Is This The End Of The Radio Industry?



(image via meltaylor)

The radio industry is in a very bad place. And not just terrestrial radio, which, with the possible exceptions of NPR and the newly Obama-fied into relevance, Air America Radio, is all but dead already buzz-wise. Downsizing is the rule, not the exception. Columnist Hiyawatha Bray opined that the entire satellite industry -- which is already in confusion -- may be "living on borrowed time." The Corsair just checked out the stock ticker and was STUNNED to see Sirius Satellite Radio -- which have been cleared for a merger with XM Radio -- trading at an astonishing $0.26 a share. Wow.

Terrestrial radio, of course, isn't faring much better. Citadel Radio is selling shares at --! -- $0.18 a share (down 10% today). "It's grim," says Farid Suleman, chief executive of Citadel Broadcasting Corp. to the WSJ "... He describes current conditions as 'absolutely the worst I've seen.'"

Cox Radio is at $5.09 a share. Westwood One's 3Q revenues are down 10% from this time a year ago.

And post-election season, without all those wonderful ads, radio -- terrestrial and satellite -- will be minus some fat revenues. Moral of the story: don't invest in the radio industry; there's a cold wind blowing.

UPDATE: In what may be the penultimate nail in the coffin of radio, Barack Obama will be delivering the Presidential "radio" address via YouTube.