Smulyan: It's Hard To Be A Public Company In Radio These Days

Jeff Smulyan

At the NAB RADIO SHOW's DICKSTEIN SHAPIRO "Broadcast Financing 2006: Transition to a New Era" Operating and Acquisition Strategies panel, EMMIS' JEFF SMULYAN said that his failed attempt to take his company private was because "it's very difficult to be public in a sector which is out of favor."

SMULYAN, agreeing with CLEAR CHANNEL's MARK MAYS' assessment that "the debt markets love radio (and) the equity markets hate radio," noted that equity investors are "just looking for growth" and radio will suffer in the stock market until it shows more growth. The panel also took shots at satellite radio, with SMULYAN noting that "more people (are) in this room than listen to the average satellite channel." "The bloom is off the rose," SMULYAN said of satellite. On reaching younger listeners, GREATER MEDIA's PETER SMYTH said that the industry should be playing music that 12-17 year olds want to hear, regardless of whether advertisers are interested, in order to keep that audience in the future.

« see more Net News