Les Moonves' CBS Radio & Clear Channel Say "Let's Make a Deal"

CBS Radio agreed yesterday to swap five of its mid- size-market stations for two big-market stations owned by Clear Channel Communications.

“This deal represents a financially advantageous opportunity for us to shed some of our midsize-market stations while expanding in a Top-10 market, which is our focus,” CBS boss Les Moonves (photo right) said in a statement.

Terms of the trade call for CBS to take control of two stations in Houston, the nation’s sixth-largest radio market.

In exchange, Clear Channel gets two stations in Portland, Ore., and one each in Seattle, Baltimore, and Sacramento, Calif.

The deal is structured as a like-for-like exchange with no money changing hands in order to be tax-free to shareholders.