Category: For What It’s Worth…

The American Dream (or “I always wanted to own a radio station…what happened”): A recent study of consumer spending (the Yankelovich Multicultural Study 2010) for the Futures Company, indicates that three-quarters of African-Americans (75%) and Hispanics (76%), along with over two-thirds of Non-Hispanic Whites (68%) believe the “American Dream” is just that–more dream than reality.…

We have had more than one client ask “is radio going to be worth anything in the future?” And our carefully studied, but qualified answer is “certainly”. But there are qualifications: It’s going to be a long rebound, in fact a slow growth as opposed to a rebound, and we frankly hope we never get…

This morning, a story hit the Internet about the lack of financing for station acquisitions. Basically it comes down to those who are glass “half-full” people versus glass “half-empty” people.  Yes, we know all too well that we’ve got buyers and we’ve got sellers, but nobody has any cash. We just have to live with…

Make An Offer: Here’s a point that needs to be made as well as serve as a tip for those of you are thinking about buying a radio station. Recently, we were in the middle of a conversation with a prospective purchaser for one of our listings, and the buyer made the observation that while…

Not so long ago, I was called out by a reader of my comments in Radio Business Report regarding the assessment of fines by the FCC when a broadcast licensee reports Public File lapses as a part of the license renewal self-inspection process.  The FCC had levied several $10,000 fines when broadcasters reported that their…

Does anybody really make a distinction between commercial and non-commercial bands these days? I don’t mean musical “bands”, I’m referring to the fact that certain FM frequencies have been “reserved” for non-commercial licenses and certain frequencies designated “commercial”. The reality is, non-commercial stations can operate in the commercial band while commercial stations can not operate…