Last Wednesday, Entercom Chairman Joseph Field (David's generally retired father) made news by purchasing ETM shares on the open market. Insiders usually do this when they believe their company has been undervalued by Wall Street.
At prices between $7.35 and $7.63, Field bought 135,600 ETM shares, according to his subsequent SEC filing. That created a rare, minor buzz for the company and its ailing stock. That day, Entercom saw a gain of about half a point on heavier-than-average volume.
Since then, the owner of WRKO and WEEI has resumed its relentless slide, finishing today at $7.02, a new closing low.
We don't know exactly what Field Sr paid for each share, but he may have already lost as much as $63,732 on the purchase, assuming an average price of $7.49.
So here's the big question: who let Pops have the checkbook?
$63,000 buys a lot of fun in Atlantic City or Vegas and at least there would be some happy memories associated with disposing of the money.
Heck, handing out C-notes to random pedestrians on the streets of Bala Cynwyd would be more productive than this stunt.
So why did he do it? Does he really believe Entercom's decade-long slide into Wall Street oblivion will suddenly reverse course?
In a different economic climate, we might be willing to consider the idea that someone would purchase the company, but that's extremely unlikely as the radio sector continues to collapse.
Could it be that ol' Joe is just not grasping the severity of his company's decline?
