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EMF finds a new Kentucky home

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The frequent buyer program of Educational Media Foundation remains in operation. It’s latest move is the acquisition of WEZG-FM Morganfield KY, marking yet another foray into commercial territory for the non-profit religious broadcaster. The seller is Union County Broadcasting Company, and the price is 1.4M. As is its frequent custom, EMF is splitting the price between cash and a note, with $70K going into escrow, an additional $355K paid at closing and $975K paid over time. A network affiliation agreement kicked in 9/15/08. Morganfield is in the northwest corner of the state; the closest Arbitron market is Evansville IN.


Close encounter in Toccoa

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The sale of WNEG-TV by Media General to the University of Georgia Research Foundation is now a done deal. The station, considered to be part of the Greensville-Spartanburg SC DMA, went to the University for $1,437,500. The sale of the station was part of a liquidation project involving five MG station. The spin-off of WCWJ-TV in Jacksonville FL is the last one still in progress.


Baughman lightens his load

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Hank Littick’s Southeastern Ohio Broadcasting Systems is getting WCVZ-FM in South Zanesville OH. The seller is Dan Baughman’s Christian Voice of Central Ohio, which will be left with eight stations in three states and a pending deal for a ninth. According to Greg Guy of Patrick Communications, the price is $2.2M. An LMA is scheduled to being at the beginning of next month.


Censor me – please

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It sounds like a new horizon in the application of the First Amendment, but the decision of WFMZ-TV in Allentown PA to censor a congressional candidate’s remarks made during a debate was done after careful deliberation, research and acquisition of permission from all involved parties. In the debate, challenger Sam Bennett (D-PA) mentioned that a pair of banks had failed. The remark was not challenged by incumbent Charlie Dent (R-PA) or the debate moderator.

The only problem was that the banks hadn’t failed. The Bennett campaign acknowledged that the candidate had misspoken and meant to say the banks had nearly failed.

However, the debate was taped, so the station took advantage of the opportunity to make amends. The Bennett campaign was agreeable to striking the comment from the tape, and the Dent campaign also went along. The station also ran the idea past the FCC and NAB. By the time the debate was aired, the reference was scrubbed, so as not to cause any confusion among viewers, with a disclaimer explaining what had been done.

RBR/TVBR observation: It is refreshing to see such adult behavior all around, even in the middle of an election campaign, where the subtle dynamics of a particularly unruly kindergarten playground are usually more in evidence.


Analyst still on duty

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Following last week’s pink slipping of yet another broadcast analyst as Citi cut staff, Lee Westerfield touched base with RBR/TVBR to state that he is still on duty at BMO Capital analyzing radio and television stocks. “BMO takes the long view,” he said. And the analyst shared some thoughts on what is ahead for broadcasting companies.

Noting that the radio industry continues to be profitable, despite the current advertising downturn, “it is not going away,” Westerfield said. But there will be changes to the industry landscape.

Equity to debt has gotten out of balance, with the analyst noting that the current debt-to-equity ratio is around three times for the industry, rather than the traditional six times. So, he says, over time radio will “recapitalize to right size” that relationship between debt and equity. That could come from injections of new capital, mergers of companies to create stronger balance sheets or improved performance from an economic rebound – or all of the above.

“No one, not I, says it will be easy and it may yet require intervention from Washington,” said Westerfield.

The picture is a little better for television, although TV stocks have also taken a severe beating this year. “Television broadcasters have a sustainable model,” Westerfield said. He takes issue with anyone who thinks that content producers will want to pass up local stations to distribute programming directly to consumers. The reason is simple. Broadcast station distribution of studio produced product “is more profitable than linear distribution via the Internet,” the analyst said.

As the number of analysts following pure-play broadcasting companies declines on Wall Street – and some of those remaining pare their lists to add companies from other media sectors – Westerfield is still publishing research on 14 radio and television companies: Beasley, CC Media, Citadel, Cox Radio, Emmis, Entercom, Regent and Salem in radio; Belo, Hearst-Argyle and Sinclair in television; and CBS, Entravision and Saga across both.

Broadcasting is under pressure today, but Westerfield says “it is not a question of whether operations will continue.” So, he intends to keep analyzing radio and TV companies as their industries go through yet another transformation.


