound familiar? If you're in the radio biz - you may have read some of his stuff.
*
Here’s his dossier:
*
Bunzel's an unpublished mystery writer, who worked his way into the broadcast industry trade business, holding various editorial positions at media mags, including Radio & Records and Broadcasting magazine and was, for a time, editor-in-chief of Radio Ink.
*
During the nineties, Bunzel was VP of communications at the RAB and did propaganda for the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) in both their radio and public affairs departments. He was also president of the Bunzel Media Group, which published the now-defunct Radio Finance Weekly. He also authored the report, The State of Radio 2007, which he described as “a comprehensive presentation of the ‘state of the radio industry’ the way it should be portrayed.”

Sounds like a believable fellow.

These days he’s CEO of AMS-I, a division of American Media Services, a radio brokerage firm, which “provide(s) broadcasters with expertise in such areas as streaming onto the Internet and creating Internet radio sites that offer high-quality audio.”

His book titled Clear Vision: The story of Clear Channel Communications is described as “the only corporate history that is authorized by the company, and includes exclusive interviews with top-level executives.” It’s called “….a story of vision and foresight, the willingness to take a calculated risk on the unknown, of fiscal prudence, vibrant leadership and, at times, an almost breathtaking capacity to influence the dynamics of the media marketplace,” and “....the story of the entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen of the people who have helped make Clear Channel the media giant that it is today.”

File under fiction.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

You could say that Clear Channel "wrote the book" on how to destroy the radio industry.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone noticed that the cover of the "authorized" Clear Channel book looks similar to the logo of XM Satellite radio?

Anonymous said...

Clear Channel or any other radio-TV chain would be the LAST place I would want my pension fund to invest in!

Anonymous said...

Mark Mays has run out of spin. He believed he could pull off the BainCapital-Thomas H. Lee deal without a hitch and was so confident last year that he could not stop bragging and patting himself on the back about it. Now it is a different story. He is being exposed for the fraud that he is and what his company is really worth.

I also cannot believe their hurbris regarding their actions regarding the Clear Channel book. Do they really believe anyone will read, let alone buy into the propaganda Bunzel wrote about them?

We are watching the decline and fall of an empire built on quicksand.

Anonymous said...

You wrote:

"The banks jumped on these deals because they got their piece by charging outrageous financing fees. If the deals got iffy – they’d just cut and run.

But the subprime mortgage scandal has left the banks with billions of dollars in debt, which puts them out of the running for getting their beaks wet in any large leverage buyout schemes.

There’s also that other predicament no one wants to talk above a whisper about. Should the credit market continue its tumble; they’ll be concerns on whether any over-leveraged company can ride out a deep recession."

Your blog should be required reading by any bank, private equity, shareholder or anyone else connected to the broadcasting industry because it will be hit the hardest by the advertising crunch. If anything radio values should be far less than they were prior to the telecommunications bill. The day will come when AM and FM radio will be a thing of the past. It is definitely not the future.

Anonymous said...

Reed Bunzel is a pimp for radio or maybe cheerleader for a losing team is a better analogy. I am familiar enough with what he has written over the years that I agree with Mark Mays that Reed is the right guy to write the pro-Clear Channel book. He has spent the past decade writing about how wonderful the radio industry is and how it is on the road to even greater success. When he was editor of Radio Ink which is the most pro-radio trade out there he wanted you to believe that it was radio's new golden age. You were right to say 'file under fiction'.

Anonymous said...

It should be called "Clear vision, hard of hearing"

Anonymous said...

No doubt, the Credit Suisse move is unusual. But it’s not a bad sign for the deal going through. If this deal were in doubt, there would be no takers and Credit Suisse wouldn’t even be asking big investors to buy the loans. Remember, they’re going to their best investors with the deepest pockets and urging them to buy.

What it does reflect, rather, is that the CC acquisition is one of the strongest deals on the bank’s books and so it has turned to selling it off ahead of schedule to raise much needed cash.

