Posted by Tad on August 18, 2009 at 10:12:12:
From Tom Taylor from his daily Radio-Info newsletter:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Timing is everything
Station buyers try to guess the bottom of the market.
One well-heeled and patient buyer tells T-R-I he expects "the de-consolidation of Clear Channel Radio in 2010. And that will be a signal to others to sell sooner rather than later -- what CBS is doing now, and what Citadel, Emmis, Entercom, etc. could do in the future." He expects that some of those Big Name Groups will be chipping off just one or two properties in their top 25 or 30 clusters "to avoid breaching covenants." This guy goes further and predicts that the holders of some of the "severely underwater paper" have become "sold on the reality that any radio recovery is not going to happen under the direction of the folks that got them in this position to start with." Result -- opportunities for proven managers and operators. There will be opportunities for buyers, once they feel the market's hit bottom, prices are the most favorable, and financing eases up. This guy's been biding his time for a while now -- and he thinks it's about time to move.