Grammys add another TV special

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More than two months before the Grammy Awards are presented in the usual TV special, the announcement of the nominations will also be a TV special. The one-hour “Grammy Nominations Concert Live!” will air December 3rd on CBS, 9-10 pm ET/PT. In addition to the announcement of nominees in at least six categories, there will be performances by past Grammy winners.

"Every year, millions of music fans and people around the world anticipate the announcement of our Grammy nominations, anxious to learn which artists from every genre represent the highest levels of musical excellence. The ability to showcase Grammy-winning artists combined with the nominations for the 51st Annual Grammy Awards represents a milestone for The Recording Academy as we begin the next decade of our important missions,” said Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy.

"With this special, we want to emphasize the stories behind great Grammy-winning artists and their music, and set the stage for nominees to thrill audiences at the annual Gramy telecast," said Ken Ehrlich, co-executive producer of the Grammy Awards.

"This special will provide viewers a unique opportunity to witness a great live music event while enjoying the Grammy nominations, jump-starting the road to Music’s Biggest Night, the annual Grammy Awards in February, " said Jack Sussman, Exec. VP, specials, music and live events, CBS.

"The Grammy Nominations Concert Live!! — Countdown To Music’s Biggest Night" is produced by AEG Ehrlich Ventures, LLC and John Cossette Productions. John Cossette and Ken Ehrlich are the executive producers.


Redstone’s company talking to debt holders

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National Amusements Inc. (NAI), via which the Redstone family controls both CBS Corporation and Viacom, confirms that it is in talks with its lenders about a covenant compliance issue. The company blames the recent market volatility affecting its major holdings – CBS and Viacom. The latest announcement from National Amusements came just a few days after it sold $233 million worth of CBS and Viacom stock to shore up its cash position.

National Amusements said it is engaged in “constructive discussions with its bank group and noteholders regarding a covenant issue under NAI’s debt, which is unsecured.”

The latest statement reaffirmed what Shari Redstone said previously, that the stock sales were precipitated by the sharp stock price declines at CBS and Viacom, not anything to do with NAI’s movie theater business. Shari runs the theater chain. Her father, Sumner Redstone, is Chairman of both CBS and Viacom.

“The issue resulted from recent unprecedented market volatility which led to a precipitous drop in the value of the CBS and Viacom shares which are among the assets owned by NAI. A committee of the NAI Board of Directors comprised of George Abrams, David Andelman, and Shari Redstone is overseeing these discussions,” Friday’s statement said.

NAI is privately held. Analyst Rich Greenfield at Pali Research estimated that NAI has $1.6 billion of debt, of which half comes due in December. If that $800 million cannot be refinanced, it is conceivable that NAI would have to sell all of its non-voting stock in CBS and Viacom and even some of its voting stock.
 


Plastic flashing in battle for Congress

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The National Republican Congressional Committee has already dipped into the future for a reported $8M to defend turf as it locks horns with its opposite number, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in the contest for seats in the 111th Congress. Now Politico is reporting that the DCCC is throwing caution to the wind and borrowing $15M to spend in the final two weeks.

The NRCC started the year way behind the DCCC in funding, in part due to an internal embezzlement scandal, and according to Politico, as of the end of August, DCCC already held a $54M to $14.4M advantage in the cash on hand category.

Typically after one party enjoys a particularly good year at the polls, as the Democrats did in 2006, they end up giving back some of their gains the next year. This is especially true for freshmen who took over seats formerly held by the other party, who are routinely targeted in a special effort to retake lost turf. However, this year it looks like most seats held by Democrats of any description are safe, while more Republicans are becoming vulnerable, even veteran lawmakers in what have been safe districts.

A Democratic spokesperson said this is seen as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to press an advantage, and that enough territory seems to be opening up that the party could easily spend double the amount it’s borrowing now.

RBR/TVBR observation: All of this means that both offensive and defensive national cash is going to flow into districts where Republican incumbents are showing signs of vulnerability. If your station is in such a district, congratulations – your coverage area has just been upgraded to battleground status.


FCC hits stations for phone violations

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The wrong number for a pair of Spanish Broadcasting System New York City FMs may well be 16K – put a dollar sign in front of that and you’ll have the price the FCC wants each to direct to Uncle Sam for some over-air phone calls made outside the boundaries of the regulations, to say nothing of the boundaries of good taste.

A contractor was hired by SBS, who called a woman and, with the tapes running, said he was calling from a hospital and asked her to come and identify a corpse believed to be her husband. That apparently was not funny enough, so the prankster added in the corpse of the woman’s daughter as well.

