FCC Says No to More Consolidation

4-16-14

In a "Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and Report and Order," the FCC did not buy the NAB's contention that increased competition from digital and other audio delivery platforms warranted a loosening of the current caps on radio ownership. The Commission rejected the NAB and CBS' claim that the current rules are "not necessary to promote our localism and diversity goals." For now, in a market with 45 or more stations, one company may own a total of eight stations, no more than five in the same service (AM or FM. Those numbers decrease (see below) based on the total number of stations per market.

Broadcasters can own:
- up to eight commercial radio stations in radio markets with 45 or more radio stations, no more than five of which can be in the same service (AM or FM).
- up to seven commercial radio stations in radio markets with 30-44 radio stations, no more than four of which can be in the same service (AM or FM).
- up to six commercial radio stations in radio markets with 15-29 radio stations, no more than four of which can be in the same service (AM or FM).
- up to five commercial radio stations in radio markets with 14 or fewer radio stations, no more than three of which can be in the same service (AM or FM) provided that an entity may not own more than 50 percent of the stations in such a market, except that an entity may always own a single AM and single FM station combination.

(4/17/2014 5:36:42 AM)
The big groups have already bought up most of the rating points in every market, so from my perspective, the damage is already done.

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NABOB Tells FCC To Stop Further Consolidation

4-4-13

In the latest National Association of Black Owned Broadcasters newsletter, Executive Director Jim Winston has a message for the FCC. He says minority owners will be put at a competitive disadvantage if there is more consolidation. He also says, "The initial relaxation of the Commission?s ownership rules in 1996 was a significant factor in the decline of minority broadcast ownership." Here's Winston's full message to the Commission.

"The FCC is continuing its quadrennial review of its broadcast ownership rules, and NABOB has been urging the Commission to refrain from further relaxing any of its ownership rules, including its radio-newspaper cross-ownership rules. In letters to the commissioners and formal comments filed with the Commission, NABOB explained that, ?If large radio group owners are now allowed to combine their multiple station ownership advantage with ownership of a daily newspaper, the group owner will combine the radio and newspaper sales forces, and will be able to offer advertisers a combined radio-newspaper buy, which will leave minority owners even more disadvantaged in their efforts to compete in the marketplace. NABOB urges the Commission to complete the studies required by the Supreme Court in the Adarand case, which would provide the Commission a basis for adopting new policies specifically designed to promote minority broadcast station ownership.

"Recently, Chairman Julius Genachowski (who recently announced that he is resigning) delayed action in the proceedings to receive the results of a study that is intended to determine whether the ownership of radio stations and a daily newspaper in the same market will negatively impact minority ownership. As noted above, NABOB opposes the relaxation of any of the Commission?s ownership rules, particularly the radio-daily newspaper cross ownership rule. The initial relaxation of the Commission?s ownership rules in 1996 was a significant factor in the decline of minority broadcast ownership. Press reports indicate that the two Democratic commissioners, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel, do not support the planned rule change that would allow radio-daily newspaper cross-ownership in the same market."

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Has Consolidation Critically Injured Radio?

1-3-2012

Ed Levine received a lot of praise for "telling it like it is," on the topic of consolidation yesterday. Our story with the Galaxy Communications CEO generated pages of comments to us and an inbox full of e-mails for him. Levine said messages started rolling in at 6AM and never stopped. Consolidation is one topic that always generates enthusiastic passion from our readers and Levine plucked that nerve. With the NAB and the big groups in favor and pushing for even more deregulation "so radio can better compete with a changed media landscape," is the divide between big and small destined to get worse? And how does that help the industry "tell a better story" hoping to bring home a bigger share of advertising revenues.

One of Levine's supporters wrote yesterday, "Well said, Ed. There really is a growing divide between the big groups and us independents. I marvel at the accolades, high regard, and deference lavished by Radio Ink and so many others on these "industry leaders" who have critically injured a once-great industry."

Levine was congratulated by many for saying what others are apparently thinking. We went back for more from our interview with Levine which will appear in our January 21st issue. This time we asked Levine to talk about the people in the radio industry, how they've been treated, how they should be treated and how to keep good people on your team.

