Clear Channel profit falls, radio revs down

[Judi Lynn]

UPDATE 3-Clear Channel profit falls, radio revs down
Mon Oct 24, 2005 8:33 PM ET

By Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES, Oct 24 (Reuters) - Clear Channel Communications Inc. (CCU.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Monday posted a 21 percent drop in third-quarter profits on lower radio advertising sales, and warned that current-quarter radio revenues were set to fall.

The radio station chain, the nation's largest, has tried since early 2005 to drive up advertising prices and draw bigger audiences by reducing ad time. It said the plan has boosted listening trends, although revenues have continued to decline.

Clear Channel reported net income of $205.5 million, or 38 cents per share, compared with $261.2 million, or 44 cents per share a year earlier.

The San Antonio, Texas-based company also said it was on track to complete a restructuring involving an initial public offering of part of its billboard advertising business and a spin-off of its live entertainment unit by year-end.
(snip/...)

http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=marketsNews&storyID=2005-10-25T003312Z_01_N24134177_RTRIDST_0_MEDIA-CLEARCHANNEL-EARNS-UPDATE-3.XML

[Initech]

1. Great news for music fans!

Viva free-form and satellite radio! Clear Channel sucks!

:woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[cantstandbush]

11. Keep turning those dial off! We can take them down with truth & avoidance

n/t

[merwin]

21. Bad news for liberals though...

They own a significant number of the Air America stations.

[sarcasmo]

31. Direct result from the loss of Howard Stern on many Clear Channel

stations. Love or hate Stern he brought in huge advertising dollars for those ASSHATS. I just love the fact that they are losing big dollars.

[kamtsa]

2. Great news to Howard's fans!

[sendero]

12. It is their decision..

... to boot Howard that is costing them dearly. Bwwwwwhahahahahahhahaaaaa!

[Hawkeye-X]

3. Hopefully soon enough.. they can't even afford to

pay the Oxybag's millions and will have to fire him, and the only radio that he'll be able to bloviate would be on a 5 watt radio in Bumfuck, Idaho, and lose his syndication deal as well.

Hawkeye-X

[silverweb]

4. While on the other hand...

Air America Radio continues to grow.

Are you listening freeps and neocons? Are you paying attention at all?

Your day in the sun is just about done. You had your chance and you took it. You ran with it and did your worst. Now that people see the fruits of your corrupt ideologies and your true, death-worshipping colors, they are jumping ship.

Guess what? You won't be missed. Not one iota.

[jamesinca]

10. What I worry about

I think most of the Air America stations are Clear Channel owned. Maybe I am wrong, but I was thinking that a good portion of the Air America stations were owned by Clear Channel.

[Chemical Bill]

13. Clear Channel just dropped Air America in my town...

and went back to right wing spew.

Bill

[silverweb]

23. I didn't know that.

Let's hope that "most" is not the case.

[Gman]

5. Air America cutting into the audience too?

I wonder?

[krkaufman]

9. Actually, Clear Channel carries Air America Radio in a number of markets..

... so I'm hoping these numbers don't affect CC's support of Air America.

[mom cat]

16. I would be curious to know if AA is their most profitable asset. Does

anyone know how it breaks down?

[norml]

6. CCU, a toilet stock since 2000.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Right into the toilet! How cool is THAT?

Thanks so much for providing the view!



YEAH!

[truthisfreedom]

7. couldn't happen to a nicer company.

such a great sacrifice they're making for their country!

everything they've become famous for is bad for their company's image. it's just ridiculous... what the hell were they thinking, getting involved in such intensely negative politics? idi-fu©^ing-ots.

[WCGreen]

14. I was involved with the radio industry when Clear Channel

started buying up Radio Stations across the country and Rush Limbaugh was getting his start...

What happened was the change in FEC rules that allowed for more local ownership of radio stations. What was perceived as a way for local entrepreneurs to expand their market share, turned into a free fall of local ownership from the radio industry...