The calls were said by the FCC to have been aired on WSKQ-FM in New York and WXDJ-FM in Miami two times each, and besides driving the victim to the point of hysteria, she was not informed of the intent to broadcast the call in advance. The FCC said prior notice of intent to broadcast was codified into the rules in part to head off stunts like this one.

SBS tried to duck the fine by claiming the contractor was not an employee of the company, which the FCC flatly rejected. There is a base fine of $4K for a failure to notify phone violation, but given a prior history of such problems and the repeated nature of the offense in question, both stations were bumped up to $16K.

Apparently in this case the woman actually, stunningly, agreed to allow this conversation to be broadcast. But apparently it was such a despicable prank that three complaints were received in regards to it, although in all cases the complainants asked to remain anonymous. But post-recording permission is too late; the intent to broadcast must be divulged and agreed to at the very outset.

RBR/TVBR observation: We just are unable to stop imagining ourselves being the recipient of a phone call like this. It is a comfort that most radio broadcasters have not reached such a state of creative bankruptcy that they resort to this kind of stunt. We’ll suffer an inadvertent f-bomb any day rather than this kind of pre-meditated garbage. If we were SBS, rather than protest the FCC fine, we’d double-down on it – pay it gladly and offer at least the same amount to the woman with the most humble apology we could muster and the most sincere promise to never do it again to anybody.


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White space decision roils the waters

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Hi-tech companies are promising devices within the year, including “wi-fi on steroids,” if the FCC goes along with Chairman Kevin Martin and opens up the white spaces between television stations to unlicensed devices. But opponents like the NAB wonder if those at the FCC who say the devices can operate safely even read the full engineering report.

"It would appear that the FCC is misinterpreting the actual data collected by their own engineers," said NAB’s Dennis Wharton. "Any reasonable analysis of the OET report would conclude that unlicensed devices that rely solely on spectrum sensing threaten the viability of clear television reception. Basing public policy on an imprecise Cliffs Notes version of a 149-page report raises troubling questions." The FCC said at best the matter should be opened for public comment, noting that devices had recently failed a battery of tests.

The NAB position was echoed by microphone maker Shure’s Mark Brunner, according to PC World. He said there was a “disconnect” between the technical report and the Martin announcement, and underlined that in his company’s view, the white space devices remained a threat to the use of wireless mics already resident in the spectrum block.

RBR/TVBR observation: We’re not engineers, and maybe we’re missing something, but from what we’ve seen these devices have yet to have a slam-dunk successful field test, and until that happens you’d think they’d be sent back to the drawing board. This is particularly true while legislators and bureaucrats alike are quaking in their boots as to how the TV landscape is going to look on 2/17/09 when analog broadcast has gone bye-bye. This looks like an utterly reckless move from where we sit.


Moody’s slates five TV companies for possible downgrades

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Warning that the television broadcasting sector may face substantial revenue and cash flow drops, Moody’s Investors Service has put five TV group owners on review for potential credit rating downgrades. The companies on the Moody’s hot seat are Gray Television, the FoxCo Acquisition Sub LLC which recently bought eight stations from News Corp., Local TV Finance LLC, Newport Television Holdings LLC and NV Broadcasting LLC (New Vision).

Local TV and FoxCo Acquisition are related companies, both headed by CEO Bobby Lawrence, but have separate debt structures. Gray is the only one of the group with public stock.

Here’s what Moody’s had to say on Friday:

“Today’s rating actions are prompted by our heightened concerns that the television broadcasting sector will face substantial revenue and cash flow deterioration due to the high probability of further deterioration in the U.S. economy and its impact on advertising revenue.

Television broadcasters derive a majority of their revenue from cyclical advertising. Annual television station revenue performance is additionally affected by the timing of the Olympics and elections. TV broadcast station revenues will be lower in 2009 due to the absence of these latter events. Additionally, Moody’s expects television broadcasting revenue to continue to come under increasing cyclical pressure due to depressed consumer confidence, the slowdown in consumer spending, its impact on corporate profits and the resulting cutbacks in advertising and marketing budgets by several industries. In addition, Moody’s notes that the primarily fixed cost base of most television broadcasting companies offers limited avenues to reduce costs in a downturn. As a result, the operating cash flow and the fundamental credit profiles of television broadcasters could weaken dramatically in the face of a weak economic and advertising climate.

