Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

$16 billion in debt is a big burden to carry around and for the next few years CEO Bob Pittman is going to struggle with ways to deal with it.

But no one overcomes that kind of imbalance without a bold move.

You may remember that Lee and Bain tried to get out of their 2009 Clear Channel acquisition before it was too late and changed their minds at the last minute.

Something to do with threatened lawsuits if they backed out.

They’re in it to lose it.

To wreck the company and sell off the parts kind of like Hostess did with Twinkies.  Did you see that New York Times article on how Hostess is worth more dead than alive? 

Clear Channel is radio’s Twinkies.

Here are some of the bold moves you will see sooner rather than later:

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1. What is the surprising way for Clear Channel to raise $4-5 billion to pay down debt.
2. Why selling some key market stations is not off the table.  I’ll name an example.
3. How laying off more employees will be so very different this year.
4. How Clear Channel plans to operate more like Pandora than the top radio group.
5. The move that is currently underway to drastically reduce programming expenses (with a perfect example).

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