This, of course, brought about the entrance of Clear Channel into individual markets... They would come into a market and start buying stations at ridiculously high prices forcing the value of a radio station in a Clear Channel market to increase... Local owners, behaving rather like white flight city dwellers during the years of block busting, scrambled to sell before the market crashed...

When Clear Channel then started to buy the local booking agencies who had access to local venues, the complete collapse of locally owned entertainment went out the door for good...

The cost of buying in a good size market was prohibitive as Clear Channel would tell local advertisers that if they advertised with a locally owned and operated radio station, they would pull their ads..

Everybody was hurt in this congealing of the radio industry...

Now, if profits are being squeezed at the corporate level, then Clear Channel will free fall....

If that happens, look for a return to market based radio stations in individual markets to return as the price of an FEC license will fall as will the cost of equipment...

Local radio could be making a comeback within a few short years...

[yorkiemommie1]

15. oh, one can only hope

that would be great !

[1932]

17. I think it's more likely that one or more national radio stations step in

and compete with clear channel.

Unless legislation changes, I think the days of locally-owned radio are over.

It will be easier for national companies to get together the finance to buy stations and their business plans will offer bigger returns for investors than anything a local operator could offer.

[WCGreen]

26. It won't happen because there is no big money in radio

anymore...

National advertizers are pulling the plug on radio ads and there isn't enough local money to justify the overhead of these large stations....

[1932]

30. But how would that translate into local ownership of radio stations?

[WCGreen]

32. The price of the radio stations would deflate to their

original value, a value based on market share, available demographics and ad revenue from the local business....

Think back to WKRP, they sold air time to local business....

Now, the local stuff is an after thought as Clear Channel offered reach into specific demo's across the country...

If those people turn to satellite, which they will, what is left of the national market...

Radio advertising, from the regional and national level, is all based on how best to serve the needs, is getting the most ears on the radio to listen to the ad....

They really didn't care how that broke before the massive consolifation..

When Clear Channel came on line, they would approach the ad agencies with huge numbers across the country, cutting the cost per ear drastically...

So the market became skewed...

Clear Channel and to some extent Infinity, ruined radio by focusing on the demographics and just viewing the music as an afterthought...

Which of course doomed them because they alienated their core audience...

OF course they killed radio...

Why, because they let the sales division over rule the programing...

[Marnieworld]

18. fuck clear channel

I hope Satelite radio DESTROYS them!

[robertarctor]

19. Nice sentiment, but ...

Clear Channel owns a pretty good-sized chunk of XM Radio.

[Marnieworld]

20. I'm a sirius fan so screw XM too

Siriusly ;-), Clear Channel supresses speech, organizes rallys against dissenters, has a monopoly on venues and abuses that power. They are a horrible evil company that deserves to go out of Business. XM could buy them out when everything else collapses. I can't wait to see where they are in 5 years.

[bspence]

27. XM has Air America, CC isn't a major owner. n/t

[Maat]

22. Not true - take a look at the data on Yahoo.

Clear Channel is NOT a major owner of XM.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=XMSR

[fshrink]

24. Belongs to history's garbage.

[Ksec]

25. THats just more good news !!

Keep em comin'.

The Giant is dying of a disease, an incurable disease that slowly rots from within. The stinking stench of Fascism disease is a killer.

Oh, and these companies are real sore about these numbers, so theyll cut and slash and burn and layoff and quality will continue to fall and the numbers will continue to fall....

[womanofthehills]

28. I'm still pissed at Sirius & local Air America on weak station

I can get a local station with Air America that comes in badly as I live in mountains. I'm ditching Sirius and Getting xm as I have no choice if I want to listen to Randy.

[dr.strangelove]

29. This is some fall out from losing Howard Stern

Whether you are a Stern fan or not, one can not deny that he drives in incredible revenue for his stations. Clear Channel yanked the stern show due to "indecency" earlier this year. The last two quarters will be down from the same periods last year.

I'm not saying they will ever bounce back, but there is a clear reason for the decline.