Moody’s expects the deteriorating cash flows and high debt leverage to erode headroom under financial maintenance covenants, which in some cases could cause severe liquidity pressure. While the sale of assets can provide broadcasters with additional liquidity, in our view, a sale of stations may be difficult and may take longer due to the current adverse credit environment and lack of financing availability. Reduced access to capital markets will also make it challenging for companies to refinance debt, raise additional funding and remedy covenant (actual or potential) problems.

Moody’s has placed the following ratings under review for possible downgrade:

Issuer – Gray Television, Inc.

Corporate family rating — B2

Probability-of-default rating — B3

$100 million revolving credit facility — B2 (LGD 3, 35%)

$925 million term loan facility — B2 (LGD 3, 35%)

Outlook revised to under review for possible downgrade from negative.

Gray Television, Inc., headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, is a television broadcaster that owns 36 primary television stations serving 30 mid-sized markets. The company’s total revenues were approximately $307 million for year ended December 31, 2007.

Issuer – FoxCo Acquisition Sub L.L.C.

Corporate family rating — B2

Probability-of-default rating — B2

$50 million Senior Secured Revolving Credit Facility — B1 (LGD 3, 32%)

$515 million Senior Secured Term Loan B Facility — B1 (LGD 3, 32%)

$200 million Senior Unsecured Notes — Caa1 (LGD 5, 86%)

Outlook revised to under review for possible downgrade from stable.

FoxCo Acquisition Sub L.L.C., headquartered in Ft. Worth, Texas, owns and operates 8 television stations in 8 markets. The stations’ 2007 revenue was approximately $309 million.

Issuer – Local TV Finance, LLC

Corporate family rating — B2

Probability-of-Default rating — B2

$30 million 6-year Senior Secured Revolving Credit Facility – Ba3 (LGD2,
29%)

$275 million 6-year Senior Secured First Lien Term Loan – Ba3 (LGD2, 29%)

$190 million 8-year Senior Notes – Caa1 (LGD5, 83%)

Outlook revised to under review for possible downgrade from negative.
Local TV Finance, LLC, headquartered in Ft. Worth, Texas, owns nine television broadcasting stations in eight mid-sized markets (DMAs 43-100).

Issuer – Newport Television Holdings LLC

Corporate family rating — B2

Probability-of-default rating — B2

$100 million Senior Discount Notes — Caa1 (LGD 6, 94%)

Outlook revised to under review for possible downgrade from stable.

Issuer – Newport Television LLC

$590 million senior secured credit facility — Ba3 (LGD 3, 30%)

$200 million Senior PIK Toggle Notes — Caa1 (LGD 5, 81%)

Outlook revised to under review for possible downgrade from stable.

Newport Television Holdings LLC, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, owns and operates 50 television stations (including 17 digital multicast stations) in 22 markets. The company’s 2007 revenue was approximately $338 million.

Issuer – NV Broadcasting, LLC

Corporate Family Rating — B3

Probability-of-default rating — B3

$20 million Senior Secured First Lien Revolving Credit Facility — B1 (LGD 3, 30%)

$195 million Senior Secured First Lien Term Loan Facility — B1 (LGD 3, 30%)

$100 million Senior Secured Second Lien Term Loan Facility — Caa2 (LGD  5, 80%)

Outlook revised to under review for possible downgrade from stable.

Parkin Broadcasting, LLC

$5 million Senior Secured First Lien Revolving Credit Facility — B1 (LGD 3, 30%)

$40 million Senior Secured First Lien Term Loan Facility — B1 (LGD 3, 30%)

Outlook revised to under review for possible downgrade from stable.

NV Broadcasting, LLC, headquartered in Los Angeles, CA owns and/or operates 13 major affiliated broadcast television stations and two CW and two MyTV affiliated broadcast stations in 8 markets. The company has also announced the establishment of KBNZ as the CBS network affiliate serving the Bend,Oregon market. The company’s pro-forma 2007 net revenue was approximately $109 million

RBR/TVBR observation: What these companies, except for Gray, have in common is that they all bought a bunch of television stations quite recently. So, they hadn’t really had much time to start paying down debt when the ad market got sick and the financial projections used to make those station purchases started to fall apart. Moody’s worries that some of them could face “severe liquidity pressure” and might find it hard to even sell assets to cover cash needs in this tough economy.


