Reply #3: Radio As Pork Bellies [View All]

[KharmaTrain]

Thanks to "Deregulation" radio became real estate...finite number of licenses and the large corporations wanted to lock away as many of the best ones they could. Almost overnight, companies like Clear Channel went from owning a handful of stations to thousands.

The game was to make money off the stock prices, not the companies revenues. This charade spurred companies to borrow to buy more properties (and rub out competition) properties as a means of keeping their stock values high and driving up license values. In essence they cornered a real estate market with artificially high property values that are now starting to come back to earth.

The bottom hasn't fallen out on the broadcast market...yet. In most cases, buying an existing station right now is like pissing money out the window. You'll pay top dollar in a market that is still dominated by big money players who are hanging on to their high "stick values" as their own hedge against their own financial collapses...which, just like we saw with the airlines, is inevitable.

Also...there are new forms of broadcasting coming along...specifically wifi radio that will transform the medium in the near future. As they say where I come from...stay tuned.