Fox Business Channel “Money for Breakfast” anchor and Fox Vice President of Business News Alexis Glick was invited to talk to broadcasters Friday at the NAB Radio Show about the state of the economy. She did her homework, both on the economy and on broadcasting.
Rather than quote Ben Bernanke or Tim Geithner, Glick quoted broadcaster Mary Quass to amplify the point that radio stations have to evaluate what they need to do to be sure they remain relevant. And she found some signs of hope for broadcasters, with both GM and Toyota announcing plans to ramp up advertising. So, Glick definitely sees some signs of economic rebound.
“I do believe that the worst is behind us,” Glick to the NAB Radio Show Radio Luncheon on Friday in Philadelphia. She sees that key signs are bullish for the economy. For example, tremendous amounts of money are sitting on the sidelines and will have to be invested at some point. Also, banks have tremendous cash reserves and at some point will have to make money by lending. M&A is already starting to heat up.
Even a recession can have some positives, Glick noted. “Businesses are being forced to think smarter,” she noted.
But she also found some grounds for concern. She worried that we may be getting ahead of ourselves with the Wall Street rebound. Also, she is concerned about incentives to get consumers to buy and take on credit. “Isn’t that what got us in this mess in the first place?” she asked.
So, while she sees tremendous opportunities as the economy begins to recover, Glick also is hopeful that America won’t forget the lessons learned from this severe downturn.
The NAB Radio Show itself provided some indication that the recession has bottomed out. The official attendance was 2,507, down only slightly from 2,649 a year ago in Austin, TX.
As previously mentioned, the 2010 Radio Show will be in Washington, DC, but the dates have not yet been fixed.
RBR-TVBR observation: Let us hope that she is right and we have learned some lessons. As the poster child for over-leveraged industries, radio – and TV to a somewhat lesser extent – still has a lot of financial restructuring ahead. In quite a few cases, “financial restructuring” is a more polite way to say they’ll be paying a visit to bankruptcy court.
