SABO SEZ: Look at the Actual Numbers
By Walter Sabo
A.K.A Walter Sterling
Host, The Other Side of Midnight
WABC, New York / Red Apple Audio Networks
Billionaires make predominantly good investments, which is why they are billionaires.
John Malone saved Sirius with a $500 million investment just days from the company missing payroll. He remains the controlling shareholder.
Warren Buffett just made a significant investment in highly profitable SiriusXM.
George Soros owns Audacy. Audacy’s robust list of major market radio stations are jewels that require a better financial structure. Soros Fund Management bought $400,000,000 of the company’s debt and controlling ownership. Note that Soros now owns all but one of the country’s all-news stations.
Apollo Advisor’s billionaire CEO Marc Rowan – a former candidate for Secretary of the U.S. Treasury – owns Cox Radio and Television. Apollo was an original investor in Sirius.
John Catsimatidis wrote a check for WABC-AM and is buying more properties. Radio properties. Cats owns an oil refinery, land, and the Gristedes supermarket chain, but his focus is on WABC Radio.
The health of radio? The future? Those sharp investors, brutal businesspeople, determine the business future of radio, and they are apparently very optimistic!
Failing industries don’t expand
In 1970, there were 2,126 commercial stations in the U.S.
Today there are:
- AM stations: 4,342
- FM commercial stations: 6,589
- FM noncommercial (educational) stations: 4,755
Sell the biggest number
Cable channels are investor valued by “Homes Passed.” Not audience or cash flow. How many people who can see the programming rather than how many people actually see the programming. Now apply that logic to radio station values.
BILLBOARDS sell impressions. Impressions represent the total number of people who could potentially see a billboard ad. That is the biggest number by which billboard can be measured, so that’s what they sell.
DIRECT MAIL is the number one local ad medium. It is data driven beyond your wildest dreams. Direct mail automation uses real-time signals and integrated data to deliver mail at the most meaningful point in the customer journey. For example, when someone abandons a shopping cart or repeatedly views a product online, you can design a programmatic mailing campaign to automatically send print pieces in response to that specific consumer behavior.
Rather than pushing the biggest, stable number – CUME – radio sells the smallest measurements. Radio’s 100+ years of success, astonishing outlet growth, 92% penetration of American homes, 65% daily population usage deserve has earned a much higher commercial unit price.
Walter Sabo has been a C-Suite action partner for companies such as SiriusXM, Hearst, Press Broadcasting, Gannett, RKO General, and many other leading media outlets. His company, HITVIEWS, in 2007, was the first to identify and monetize video influencers. His nightly show “The Other Side of Midnight” is heard on WABC, New York and the Red Apple Audio Network 1:00 am – 5:00 am. His syndicated show, “Sterling On Sunday,” from Talk Media Network, airs 10:00 pm-1:00 am ET, and is now in its 10th year of success. He can be reached by email at sabowalter@gmail.com. He can be phoned at 646-678-1110.
requests for comment. The report states, “Liberty SiriusXM Group, once an affiliate of John Malone’s media empire, formerly held significant stakes in both companies. But it eventually sold its stake in iHeartMedia, primarily a broadcast radio company, and split off its ownership of SiriusXM, the satellite radio company, into a separate entity.” The story goes on to underscore that the talks are in the early stages, and a deal may not take place. 
Wall Street investors do not put up money for traditional radio and television stations.