Regent Communications (RGCI) discusses the benfits of small markets, private equity investors, and the digital threat (quotes from conf call)

Below are some comments from Regent Communiations' (RGCI) from its February 15, 2005 conference call with investors.

On the benefit of operating in small/middle markets:

… we are much less dependent on ratings and cost-for-point selling most often utilized by our brothers and sisters in the larger markets. 35 percent of Regent's revenue stream is local direct business where we deal directly with the customer - no middle man, no agency. That in turn means that rating points from the Arbitron are not the basis for our pricing structure…..this makes us less susceptible to ratings variances… this gives us much more control over our own economic destiny.

On private equity buyers of radio assets:

..there is a lot of private equity money….coming into the market….the private equity players are a lot more optimistic about valuations than the public is at this point…what we're hearing is that the seller's expectations are still in the 13.5 to 15 range. From all indications, there are buyers willing to pay those kind of multiples.

On the digital threat (iPods and satellite radio):

…it's what happens between the music...that creates value and the desire to listen to free over-the-air local radio…..those are the strengths that have to be maintained, improved, and increased…. to stay a competitor with any type of new technology…. if radio pays attention to its own house, it can remain a very viable competitor for the consumer's time..[and] the advertiser's dollars.

(Quotes are from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript; permission to reproduce explicitly granted in writing.)