On his last day on the Supreme Court, Justice David Souter swore in Julius Genachowski as new chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

He is a law school friend of Obama’s and a successful, high-tech entrepreneur who looks to expand broadband service to rural and underserved areas, and to promote an open Internet and diverse media ownership.

For the Mays family, recent months have conjured Dickens’s Great Expectations.

The proposed $19 billion acquisition of Clear Channel, the broadcasting company founded by L. Lowry Mays, was announced more than a year ago. The buyers, Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners, delayed seeking approval from the Justice Department until they had cleared review with the Federal Communications Commission.