Jacobs Media: Radio Can’t Let FCC Radio Licenses Become Taxi Medallions

Is 'A Stick' Still A Good Investment?

In his latest post on JACOBLOG, JACOBS MEDIA. Pres. FRED JACOBS writes, "As you can imagine, I spend more than a little time in taxi cabs during the course of the year. Sometimes from the back seat of a cab, I’m on the phone or working e-mail. But at other times, I’ll converse with the cabbie. If you’ve asked the person driving your cab 'How’s it going?' lately, chances are the response was not a good one. Most in the taxi business these days are feeling intense competitive pressure from mobile ride companies UBER and LYFT."

JACOBS continues, "For decades, medallions were an annuity – great investments that guaranteed wealth. In fact, smart and savvy businessmen collected a lot of them in order to build a wealth base. The most extreme example may be EVGENY FREIDMAN, who holds 900 medallions, but has been embroiled in a legal battle with CITIBANK. At their peak, medallions in NEW YORK sold for as much as $1.2 million, but now they’re dropping in value, making it hard to unload them. FREIDMAN and other taxi entrepreneurs were geniuses, but now find their empires disrupted, thanks to UBER and LYFT." 

"If this sounds like the broadcast radio industry to you," notes JACOBS, "then consider this post a cautionary tale. Owning a radio station is still an immensely profitable endeavor, but the price of 'a stick' has most certainly dropped in recent years, a major reason why some radio companies find themselves wallowing in debt."

Read the full blog post here.

« see more Net News