Entercom downgraded

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Moody’s Investor Service has downgraded the debt ratings of Entercom Communications, saying the ratings agency expects radio broadcasting revenue to come under increasing pressure due to the slowdown in consumer spending. It sees leverage increasing for the radio company, but also notes that Entercom is likely to cut back on shareholder returns and devote more free cash flow to paying down debt. Moody’s ratings outlook for Entercom is negative.

Here’s what Moody’s had to say about Entercom on Friday:

“Moody’s Investors Service downgraded the corporate family and probability of default ratings for Entercom Radio LLC (Entercom) to B1 from Ba3 and downgraded its 7.625% senior subordinated notes to B3 from B2 and changed the outlook to negative from stable. Moody’s expects radio broadcasting revenue (which consists almost entirely of advertising) to come under increasing pressure due to the slowdown in consumer spending, its impact on corporate profits and the resulting cutbacks in advertising and marketing budgets. These revenue trends will likely pressure Entercom’s ability to maintain leverage in the mid 5 times debt-to-EBITDA range (as per Moody’s standard adjustments) as anticipated in the Ba3 rating, and also erode its cushion of compliance under the leverage covenant within its bank facility. The negative outlook incorporates Moody’s concern over a potential covenant breach.

However, Moody’s anticipates Entercom will severely curtail its historic pattern of shareholder returns and instead direct free cash flow to debt repayment, enabling the company to continue to generate positive free cash flow and to maintain leverage below 7 times despite deterioration of the top line.

In February 2008, Moody’s downgraded Entercom’s corporate family rating to Ba3 from Ba2, because the combination of increased borrowing to fund incremental share repurchases and lower than projected EBITDA led to leverage in excess of expectations. The current downgrade to B1 incorporates further deterioration of fundamental industry trends and the resultant negative impact on leverage.

Entercom’s B1 corporate family rating reflects the maturity and inherent cyclicality of the radio industry, high leverage, and some concentration of revenue within its highly competitive top 5 markets. Strong EBITDA margins and the capacity to generate free cash flow, despite weak industry fundamentals, along with geographic and format diversity, support the ratings.

The outlook is negative, and a summary of today’s rating actions follows.

Entercom Radio, LLC

….Probability of Default Rating, Downgraded to B1 from Ba3

….Corporate Family Rating, Downgraded to B1 from Ba3

….Senior Subordinated Bonds, Downgraded to B3, LGD6, 94% from B2, LGD6, 93%

Outlook, changed to negative from stable.”

RBR/TVBR observation:
Anyone care to wager when we will see Moody’s report any upgrade for a radio company? It’s not that they’re beating up on radio in particular. Look at television. Look at newspapers. Look at automakers. Look at banks. There’s a lot of hurt out there.


Can Sirius XM survive?

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Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Wienkes dares to raise the question of the “viability of the current business model” in his latest missive to clients on Sirius XM. The satellite radio company remains on his “conviction sell” list, where it has been for a long time.

Wienkes issued his latest analysis after the company filed the proxy for its annual shareholders meeting, calling for a reverse stock split and authority to issue many more shares to raise equity. See related story. [LINK] “One interpretation is that this could just be prudent move by the board in case refinancing the 2009 debt maturities is not viable. An alternative view is that these potentially benign proposals are harbingers of pending certain equity dilution. The proposals seem to run contrary to CEO Mel Karmazin’s 2Q08 conference call commentary ‘we have no plans for a reverse split.’ That said, times change and the proposals are unsurprising given +$1bn of 2009 debt maturities and difficult credit markets set against a business model that is still consuming cash,” Winkes told clients.

With Sirius XM needing to refinance $1.05 billion of debt in 2009, the analyst thinks the most likely outcome is another round of dilution for shareholders, either from more costly borrowing, new equity issuance – “or both.”

Even though the company’s stock price has fallen dramatically this year, the Goldman Sachs analyst says the equity valuation is still overstated relative to free cash flow. But that’s hot all that has him worried: “however, with a now weaker consumer outlook and essentially closed credit markets, the nature of our concerns has shifted toward the viability of the current business model set against +$1 billion of debt maturities and an uncertain amount of cash on hand. Specifically, we believe the current business model will have an increasingly difficult path as the cost of churn impairs the ability to generate free cash requisite to satisfy debt maturities or ultimately accrue any meaningful value to shareholders,” Winkes said.

