19 Comments

• 1. Chris  |  October 21st, 2008 at 12:57 pm

  If I were Carr, I’d ride the horse until it stopped altogether, forcing Entercom to honor the contract. After all, isn’t that what Entercom did to Howie? The happy irony is that Entercom probably made that contract bullet-proof…which now is in the form of a noose hanging around their neck. I love it when things work out like that!

• 2. The Real Mole  |  October 21st, 2008 at 2:10 pm

  I’ll file this with the “Howie Carr will never work at WRKO again” prediction.

  Stock price is but one indication of a company’s value. ETM is still churning plenty of cash and is very solvent. If you did a little research, you would know that the company is not heavily leveraged. I’m not saying that the stock price is a good thing, but nor is it the harbinger of doom that you are predicting.

  While radio may not be a good speculative business, there are still many industries in America that would kill for Entercom’s margins.

  Sorry to disappoint you again.

• 3. Celtic Frost  |  October 21st, 2008 at 2:14 pm

  I hope Howie gets cut loose, then WTKKK dumps that big fat fraud Jimmy Severino III for Howie in afternoon drive!

• 4. bjd  |  October 21st, 2008 at 3:56 pm

  Howie would be the last one they cut loose. He’s the revenue show. (How much did Red Sox revenue amount to? How far away is Spring training? Is there enough “churned revenue” to hold them over until April?)

  What if they cut Howie loose and he went to WTKK in AM drive? How good does that look for felon and “phyllis” in the morning? How long do you figure RKO will still be “churning plenty of cash” with Rush, a person you can find many other places on the dial, as their only big show? Laura was a good idea, but It’s too little too late.

  I’d update the resume, wear the hard hat, and start hoarding office supplies. After the last person turns off the light on the way out the door, you could still sell the office supplies on E-Bay.

  At $0.05 per share for a once good radio station, it still only makes sense if you can fire not only the bad talent, but those responsible for its fall.

  Not being in the radio business and spending my entire life in the real world, what becomes of those responsible for its demise?

• 5. Joe  |  October 21st, 2008 at 4:01 pm

  Entercom didn’t make Howie’s contract bulletproof. Entercom didn’t even make Howie’s contract. What they got the right to do was match the contract that Howie made with Greater Media.

• 6. Neggy  |  October 21st, 2008 at 4:32 pm

  I think 96.9 is happy with the current lineup and the only place Carr would fit is afternoon drive. I just don’t see his brand of radio doing well in MA drive sorry.

  HC likes to say he is happy about ETM stock tanking, but if ETM goes down like the Titanic where exactly does he think he is going to get a gig in this market at this time? As I stated above I think 96.9 is happy with things as they are now. Yes I know IMUS sucks, but he probably comes cheap and is generating money.

  HC can’t support his current lifestyle on his Herald salary, the book has sold all it is going to sell, “Submit” can’t be making the money she once did selling real estate so HC better hope he ETM turns around before someone tries a hostile take over or ut just implodes.

• 7. BigBish  |  October 21st, 2008 at 4:57 pm

  Oh Mole, you obviously have been drinking the Kool Aid and its moved to your brain. While may of us don’t understand radio, I do indeed understand finance. While the stock price is not an indicator of the amount of free cash a company has available or the revenue, the actual Financials are what speaks volumes about the company’s solvency.

  For instance, operating loss TRIPLED from March to June of 2008 Thats paid for with assets of the company. yes, the cold, hard cash you feel ETM has.

  Net Income from operations also had triple digit losses. That means, in simple terms and I’ll type slowly so you’ll understand, that ETM spent more than it took in.

  So, when you spend more than you take in, and you’re operating expenses exceed your income, you are in deep doo doo.

  Go look at the 10Q filed in August of 2008. Here are some hilights that would make any investor cringe:

  “During the second quarters of 2008 and 2007, we recorded an impairment loss of $184.6 million and $45.4 million”

  “During the first quarter of 2008, we reviewed our carrying amount for the Rochester assets held for sale and determined that an impairment loss of $4.0 million (net of an income tax benefit of $2.7 million) was necessary as a result of the status of our ongoing divestiture process”

  “The decrease in operating income was primarily due to: (1) an increase in impairment loss of $139.2 million due to a $184.6 million impairment loss in connection with our review of goodwill in the second quarter of 2008 as compared to a $45.4 million impairment loss in the second quarter of 2007; and (2) an increase in Depreciation and Amortization Expenses as described above. This decrease was offset by: (1) a decrease in time brokerage agreement fees of $7.6 million, primarily due to the cessation of a TBA with CBS on November 30, 2007; and (2) an increase in net gain on sale or disposal of assets of $9.6 million primarily related to our Bonneville exchange agreement. ”

  I know this is boring reading. I’ll sum it up. They’re screwed.

• 8. Chris  |  October 21st, 2008 at 6:06 pm

  Pretty soon, Entercom will be worth less than the Golden Hot Dog.

• 9. Sorenson  |  October 21st, 2008 at 6:42 pm

  BHA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HE HE HE HO HO HO
  breath gasp breath
  BWHAAAAA HA HA HA HA HE HE HE HO HO HO
  breath breath
  stop stop
  HA HA HA
  HO HO HO HO

  o man o man o man
  this is healthy this laughing.

  Join the chow line rko staffers.
  with all the small businesses in America.
  Oh ya and vote the ytuber Obama in just for s^^ts and giggles.

  This is all too funny.

