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Five months after acquiring the Ackerley Group's media properties, San Antoniobased Clear Channel Communications Inc. might just be in the market for another Seattle acquisition.
Struggling Fisher Communications Inc., owner of ABC affiliate KOMO-TV, recently hired Goldman Sachs & Co. to help evaluate its strategic alternatives. Seattle-based Fisher lost more than $900,000 last quarter, despite pocketing nearly $3.5 million from a real estate sale. Fisher's media holdings include a dozen TV stations and 28 radio stations in the Northwest, as well as a production company
"Like everybody, we're looking at them - they are being shopped," said Bill Moll, president of the Clear Channel TV Division. "Clearly there are potential growth opportunities but there are also some limits. They are in a number of markets in which we already own properties."
Federal regulations restrict the number of media properties a company can own in a given market. Those rules are under review, and Moll expects they may be relaxed for smaller media markets. Fisher Communications did not respond to a request for comment.
The nation's largest radio station owner with more than 1,200 radio stations nationwide, Clear Channel's $775 million acquisition of Seattle-based Ackerley Group this past summer gave Clear Channel five Seattle-area radio stations and nearly doubled its TV division.
The company gained 18 TV stations nationwide for a total of 39, including a station in Bellingham that targets the Vancouver, B.C., market...