CBS Radio - Recent Actions

Recent Actions

In August 2006, CBS Radio announced the sale of its 15 radio stations in Cincinnati, Ohio; Memphis, Tennessee; Austin, Texas; and Rochester, New York to Entercom Communications. This group deal was granted FCC approval in mid-November 2007 after it faced regulatory review and numerous challenges for over a year, and officially closed on November 30. Several other stations, most in smaller markets, have also been sold to companies like Border Media Partners and Peak Media Corporation.

On April 30, 2008, CBS Radio and AOL entered a partnership (following the dissolution of partnership between AOL and XM Satellite Radio due to the change in Internet royalty rates). The AOL Radio player powered by CBS Radio features over 200 CBS Radio stations, along with over 200 AOL Radio stations, combining two of the largest online radio networks and giving millions of listeners unlimited and free access to a diverse array of music and programming including news, sports and talk. These stations have been folded into the AOL Radio application seen in the iTunes App Store for availability on the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad.

On July 31, 2008; CBS Radio has announced that it will sell 50 more radio stations in 12 mid-size markets to increase its focus on stations in large markets such as Greater Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago metropolitan area, Dallas/Fort Worth, New York City, San Francisco Bay Area, Greater Philadelphia, and Detroit metropolitan area. It is reported that KMOX in St. Louis and KDKA in Pittsburgh are not included in the 50 radio station sale, however some companies like RBC Capital Markets said CBS Radio is a "melting icecube" and that CBS Corporation would be better off selling the entire radio unit rather than "waiting a couple of years and selling the rest for less."

On December 15, 2008, CBS Radio and Clear Channel Communications reached an agreement to swap seven stations. In this deal, Clear Channel acquired WQSR in Baltimore, Maryland, KBKS in Seattle, Washington, KLTH and KXJM in Portland, Oregon, and KQJK in Sacramento, California; and CBS Radio would get KHMX and KLOL in Houston, Texas. The swap was among the first examples of CBS Radio's strategy to divest its mid-sized market stations and focus on the larger markets. The deal closed on April 1, 2009.

On December 20, 2008, CBS Radio announced that it would sell the entire Denver cluster (this includes three radio stations) to Wilks Broadcasting for $19.5 Million. This is another example of CBS Radio's strategy to divest its mid-sized market stations and focus on the larger markets. The stations included in the sale are KIMN, KWLI, and KXKL.

In February 2009, with the rise of Internet royalty rates, Yahoo! made a deal with CBS Radio to power LAUNCHcast.

On August 10, 2009, CBS Radio announced that it would sell the entire Portland cluster (this includes four radio stations) to Alpha Broadcasting for $40 Million. The stations included in the sale are KCMD, KINK, KUFO, and KUPL-FM.

On February 4, 2010, all CBS Radio stations, as well as AOL Radio and Yahoo! Music Radio have restricted all non U.S. listeners from streaming online content. CBS Radio redirects to sister property Last.fm.

2011 saw the biggest AC format removal of the company dropping AC for hot adult contemporary on Washington, D.C.'s WIAD in March, followed by New York City's WWFS on October 12 (both in the Eastern Time Zone). On August 1, WCFS-FM Chicago removed its AC format for all-news to simulcast WBBM-AM. By November 2011, WLTE in Minneapolis/St. Paul removed the AC format for Christmas music, only to transition to country music as KMNB on December 26.

As of October, 2011, AOL Radio is no longer a part of radio.com, having switched to Slacker Radio.

On June 28, 2012, Yahoo is no longer a part of radio.com having switched to IHeart Radio.