• 10. Ugly Fred  |  October 21st, 2008 at 8:51 pm

  Speaking of Entercom tanking, has everyone seen the news that Reese Hopkins has been laid off? His show has been replaced by Laura Ingraham’s syndicated show. Unfortunately about 12 more at WRKO were also let go.

  Here’s a link to Boston Radio Watch…

  http://www.bostonradiowatch.com/

  Mr Hopkins, were you able to stop the door from hitting you on your way out to obscurity?

  Hey Real Mole, if Entercom is so solvent why the layoffs?

• 11. Original Bob  |  October 21st, 2008 at 8:57 pm

  Hey Big Bish!
  THAT’S the real story that Julie…er, The Real Mole won’t tell us! Nice work.

• 12. Massgopguy  |  October 22nd, 2008 at 10:23 am

  Reese has been making almost daily appearances of CNN.

• 13. The Real Mole  |  October 22nd, 2008 at 10:51 am

  So every company that lets people go is insolvent? Didn’t eBay lay off like 10% of their workforce? Didn’t something like 3,000 people get laid off in MA last month? Haven’t CBS and ClearChannel already had much larger layoffs? Newsflash, the economy sucks and advertising, particularly traditional media, get croaked when that happens.

  Here’s Tom Taylor’s more reasoned take. He’s not an ETM employee.

  Entercom stock draws perilously near to “breaking the buck.”
  In fact “ETM” traded as low as 92 cents yesterday before closing at $1.04. But that’s scant comfort for the folks in Bala Cynwyd, PA as they deal with various financial issues. One of them is being deleted from the S&P Midcap 400 Index yesterday, and that’s probably what brought some of the immediate selling pressure on the stock. Some index funds would be automatically dumping Entercom to buy the stocks that S&P is adding, in its regular re-balancing. That would explain the very heavy volume on Entercom. But to be near $1 for a stock that was trading at $19.59 less than a year ago – it’s pretty crazy. And Entercom’s always prided itself on a stronger-than-average balance sheet, so this isn’t what David Field and his dad Joe Field ever envisioned. Expect several public radio companies to get much more serious about going private, and Entercom might be one of them. Problem is – finding the debt to do it.

  Fair enough?

• 14. Brian Maloney  |  October 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 am

  Tom’s a notorious suck-up to industry execs. He will carry water for them until the day they are escorted from the building by security.

  How could Entercom go private? With what money? And to what end?

  eBay has a future. Radio operators don’t.

• 15. BigBish  |  October 22nd, 2008 at 2:55 pm

  Mole, like the programming on WRKO, you still miss the point. The stock price is only paper wealth. Its not going into the coffers of Entercomm, its going to the shareholders. Stock price under a dollar may excite the penny traders, but thats about it. The investment houses are divesting themselves of it faster than shugah through a goose.

  You don’t get it. Its not just the layoffs and the fact that they are paring back on benefit plans. The financial paint the true picture. Comparing a companys solvency to its stock price is just careless. Remember all those dot com millionaires in the 90’s who are living in Frigidare boxes today?

  I reiterate- look at the SEC filings to see the gross outpourings of cash as losses. The actual money that ENT uses to operate on a day to day basis. The money it uses to pay the janitors, buy copy paper and make payroll. Actual hard dollars. They’re not there.

  Again, when you spend more than you take in, you’re in deep doo doo. Stock proce is only an indicator of what the market thinks of ETM. Which isn’t much obvioulsy.

  I’d update my resume if I were you. Or try this on for size- ” Thats $ 9.75. Pull up to the next window please.”

• 16. Celtic Frost  |  October 22nd, 2008 at 3:35 pm

  Massgopguy, while you have your head so far up Reese’s ass, can you perform a colonoscopy for him? Great.

  Reese was even less talented (and that is difficult) than Scotto and DePetro and Finneran and Whitley and Blute and … well, you get the idea.

• 17. The Real Mole  |  October 22nd, 2008 at 5:55 pm

  Sorry, I forgot the cardinal rule of the blog; anyone who disagrees with Brian is a suck up. My bad.

  If BJD’s assessment is correct, Julie Kahn is an even better manager than I thought, since her business unit will generate healthy profits even this year in the pitiful economy.

  And before you ask, the Kool-Aid tastes great.

• 18. Wolfey  |  October 23rd, 2008 at 2:24 am

  I’m not a finance expert, but I know a little bit. ETM seems to still have surprisingly strong free cash flow and operating income. A lot higher than I expected given the stock price. Earnings are negative, but that’s a result of goodwill write-downs, irrelevent (I think) to insolvency.

• 19. bjd  |  October 23rd, 2008 at 8:58 am

  Mole,

  You and your business unit are not going to “…generate healthy profits even this year in the pitiful economy.” especially if you and jason deceide to cut Howie loose. You’re having issue generating healthy profits with him. If you truly believe that Howie’s holding you back, why the big court battle over his attempted move to WNTK? Why don’t you cut him loose so you can hire another more talented person like reese?

  See how much harder it gets when he’s up against YOUR choice of a talented and smart talk host in AM drive. My guess is RKO might try to pick up Imus and move the felon to PM drive. He might not look so bad against jay, but he’ll still loose. Go ahead, cut Howie loose, send him to WNTK, and let him go head to head against YOUR idea of “great radio”. Howie Carr vs “felon and fyllus in the morning”.

  Should you do that, look at the last post by BigBish and learn to say things like: “Pull up to the next window please”, “Would you like fries with that?”, or “Paper or plastic?”. It will serve you well in your future.