Never say never, but this one looks like it’s done to me.

Anonymous said...

The "money world" defies logic. It is a separate economy unto itself. That being said, it is impossible to predict the outcome of either deal. No matter what the end result is there will be some strong financial winners. The product be damned. It is how to get in and get out and when.

Anonymous said...

I want to see the deal go through so Mark Mays is forced to answer to Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee. If he thinks they were all over him a month ago with Hogan's memo I have news - they haven't seen anything yet. You will look back at this time and call it the good old days of Clear Channel. It will only get worse. I would like to know where the campaign money Bain and Lee and CC is going. Bain was backing Mitt Romney obviously and is no doubt with McCain now but I would be interested to see if these three are also donating to the Democrats and if so which one and how much? That will be a good indication of what you can expect under a new administration.

Anonymous said...

Even if Mark Mays is called out on things and was launced tomorrow, he'd still get a huge golden parachute of a deal. Clear Channel
Radio = the Enron of radio. Great leadership...not!

Anonymous said...

Can't wait to read the books. The Clear Channel version of their history is Mark Mays' version of Mein Kampf.

Anonymous said...

I remember reading (maybe in this blog or one of the on-line trades) that Bain & Lee forced the Mays family to a reduction of their golden parachute dollars. Of course that could mean instead of 50 million, it was 49 million. I think it was a couple of months after the Bain & Lee deal was announced.

I wonder if Bain & Lee made them give up their private jets yet?

Anonymous said...

Only those in the radio business will buy/borrow the "authorized" Clear Channel book and of those that do most will be from the tribe that still drinks the Kool Aid. Everyone in radio and anyone not in the business that was a fan of radio will buy the "unauthorized" book. This is one case where the "unauthorized" is closer to the truth.
Responding to Mark Mays and his golden parachute. I believe you are right. He still has one but had to trim it down some. He deserves one made of lead.

Anonymous said...

Reed Bunzel = Kitty Kelly.

Anonymous said...

"Reed Bunzel is a pimp for radio"

Thank God SOMEONE is giving the other side. All you anti-radio haters with axes to grind would never say anything positive about the industry. You pile on like a bunch of high school football players, and none of you have any real solutions. Just a lot of hatred, bitterness, and anger.

I read some excerpts of Reed's book, and it tells the fairest version of the Minot story I've read to date. But no one's interested in fair. Just about getting even.

Anonymous said...

“…You will look back at this time and call it the good old days of Clear Channel…”

Yup. Couldn’t have said it better. I predict five years from now the workforce at CC will be half of what it is today.

Anonymous said...

i don't believe there will be a clear channel five years from now. if there is any radio at all it will be a multiplatform approach with internet, podcast, and not the half assed way it is being done today by consultants that don't have a clue. i believe cbs will sell radio, entercom, greater media & others will sell off many of their properties. hoepfully we will see a combination of new owners and real broadcasters with a passion for good radio. either that or radio will be completely dead.

Anonymous said...

Reed Bunzel. Captain of the Titanic. We expect to reach our destination.

He has been a bought and sold radio cheerleader for years. If you want someone to write a pro-radio story Reed is the go-to-guy.

I worked with him for a brief time. He is the epitome of a phony.

I can see why Clear Channel chose him to write the book.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm. . .wonder if Reed Bunzel will be going on any book tours? What's his next tome? Broadcasting For Dummies??

Anonymous said...

John Gorman is a self-important, narcissistic, BS artist who doesn't know how to write.

Consider the following sentence: "Should the credit market continue its tumble; they’ll be concerns on whether any over-leveraged company can ride out a deep recession."

Gee, I wonder what is wrong with it?

Oh, and all those mixed metaphors. Puhleez! Time to review Strunk and White, dude!

Yup, those who live in glass houses....

Oh, and Reed Bunzel published Pay for Play back in the early 1990s. So not only are you a slanderer but you don't even have your facts straight. John Gorman = LOSER in my book!

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