Bear Stearns analyst Victor Miller opens the Interep Radio Symposium asking that provocative question. (And by the way — one CEO told us in the hallway that “none of these companies should be public any more. They should all go private, but they won’t.”)see radio as a growth play.
Back to Vic Miller — who starts his chronology with radio’s late-90s go-go years (12% annual compounded growth). Then goes to 1999-2000 (“the years of acquisitions”). 2001 (“the year of recession”). 2002 to 2005 (“the years of format migration”, with Spanish and urban formats breaking out of the pack). 2005 (“the year of Less Is More”). And 2006 (“the year of Howard” — CBS dealing with the loss of Stern). For Wall Street — there’s “shareholder migration” as the big institutional funds sell down their radio holdings. And there are too many “down days” (80% of the time, this year) for the hedge fund guys. There’s no doubt about radio’s worth as a cash cow. But Wall Street doesn’t
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