[BC] Aloha Trust

[tpt at literock93r.com]

Tom Bosscher, peaking out between the snowdrifts in western Michigan,  
asked about the Aloha trust. (Suspect he wouldn't mind going to land  
of Aloha for a while...)

Under the 1996 amendments to the communication act, limits on station  
ownership was defined by the size of the market. The larger the  
market, the more stations one company could own in the market. The  
catch was how a "market" was defined.
Many Clear Channel clusters were organized under the previous cross  
ownership rules based on contour overlap. That is, to determine the  
size of a market for cross-ownership purposes, one counted all of the  
commercial signals that had city-grade contours (5 mv, Am; 70 dbu, FM)  
that overlapped with the stations being acquired or were already  
owned.  As one can imagine, if you owned a 50 kw "clear" this would  
define a very large "market."

The FCC modified the cross-ownership rules for Arbitron rated markets.  
Now the market is defined as the total number of signals, both  
commercial and non-commercial, licensed to the county or counties  
included in Arbitron's definition of the metro market. Stations  
outside the market may also be included in the market count if they  
have a "significant presence" in that market. E.G.--they show up in  
the book.

When Clear Channel applied to go private, questions arose about these  
"grandfathered" markets where CC had more than the approved number of  
stations using the rated market method of counting. Because it was  
soon determined that the privatization would be a significant change  
in control of Clear Channel; CC agreed to spin off stations in those  
over-the-limit markets in order to bring down the station count. Those  
stations were sent to the "Aloha Trust."

As several folks commented at the time, Aloha means both hello and  
goodbye. Speculation at the time was once the dust settled a number of  
these stations would be allowed to return to the mothership.  However,  
the trades now indicate that CC has agreed that the stations in the  
Aloha trust will be sold as part of the FCC's approval of their  
privatization deal. Of course, CC has the option to take some of the  
stations out of the trust, and put different stations into trust  
before everything is settled, so long as the numbers in those markets  
stay the same.

Maopopo?