CBS Selling off 50 Stations

[Alan Tolz]

Yes, I am still part of the Marlin team, but I chose to put the question out 
there purely from a strategic and hypothetical point of view.

As to valuations for those properties, the CBS stations in Hartford were 
last "valued" by Jim Duncan when they changed hands from ARS to CBS.  Those 
valuations were:

WRCH - $73,000,000
WTIC FM - $42,000,000
WTIC AM - $21,000,000
WZMX FM - $20,000,000

That was in 1996.  The trading multiple at that time was roughly 16.5X 12 
months trailing BCF.

We were the last FM sold in Hartford, from Marlin, Inc. to Marlin, LLC for 
$20,000,000 in 2000.

Today, even a dominant cluster in a mid-sized market would do well to fetch 
11X BCF.  That might revalue the cluster as follows:

WRCH - $50,000,000
WTIC FM - $27,000,000
WTIC AM - $18,000,000
WZMX FM - $15,000,000

$110,000,000 for approx. $10,000,000 in BCF.

Not exactly a fire sale, but it's clear to see why radio stocks continue to 
take a beating in public trading.

As for WURH, I think they  - Bain & Lee through the Aloha Trust - will try 
to sell that as a stick to a Spanish operator as the sole member of the 
Trust is a woman who was the CFO for Entravision for some time and she is 
well versed in Spanish format radio.  David Tomm hit the nail on the head in 
his response.

Alan




----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Garrett Wollman" <wollman@bimajority.org>
To: "Alan Tolz" <atolz@comcast.net>
Cc: <boston-radio-interest@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 03, 2008 1:12 PM
Subject: Re: CBS Selling off 50 Stations


> <<On Sun, 3 Aug 2008 08:32:53 -0400, "Alan Tolz" <atolz@comcast.net> said:
>
>> Re: Hartford, why wouldn't Buckley or Marlin, who each own stand alone 
>> FM's
>> make a play for either some or all of the CBS stations and WURH?
>
> It's pretty difficult for anyone to raise capital these days, and both
> Buckley and Marlin are pretty small, cash-lean operations.  (What
> could Buckley do, turn around and sell Bakersfield?)  There do look to
> be some VC people out there with money burning holes in their pockets,
> but I think you'd still have to buying the CBS stations at fire-sale
> prices to make that work.  (And I don't think that's a deal Buckley
> would do, as it would mean giving up control of the company.  As for
> Marlin, you would know better than we, if their November, 2007,
> ownership report is to be believed.)
>
> -GAWollman
>
>