Personal information
Current company: Townsquare Media Group
Position: Executive Vice President, Business Development & Mergers & Acquisitions
Location: Greenwich, CT and New York, NY
All of the following are optional – the idea is to have fun with them!
Place of Birth: US Army Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
Date of Birth: 1/29/75
Spouse/Kid/Personal info: Wife of 5 years, Taryn, daughter Bryton (22 months) and son Holden (26 days)
College: University of Pennsylvania
Sports Team Preferences: Long time Yankees season ticket holder
Prior to Townsquare: Media & Entertainment Investment Banker
Causes/Charities: Fresh Air Fund, Prep for Prep
Questions:
1. How did you get started in the business
Together with my business partners, Steven Price, Stuart Rosenstein, Dhruv Prasad and Scott Schatz (all of whom are Townsquare Media executives), we set about looking for media investment opportunities in 2009. We settled on the radio sector based on a number of under-appreciated attributes including the remarkable resilience and relevance of radio with audiences and communities. We partnered with Oaktree Capital Partners to acquire the assets which became Townsquare Media in May 2010.
2. First, congratulations on the Cumulus/Peak deal – which inspires us to get the big question out of the way first: Are you planning to buy again, and if so, what is your time frame, and is there any interest in expanding into the southeast, southwest and/or larger markets?
Thank you – we are thrilled to be significantly growing our business, expanding our reach and adding such strong brands to our portfolio. We will continue to evaluate acquisition opportunities that fit our criteria – leading brands in small and mid-sized markets – and will pursue those available at prudent valuation levels. With that said, we certainly have our hands full with our pending transactions and do not presently expect any other announcements in the near term. In any event, we will continue to focus assets in small and mid-sized markets with stable economic profiles.
3. What is the overall Townsquare management strategy for local radio clusters, and what is the balance between local control and corporate oversight?
We view our role at corporate as setting the strategy, providing the tools for successful execution and ensuring our goals are achieved. We partner with our in-market teams to provide the resources they need to get the job done. Our objective is not to get in the way of success at the market level, while ensuring that growth objectives are met.
4. How does Townsquare maximize the relationship between your digital and live event businesses and your local radio assets?
We view digital and events products as perfect compliments to local radio, both from an audience and an advertiser perspective. Our websites and our live events are extensions of our strong brands that once only existed on terrestrial radio. We employ a liquid content strategy, meaning our content can be consumed on-air, online and on site through radio, computers, mobile devices, tablets and in-person. By making our brands available everywhere our audience wants us to be, we are positioned to grow with our communities and help our advertising clients meet their objectives.
5. How can radio best protect its position on the vehicle dashboard against the coming digital invasion?
Must have content will be found by consumers, regardless of the method of delivery. As a result, if we continue to produce market-leading, engaging content, our audience will find our brands in their cars and trucks whatever the dashboard of tomorrow may hold. Hopefully, they will listen via terrestrial radio, our RadioPup mobile application or through a new medium in the future. With our multi-platform approach, we welcome the “digital invasion” as it will allows our audience to engage with our brands when they want, how they want, in more places and more often.
6. What are the key issues at the FCC and in Congress of concern radio that we should be keeping a close eye on?
We have had an excellent relationship with the FCC in our short history. We believe our strategy of investing in small and mid-sized communities, fostering live and local programming, creating jobs and supporting our communities, particularly in times of need dove-tails with many of the FCC’s objectives. In particular, our New Jersey stations’ performance in connection with Hurricane Sandy reinforced the life-saving power of radio in a crisis. In relation to Congress, we stand behind our industry associations and continue to be pleased that Congress has allowed our industry to maintain the decades old relationship between the radio and recorded music industry, rather than attempting to legislate a performance tax on broadcasters.
7. Is there any question you’d like to answer that we forgot to ask?
We’re hiring!
