Citadel Broadcasting
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 |
Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2007) |
- For the similarly named television broadcaster, see Citadel Communications.
| Citadel Broadcasting | |
|---|---|
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| Type | Public (NYSE: CDL) |
| Founded | 1984 |
| Headquarters | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA |
| Area served |  United States |
| Industry | Radio Broadcasting |
| Revenue | $432,930,000 USD (2006) |
| Employees | 3,392 |
| Website | citadelbroadcasting.com |
Citadel Broadcasting Corporation NYSE: CDL is a Las Vegas, Nevada, based broadcast holding company. Investment house Forstmann Little & Company owns 27% of Citadel and is its largest shareholder.
Citadel owns 243 radio stations across the United States and is the third-largest radio station owner in the country.
Farid Suleman is the current chairman and CEO.
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[edit] History
The company was founded in 1984 as Citadel Associates Limited Partnership. In 1990 it was renamed Citadel Associates Montana Limited Partnership for the purpose of owning and operating stations in Montana that were formerly owned by CALP. A year later, Citadel Broadcasting was officially incorporated and in 1992 it acquired all of the radio stations owned by its predecessors.
Within a decade, Citadel expanded to 26 states. Within that time period, it has absorbed all Bloomington Broadcasting radio holdings and 11 stations from Dick Broadcasting Company and has also acquired 3 radio stations from Slone Broadcasting, Inc. and Slone Radio, LLC.
On February 6, 2006, Forstmann Little and The Walt Disney Company agreed to merge Citadel with Disney's ABC Radio.[1] Shares representing 57% of Citadel were distributed to shareholders of The Walt Disney Company following the company's acquisition of 22 stations from ABC Radio.
After the merger, Citadel's ownership structure was:
- 57%: Shareholders in The Walt Disney Company
- 27%: Forstmann Little
- 16%: Former Citadel shareholders exclusive of Forstmann Little or shareholders in Disney
ABC owned and operated affiliates of Radio Disney and ESPN Radio were not included in the merger agreement, nor were the actual networks.
In order to comply with FCC ownership limitations, Citadel has sold off twelve of its radio stations. Ten of the stations' licenses have been transferred to a newly formed trust company, The Last Bastion Station Trust, LLC. The two-station Cortland, New York, cluster was sold off prior to the merger in a separate transaction; WIII was sold to Saga Communications and WKRT (now WYBY) has been given to the Bible Broadcasting Network for free as a tax deductible donation.
[edit] Citadel Interactive
Citadel Broadcasting launched an online service called Citadel Interactive in 2005, and a year later launched Right Now Radio. By July 2007, more than 180 of their stations are streaming online.
[edit] Becoming environmentally friendly
On April 16, 2008, Citadel Broadcasting became the first organization-wide radio company to join the Environmental Protection Agency's "Green Power Partnership Program" and committed $1 million (USD) in Educational Green public service announcements. In April 2008, ABC/Citadel's KGO-AM in San Francisco, California was installing equipment for broadcasing with solar power during the daytime hours.[2][3]. The maximum rated output of the solar cells installed at the KGO transmitter site is a little over 7kW, which under ideal conditions is about 15% of the 50 kW of electricity radiated by the transmitter during daytime hours .[1]
[edit] Employee Poaching Suit
Some time in early 2007, Citadel Broadcasting has filed a lawsuit against Peak Broadcasting, claiming Peak raided its staff and secured company information. Peak operated in the Boise, ID cluster after purchasing 6 radio stations from Clear Channel Communications. Citadel also owns 6 stations in the Boise cluster. The suit claimed that one of the former Citadel employees stole a computer disk with critical information, which Peak then used to compete against Citadel in Fresno, CA, as well. Peak has denied the allegations, however the two parties have now reached a confidential settlement, which included an undisclosed payment to Citadel, according to the Idaho Statesman.[4]
[edit] References
- Radio Ink (June 12, 2007). Citadel Closes On ABC Radio Radio Ink.
- ^ "Citadel to Buy Most of Disney Radio Assets," The Wall Street Journal, February 6, 2006.
- ^ KGO: up-to-date progress on Solar Transmitter Project
- ^ "ABC Radio's Green Power"
- ^ Citadel and Peak settle Boise dispute over employee poaching - Radio-Info.com (retrieved June 11, 2008)
