( bet Imus is among those "deals")
Farid Suleman: No More 'Stupid Deals'
LAS VEGAS -- May 8, 2008: Citadel Chairman/CEO Farid Suleman today
listed interactive revenue and Hispanic radio as growth areas for his
company, and stated that in the current weak environment, every item
-- including the renewal of Sean Hannity's contract -- will receive
close scrutiny.
"We as a company and, I think, as an industry overall is doing a great
job in investing in interactive," Suleman said during his company's Q1
earnings conference call. "For the first time we have all of the
interactive up and running at all of our stations, and we would not be
surprised if our revenues next year would be in the $20 million just
from interactive."
He's also bullish on Hispanic radio initiatives. "The network's
investment in Hispanic programming is continuing to pay off," he said.
"Over the next 12 months we will continue to expand our investment in
that area."
He's not so optimistic, however, about its Urban programming. "The
Urban part of the programming is slowing down considerably, and will
continue to do so over the remainder of the year," he said.
Suleman also commented on rumor that ABC Radio Networks host Sean
Hannity is looking to exit the network. "He has exercised his right
that he believes he has under that contract to opt out," Suleman said
of Hannity. "We are negotiating -- we will do that -- but we will only
do profitable deals. The era of doing stupid deals is over; we're not
going to do that."
He added, "We have full faith in the radio stations we have, the shelf
space that we have, the programming people that we have, and the
op****tunities that the network brings. At the end of the day, we will
grow our business based on a good diversified base of programming
where we're not dependent on any one form of programming."
Indeed, he's bullish on the cost-saving op****tunities the recently
acquired ABC network affords Citadel. "If you look at some of the
format changes we made, particularly in the bigger markets, we're
bringing in programming that will have higher ratings than some of the
flanking that we were doing before, and the cost is minimal," Suleman
said. "In some cases we will have some morning shows, but overall the
music is all coming from what we have with the formats we have with
the ABC Radio Network."
He continued, "If the revenue growth isn't there, we have to
reevaluate how we do business. You can't continue to invest in
programming and sales if you can't get the revenue. [Citadel COO] Judy
Ellis has always said that 50 percent of our revenues would come in
with or without salespeople. Sometimes you have to ask why are we
paying commissions on that revenue. Maybe we would have a few salaried
people who just concentrate on servicing fulfillment of that at a much
lower cost. Maybe pay a higher commission for people who bring in new
business. We are continually evaluating a lot of those things. It's a
different environment. You really have to be focused and make sure
that you're realistic about your revenue assumptions and program and
run your stations accordingly."
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