CLEAR CHANNEL INCOME UP

Clear Channel Communications, the largest owner of U.S. radio stations, reported Wednesday (10/26) that its third-quarter net income surged due to a one-time asset sales gain arising from its takeover of AMFM Inc.

The company, which also recently bought promoter SFX, said it recorded a profit of $448.9 million, or 96 cents per diluted share, from $1.5 million, or less than 1 cent per share in the year-earlier period, Reuters reports.

The latest quarter's figure includes an after-tax gain of $499.2 million from the sale of certain radio stations, which was required before the takeover of AMFM was approved by the Federal Communications Commission.

The takeovers helped to drive up the cost of Clear Channel's depreciation and amortization of assets to $372.1 million from $208.6 million. Its corporate expenses and interest costs also climbed.

Clear Channel, which has 1,120 U.S. radio stations in 262 markets and operates 750,000 outdoor advertising displays, reported that its net revenues almost doubled to $1.58 billion.

If such a number-heavy report is confusing, fear not. We at HITS have no idea whether the now-dominant company is doing well or not. But we figured we'd share and someone who understood might let us know what it was that we reported.