RBR/TVBR observation: We have questioned since the 1990s whether satellite radio had a viable business model. Rather than being the year that Sirius XM achieves positive EBITDA for the first time, 2009 could prove to be a year where the company is fighting for survival.

RBR/TVBR note: More see Mel ‘ZenMaster’ changes course


Short and turbulent run for Beusse at WW1

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Friday’s exit of Westwood One CEO Tom Beusse was certainly sudden and unexpected. It was just this month that he bought 375,000 shares of the company’s stock for $150,000 as one of three top execs to buy a total of 1,875,000 shares. All, by the way, have already lost more than half of their investment. Beusse had been at the helm for less than 10 months and WW1 is now looking for its 4th CEO since Joel Hollander departed in 2003 to head Infinity Radio (now CBS Radio) – the 5th if you also count Hollander’s brief return as Interim President and CEO at one point.

Since the beginning of 2003 to today, Westwood One’s stock price has gone from $37.36 to Friday’s close of $0.19, a fall of 99.49%. And since Beusse took the helm on January 8th of this year the stock price has fallen from $1.63 to that 19 cent level, an 88.34% drop.

Who will be the next to try to turn around the fortunes of WW1, which was first hard-hit by a decline in national advertising for its radio networks, and more recently by a local ad fall-off affecting its Metro Networks local traffic and news business? Hollander was succeeded by Shane Coppola, who lasted less than two years, with Hollander taking the post again on an interim basis until Peter Kosann was promoted to President and CEO in Janaury 2006. It was Kosann who negotiated an end to CBS Radio’s management contract, at the same time putting in place a deal for better spot clearance on CBS O&O stations. But Kosann, who had been a CBS employee, also decided to exit once WW1 shareholders approved the restructuring. That led to the recruitment of Beusse, a magazine industry veteran who had never worked in broadcasting.

As Beusse began his effort to put WW1 back on track financially, The Gores Group came in as a new investor, agreeing in February to inject up to $100 million into the company. Gores, by the way, paid $1.75 for 25 million new WW1 shares in two blocks. Those shares have now lost 89.14% of their value. The preferred stock that Gores bought pays it 7.5% interest, but it is hard to predict if it will ever be convertible into common stock at $3.00 per share. And its 10 million warrants to buy stock at prices ranging from $5.00 to $7.00 have dropped further and further out of the money.

Westwood One ended 2002 with $550.8 million of revenues and record operating cash flow of $190.4 million. Revenues fell to $539.2 million in 2003, rose a bit to $562.2 in 2004, slipped to $557.8 million in 2005 and then began an accelerated decline of double-digit percentages – to $494.0 million in 2006 and $451.4 million in 2007. Through the first half of 2008 revenues had fallen another 9% to $206.9 million.

In an effort to boost investor enthusiasm, Beusse and other top executives embarked on a roadshow pitching the company’s three-pronged strategy “of enhancing top line growth in the Company’s core local and national radio business, implementing a multi-channel business model and increasing operational efficiencies.”

Most recently, WW1 announced a re-engineering of its Metro Networks unit and other restructuring moves that are supposed to cut cost by $25-30 million. The moves to cut Metro’s employee headcount by 15% and consolidate operations at 60 locations into 15 were to result in a one-time charge of $20-24 million in Q3. WW1 has not yet announced a date for reporting its Q3 results.

Meanwhile, the company is facing delisting by the NYSE, first for having its stock price fall below a buck and more recently for failing to meet minimum capitalization requirements. That may be a lesser worry right now for the Board of Directors than figuring out who can be recruited with the talents to at least stop the company’s revenues and cash flow from eroding in the turbulent economy and hopefully chart a course to future growth.

RBR/TVBR observation: Old hands will recall that Westwood One rebounded from a severe financial decline in the early 1990s, when an ill-timed entry into owning radio stations coincided with a tough period for the network radio business. Back then the running joke was to call the company “Westwood One and Seven-Eighths” for its depressed stock price. At that time the call went out for Mel Karmazin to rescue WW1, merging in the Unistar Radio Networks that he was already running and creating that management deal that had Infinity Broadcasting and later CBS Radio operating WW1. In truth, it was really after Mel realized that he was too busy with all of his other responsibilities that he sent Joel Hollander to run WW1 and the company enjoyed its best days. The problems are even greater today, so we wonder who will be up to the task of another rescue.