No doubt several radio executives are now crunching numbers to come up with new bids for the remaining Lincoln Financial Media radio stations. The bar has been set by the bids accepted for the TV stations and Charlotte radio cluster. The magic number seems to be a price that works out to a broadcast cash flow multiple of a bit over 14 times. Who will come back with a bid in the same range to grab Atlanta, Miami, San Diego and Denver?
RBR/TVBR observation: Lincoln Financial Group is clearly in gear to divest its media properties, but doesn’t want to sell cheap. According to BIAfn’s Media Access Pro, the remaining radio stations had 2006 revenues of just under 130 million. How much of that translated to BCF? And who will step up to write a check for that number times 14 and change? If the deal (or deals) can be done in the current credit environment, we would expect to see it by Christmas.
