CMT-CC deal

LIKE GRITS & GRAVY: CMT and Clear Channel have just announced the formation of a multi-platform partnership pairing CMT's reach of 92m households and CC's monthly reach of 89m Country listeners. These platforms will include 125 Clear Channel Country stations in 105 markets; iHeartRadio, which recently surpassed 40m registered users and 260m downloads; and CMT’s own digital platforms, CMT Pure, CMT.com and CMT Mobile, plus a social-media community of 7m+. As a result of the deal, CMT personality Cody Alan will debut as the new host of Premiere Networks' syndicated show After MidNite, which reaches nearly 2m weekly listeners on more than 200 stations; it’ll be rebranded as CMT After MidNite With Cody Alan and will be available on iHeartRadio. CMT prexy Brian Philips pointed out the “inevitability to this partnership," while CC’s Tom Poleman salivated about the creation of "one of the most powerful platforms in Country music," punctuating his words with the similarly inevitable “Yee-haw.” (11/26a)