Young Broadcasting (YBTVA) discusses radio industry ownership rules (quotes from conf call)

Below are some comments from Young Broadcasting (YBTVA) from its May 6, 2005 conference call with investors.

…we know many of you are involved with or concerned about the ownership rules. We are probably a little more involved in that issue than you are…The M&A activity in our industry clearly has slowed down, but every time there seems to be a transaction, the numbers are at very big numbers… because nobody seems to be selling right now unless they are selling for a pretty important number, and nobody seems to be buying unless they have a way to do something special with that asset.

…we are very pleased with the environment, but we would like to see a little more M&A activity and what is going to… make that happen is clarity on the ownership rules. We are also pleased as to how that's going… We have the right Chairman…at the FCC now to make that happen. We hope the other appointments for the Commission will understand what makes the broadcast industry tick and the things that we need to have a vibrant and strong industry. They may have to come up with some rules to pass muster, so all of this may not occur until 12 months from now…. but we think it's going to occur.

(Quotes are from the CCBN StreetEvents transcript.)