[BC] Clear Channel Wants More?

[Paul Christensen]

> On the news this morning I heard that billing for Clear
> Channel is down thirteen percent. The report also said that
> Clear Channel wants to be able to own ten stations in markets
> where there are sixty or more stations.

On Monday, Mark Mays presented a speech to the Progress and Freedom 
Foundation in Washington. Quoting from the Dow Jones news service:

"Mays said that the company has been reducing the number of commercials over 
the past year but signaled that such a reduction has come to an end. 'We 
kind of got to the point that we thought was the equilibrium point,' he 
said."

If it is true that revenues are down 13-percent for the preceding 12 months, 
the "equilibrium point" may have been over-shot.  The ongoing dilemma for 
CCU and other radio stocks is how do you increase revenue growth at an 
escalating rate while retaining listeners in an ever-increasing competitive 
world?

The article then states "He said free over-the-air radio 'is struggling' and 
faces major competition from iPods and "podcast" programs, Internet radio, 
wireless phone radio content and satellite radio. 'Free radio as we know it 
is at risk," Mays said, and it "needs the government to step up and step 
back.' "

I'm not sure exactly what "step up and step back" means, but the supreme 
irony is that an industry that has had the equivalent of a license to print 
money for the past 85 years with essentially zero licensing fees paid to the 
federal government now needs help from the same government in order to 
maintain investment valuations in their current properties.

Watch what you wish for: if the playing field becomes level, that means 
paying the federal government for AM and FM spectrum at current valuations, 
and perhaps <gulp> the present value of past cash flows if we really want 
things leveled.  Does the industry really want to go down that path by truly 
leveling the playing field?

-Paul

====================================
Paul Christensen, CPBE, CBNT
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pchristensen at ieee.org