Re: The NAB

[Dan Strassberg <dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net>]

At 05:14 PM 10/18/98 -0400, you wrote:

>I spent money I don't really have to go to Seattle and plead for the future
>of my industry.  And I wonder if anybody heard me.........              
>
I'm sad and I applaud your eloquence. But I have to wonder if Donna isn't
short for Donna Quixote.

The only thing I can see that will turn the industry around is if we have a
steep recession followed by early-80s-style "stagflation". Remember when the
prime rate was 22% around 1982? If history were to repeat, the debt-laden
houses of cards of the radio megalopolies would come crashing down. After
Salem, which, I understand has no debt, bought all of the prime properties
at fire-sale prices (Salem owns five AMs in Seattle-Tacoma; why wouldn't
they want WRKO and WEEI if they could buy them for, say, $4 million each?),
the other stations might go to locals who could find ways to raise cash.
Some degree of local ownership would be restored. The question is, after
this orgy of forced sales and debt restructuring was over, what then? Would
Wall St be sour on radio or would we start all over again?

And will anybody care? The product is so horrendous now, the public may just
have given up and turned to CDs and/or DBS. It boggles my mind how willing
these big outfits are to drive the audience away as long as they can make a
buck while they do it. (And, alas, under current conditions, they _can_ make
a buck while they do it.) Can you say "eating your young?"

- -------------------------------
Dan Strassberg (Note: Address is CASE SENSITIVE!)
ALL _LOWER_ CASE!!!--> dan.strassberg@worldnet.att.net
(617) 558-4205; Fax (617) 928-4205

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