CINCINNATI (TDB) -- "The average market cap of terrestrial radio companies has declined by a staggering 80% over the last five years." That was the word from MSNBCs Jim Cramer, who considers the radio stocks "dead air." Rush Limbaugh's employer, Clear Channel Communications, has been in a downward spiral during the Bush years like a comet being sucked into the sun (see chart above). It has seriously underperformed the benchmark S&P Index. Clear Channel is such a big loser on Wall Street that it is going private.Bizzyblog's Tom Blumer, who doesn't mention radio's serious troubles, says Rush's riches mean the rightwing talker is on the opposite trajectory of the newspaper industry. He cites an industry analyst who noted, "Wall Street's intensifying repudiation of the [newspaper] industry means that the companies in the group have lost a cumulative $49.7 billion in market capitalization in 31/2 years, vaporizing 51% of shareholder value since Dec. 31, 2004."
Those are grim numbers indeed. They show Wall Street's disgust with print media stocks nearly equals its disgust with radio broadcasters. But the reality is that Rush hasn't saved radio, and he hasn't made Clear Channel's investors much money over the past five years. Rush is $400 million richer, and investors seem to be left holding the bag.
Clear Channel has hundreds of stations with 24 hours a day broadcasts. Without showing whether advertising dollars earned during Limbaugh's 3 hour slot exceeded the norm any info about the overall companies stock value means nothing. When people see the NAV for the NY Times going in the crapper it is a clear sign the NYT is doing poorly. However, a massive conglomerate of stations can have financial difficulty while segments can be extremely successful.
ReplyDeleteClear Channel Communications deserves to be in the crapper! Until they show the minimal good sense to fire that two-bit, hypocritical Ludite Rush Limbaugh, they'll succeed only in attracting the cross-bred morons who look up to your basic lying, fraudulent drug addict.
ReplyDeleteGreed by Clear Channel Communications is the reason Rush is on.However, stirring the pot as Rush does so Clear Channel can try to make a profit is not responsible. There will always be folks who want to attach themselves to the warmonger style charades such as Rush has, but that doesn't make it a right thing to do. I am hoping that Clear Channel has learned from this greedy mistake. Rush is the clear winner in terms of greed war as he will be glad to keep his ridicuolus salary while knowing he is not really contributing anything for good.
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