[BC] Clear Channel Wants More?

[JYRussell@academicplanet.com]

Well, silly I might be but less than intelligent I'm not.
So, I'll try to copy Paul's stuff over to this reply, stick in my stuff, 
then you guys can tell me (nicely) where I got awry of the intended 
meanings:

"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."
  *my interpretation* -
We can't charge enough for the few spots we still play to pay all the bills.

"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?"
*my interpretation*
The other guys have figured out how to do this, but our "revenue growth" is 
still down.
"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.' " "
*my take on it*
If iPods and "podcast" and Internet radio etc are making it work by charging 
the subscription fees, the gov't should let us charge those fees too. (How? 
I dunno.)
In it's own way, it's about like I said a year or so ago... digital TV (and 
now maybe radio) is NOT designed to actually do anything for the consumer. 
(The fancy picture, or the googlephonic seperation schemes)  Digital 
transmission is simply a means to DISALLOW reception by people who don't pay 
their bill.

   For my part - it's decision time.   When you got started in radio - 
somebody told you that you would likely NOT become a millionaire.  Radio was 
something you did for the love of the job, for the audience, for something 
inside yourself... in a small market, you knew when you started you'll never 
become a bajillionaire like CC but you also knew you will also NEVER 
starve - iff your connection to your audience is as good as it should be.

   What happened...?

I don't need my butt ripped here;  I'm just telling you the read I get from 
this stuff, it's an opinion, and my final thought is that just because CC 
can't maintaiin a given "growth rate portfolio" to operate a huge business 
empire that seems to survive by strangling it's competition... maybe they 
should rethink their ability to actually "do radio" as opposed to "marketing 
a product".

   Maybe their approach - somewhere - is just just different enough from 
what the podunk stations that it's time for the pendulum to swing the other 
way... and go back to fewer stations under a single banner, doing just a 
'little' better job at serving the audience, so the audience will actually 
RESPOND to the commercials they hear...
which is part of what it was all about - years ago...
"motivating people" - "inform, entertain, enlighten", "serve the public 
interest"... all those stupid words.

   I think of this big radio sceanario like Wal-Mart because the products I 
find available perform similarly.   Never actually what I stopped by to get, 
but kinda close, generally out of size or color, but close enough to work 
because I can't afford to shop at Sears or JC Penny or Neiman Marcus or 
Brooks Bro's... Wal Mart is close by and real cheap. (At First!)  Once 
they've run everybody else out of town... their prices go straight up!

   Is their a difference here?
Wrong as it appears, it seems to me somebody is asking to own more radio 
stations so they can eventually own so much so cheap they can start raising 
their prices !  Sure it's a real loos analogy... but it's my "take" on a 
trend or tendancy, not a market by market point by point factual analysis, 
nor is it intended to be.

  I just happen to be one of those few people who wish there were a few 
limits on what Wal Mart could get away with too...
Jason