CBS Radio

This article is about the radio group. For the radio network, see CBS Radio Network.

CBS Radio, Inc.

Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Radio Broadcasting
Founded	1928 1997 (relaunched as Infinity Broadcasting) 2005 (relaunched as CBS Radio)
Headquarters	New York City, New York, USA
Area served	United States
Owner(s)	CBS Corporation
Website	cbsradio.com

CBS Radio, Inc., formerly known as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, is one of the largest owners and operators of radio stations in the United States, fourth in size behind main rival Clear Channel Communications (which owns many of the stations were previously owned by former CBS parent Viacom before 1997), Cumulus Media and Citadel Broadcasting and second in terms of revenue. CBS Radio owns around 130 radio stations across the country. It is currently part of CBS Corporation, which also owns the CBS radio and television networks, and jointly owns the CW Television Network.

History

CBS Radio is one of the oldest units within CBS Corporation, second to the CBS Radio Network, and has been around since 1928. The CBS Radio Network, however, was launched in 1927, when CBS itself was known as United Independent Broadcasters. Columbia Records later joined in and that company was renamed the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. In September 1927, Columbia Records sold the company to William S. Paley and in 1928, Paley streamlined the corporate name to Columbia Broadcasting System.

The company that would become CBS Radio was founded in 1972 as Infinity Broadcasting Corporation by Michael A. Wiener and Gerald Carrus, with the acquisition of KOME, an FM radio station that served the San Francisco Bay Area. It became a publicly-traded company twice, in 1986, and again in 1992.

Westinghouse Electric Corporation, which acquired CBS, Inc. in 1995, acquired Infinity Broadcasting in 1997. Westinghouse, which entered broadcasting on November 2, 1920 with the world's first commercially licensed radio station, KDKA in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, would later change its name to CBS Corporation, and reorganize all of its radio properties (including its own Group W stations), as well as its outdoor advertising business, under the Infinity Broadcasting Corporation name.

In 1999, CBS Corporation was merged into Viacom. On December 14, 2005, Viacom changed its name to CBS Corporation and spun off its motion picture and cable television assets under the Viacom name. In anticipation of this, Infinity Broadcasting was reorganized as CBS Radio.

Streaming Radio

Until late 2004, the stations were not allowed to stream their programs online. WCBS-AM was the first station able to stream their content over the internet, shortly followed by other news and talk stations. Company officials originally thought that there was no profit to be made from streaming.

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, and Greater Philadelphia. It is reported that KMOX in St. Louis and KDKA in Pittsburgh are not included in the 50 radio station sale,^[1] 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.^[2] 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.^[3]

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.^[4]

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.^[5]

Howard Stern and Free FM

From 1985 to 2005, Infinity/CBS Radio was the home of controversial and top-rated talk show host Howard Stern, who left due to increasing FCC and station censorship. In January 2006, rock star David Lee Roth, Rover's Morning Glory, and talk show host Adam Carolla replaced Stern in most major radio markets, and CBS Radio launched its new "Free FM" hot talk format in many of these markets. Roth's show was cancelled four months later and CBS Radio announced that Opie and Anthony of XM Radio would replace Roth on the stations that carried him, despite the irony that the two were fired after the sex act controversy inside of St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York. Adam Carolla's show was also later canceled.

On February 28, 2006, CBS Radio announced it had filed a lawsuit against Stern, his agent Don Buchwald, and Sirius, arguing that Stern promoted Sirius "to enrich himself unfairly."^[6] It also claimed that Stern "repeatedly and will-fully" breached his contract with CBS, "misappropriated millions of dollars worth [of airtime]" for his own benefit and "fraudulently concealed" his performance-related interests in Sirius stock. The suit, filed in New York State Court, sought compensatory and punitive damages. Stern anticipated the suit, and earlier that day, prior to CBS' announcement, held a press conference, discussing how CBS added to the media attention, even booking him for appearances on Late Show with David Letterman and 60 Minutes. "I made them millions of dollars," Stern argued. "If I was hurting them, why did they keep me on the air for fourteen months? How can you have it both ways?"^[7] When a settlement was announced on May 26, 2006, Sirius gained exclusive rights to Stern's back catalogue of radio broadcasts at WXRK from November 1985 to December 2005, totalling almost 23,000 hours.^[8] The rights, costing Sirius approximately $2 million, equates to approximately $87 per-hour of tape.^[9]

As of 2009, the Free FM branding has been discontinued in all markets, and no former Free FM station continues to have a hot talk format.

Jack FM

For more details on this topic, see Jack FM.

CBS Radio owns the majority of stations in the United States that broadcast the Jack FM format, a radio format that incorporates all types of popular music from the mid-50s to the present. These include stations in Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Seattle, Minneapolis and many other cities. New York and Houston had Jack FM stations, too; the New York City station, WCBS-FM has reverted back to its traditional oldies format, and Jack (which has been renamed ToNY) is now carried on its HD2 subchannel.

Major League Baseball

CBS Radio is the largest broadcaster of local Major League Baseball broadcasts. In the past two years, CBS has dropped the St. Louis Cardinals from KMOX and the Pittsburgh Pirates from KDKA, ending two long relationships between the teams and their flagship stations. (KMOX reacquired the Cardinals' broadcast rights in 2011.) However, New York Yankees games were renewed on WCBS-AM. CBS's WFAN is the flagship station of the New York Mets and WSCR is the flagship station of the Chicago White Sox. In Philadelphia, WPHT a frequency that had been the long time home of the Philadelphia Phillies before parting ways after the 2001 season, reacquired the team's broadcast rights in 2005. KRLD-FM in Dallas is the flagship station for the Texas Rangers.

See also

• Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W), the broadcasting unit of Westinghouse.
• Infinity Broadcasting Corporation, the company before its reorganization by Westinghouse.
• Last.fm

References

External links

• CBS Radio official website