Something is happening over at Clear Channel these days, but it's hard to say what it is. Over the weekend the embattled radio giant finally closed a contentious deal with Providence Equity Partners, according to the Wall Street Journal. Providence had agreed back in April 2007 to buy the company's TV stations but later threatened to pull out of the agreement due to a softening market. Clear Channel ultimately made the deal happen by cutting the price from more than $1.2 billion to about $1.1 billion.

There was a certain urgency to make the sale. While it has little to do with Clear Channel's bid to go private--another deal that has been stuck in the hopper for a good while--there was a discernable note of schadenfreude in the stutter-stop tone of the closure. Some observers felt that if CCU had trouble closing the smaller deal, how would it fare in closing the other, larger deal, valued at $19.5 billion? CEO Mark Mays said on Saturday that the private equity deal is scheduled to close by the end of the first quarter 2008. But then today, Reuters quoted an inside source as saying the hotly anticipated deal, which has teetered on the brink more than once over the past year, was "not imminently about to close, though the source "believed the private equity buyers were still behind the deal." How's that for uncertainty?

Clear Channel's dilemma is rapidly becoming a good metaphor for today's maybe-it-will-happen, maybe-it-won't media atmosphere. What is the current value of big Old Media properties? It all depends on the week, on the day, and apparently even on the moment that the question is considered. Stay tuned.