Q3 2009 Earnings Call

November 05, 2009; 04:00 pm ET

Q4 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

March 12, 2009 4:00 pm ET

Q3 2008 Earnings Call

November 6, 2008 4:00 pm ET

A quick survey of merger arb spreads, which have been coming down a little since short-selling has been allowed back. Still some big numbers out there, mostly reflecting nervousness about credit markets and financing. Note: I screened on deals announced since March, on companies with reasonable market caps, etc.

As always, click for a larger version.

Off-Air (non-spot) revenue has surpassed last year’s midyear forecast by the Radio Advertising Bureau [RAB], and is expected to approach $2B by the end of 2008 - nearly a full year ahead of the projected timeline, the RAB reported.

At 9% of radio’s total revenue, off-air is composed primarily of online activity, followed closely by experiential marketing partnerships. Off-air revenues in the first half of 2008 were up 12% from the year-earlier period - the only sector other than network (up 3%) to record gains:

Q4 2007 Earnings Call

February 21, 2008 4:00 pm ET

Much has been made of radio's troubles of late, with most radio stocks now sitting at 5 year lows. Station operating costs are rising dramatically and yet revenues are projected to be relatively flat again in 2008, even with the surge quadrennial political advertising usually brings.

Many companies have cut research, marketing and other key investments in their product beyond a point they feel comfortable with just to limit the damage to the bottom line. Many corporations over leveraged themselves in order to consolidate in the earlier part of this decade, and now they are unable to make needed investments to grow their business and compete in the digital age due to debt service and restrictive covenants. Most of the economic benefits of that consolidation are now baked into the financials, so there is very little in cost efficiencies to be had by most major groups, and they have little capacity to take on more leverage to acquire additional stations.

The constant theme you hear in the earnings conference calls of most radio companies these days is solely how the company performed versus its peer group. CEOs brag about how well they did against the other guy, and they further qualify their results by eliminating faster growing niche broadcasters like Hispanic stations from the comparisons.

However, peer performance should be but one measurement of a company out of many benchmarks. How these companies compare against other media sectors or the corporate landscape at large is rarely discussed. It has become as if, as far as financial performance and shareholder value is concerned, there is no other place for money to go, and radio shareholders should just be happy they aren't holding shares of the other guy. This attitude is exactly why radio shareholders are running for the doors, pushing every major public radio company's shares to 5 year lows with significant losses while the broader averages continued to post modest gains in 2007.

I don't think Kevin Martin got enough attention when he was a kid. He seems to have a penchant for blowing things up -- newspaper/TV cross-ownership, the cable industry brotherhood -- to get attention, and he's getting plenty from Congress, irate Republicans upset about new regulatin' and irate Democrats sending out petition letters by the millions in the name of "diversity."

So Martin should get some kind of award (if those pesky writers weren't striking the awards shows; maybe he can take on that controversy next) for getting some new conversation going about media's place in this ever-digitizing world. That'll have to wait though.

Fisher Communications, Inc. (FSCI)

Q3 2007 Earnings Call

• 4/14 - Emmis Communications (ticker: EMMS): consensus EPS: $(0.02)
• 4/15 - Knight Ridder (ticker: KRI): consensus EPS: $0.71
• 4/15 - Tribune (ticker: TRB): consensus EPS: $0.41
• 4/19 - Journal Register (ticker: JRN): consensus EPS: $0.18
• 4/19 - Viacom (ticker: VIAB): consensus EPS: $0.31
• 4/21 - Netflix (ticker: NFLX): consensus EPS: $(0.19)
• 4/27 - Fisher Communications (ticker: FSCI): consensus EPS: N/A
• 4/27 - R.H. Donnelley (ticker: RHD): consensus EPS: $1.00
• 4/28 - Marvel Enterprises (ticker: MVL): consensus EPS: $0.28
• 4/29 - Hearst-Argyle Television (ticker: HTV): consensus EPS: $0.13