Show them some respect, Levine says. "That's one item that's vanished from the radio business these days. The guys I just hired from Cumulus (on-air) came into the Syracuse market two years ago. Nobody knew them. Within a couple of years they became a top team in the market. Cumulus simply let their contract expire. These guys wanted to stay there. They asked multiple times, "What's our status?" They received no answer. That's basic disrespect. That doesn't help anybody."

"Nobody has to work at your radio station. We have treat employees well. Way more than compensation or anything financial. It starts with basic respect for them as business partners. When somebody does a good job, tell them they are doing a good job. If they don't do a good job, it's your responsibility to deal with that too. The lack of respect for employees in the radio industry in the last ten years is horrendous. I think that is one of the things that needs to change, too."

Reader Paul Robinson posted the following comment yesterday, "The one element that is sorely lacking in radio today is "fun"... It is contagious and everyone - the listeners, your station's business partners, your staff - all desire nothing more out of life than to have fun - at least once in awhile. Create an environment where everyone enjoys being involved and success will follow. BTW: The trade-off is a significant decrease in those 50% operating margins. So, if greed is your primary motivation you need to find an alternative career/investment opportunity."

Larry Patrick, who owns radio stations in addition to being one of the most respected brokers in the radio industry is also in our upcoming small market issue. He spoke about the importance of how you treat your people. "I think generally, this industry, typically in the larger markets that we read about all the time, people have been treated rather poorly in the last couple of years. They are treated like commodities. Depending on what the quarterly call has been and how things are going for private equity operators. It's just sort of a box they put themselves in. People get fired. People get told you're not programming locally, you're doing other things. It's a business where, unfortunately, sometimes the best and the brightest, if they don't have this burning passion for radio, they are sometimes lured to just give up and go into a different business."

" I think the best thing you can do is, and this sounds trite, but do sincere thank you's. Catch them doing things right. We try to do a hundred little things to say thank you to the people. It may seem silly but, I have an engineer that came to Wyoming not because he wanted to work at our radio stations, but because he's an avid fly fisherman. After he built us a station or completed some other huge project, we often send him up to the mountains to a cabin with some new fishing rods and bait or lures and tell him to take 3 or 4 or 5 days and go fishing. We say thank you a lot."

So, has consolidation critically injured radio by gutting its good people? Or is this just a natural step in the evololution of an industry? Will additional deregulation actually help us generate more revenue? Leave your comments below or reach out to Ed directly at galaxyceo1@gmail.com or Larry Patrick at larry@patcomm.com

To read more from Ed Levine, Larry Patrick and others about Small Market Radio in our January 21st cover story, order an 1-year subscription to our digital issue HERE. To get a print subscription, go HERE or call 561-655-8778.

(1/4/2013 12:27:24 PM)
I don't accept the notion that consolidation has critically injured radio, but I do believe that radio has become an insanely mechanical, de-humanized business since consolidation. Consolidation is a fact of business life and there's not an industry that I can think of that hasn't experienced it. My view is that corporate leadership is the driver of the success or failure of any merger or consolidation.

While the radio industry advocated for consolidation (as it continues to do now), based on my experience as a GSM during the late 90s thru the first decade of the new millennium, I don't believe there were many people at the top of the food chain who had a clue how to make it work. Anyone recall the first 10 years when companies were hiring Directors of Sales? OMG, what a nightmare! The poor people hired for those positions largely had no job descriptions and sort of made it up as they went along. Then came a round of eliminating those positions and a seemingly constant restructuring sales departments and compensation as the big dogs struggled to find the right mix.

Account management, talent acquisition/development, pricing, positioning--all business 101 items--were all over the map. Perhaps the greatest issue that dragged radio down after consolidation is the fact that radio executives or managers who were well suited to lead in the pre-consolidation days were seriously unqualified to lead in the post consolidation era. The results amounted to putting old wine in new wineskins.

I'm peripheral to the business now, but I still talk to people on the inside and what I hear dismays me. The way business is done in radio today is pretty much the same way we did it in 1996. Yes there are shiny new toys and impressive sounding buzz words. And yes, there is much lamenting about how radio doesn’t get even its representative share of ad revenue. And I submit that consolidation isn’t the culprit. It’s that T-Rex and all of his extraordinarily well-paid friends still reign in Radio Land despite the world becoming more digitized and focused on accountable business relationships. Until this changes radically, Darwinian theory will continue to take its course.

(1/4/2013 12:02:25 PM)
I love the new iBiquity logo!
(1/3/2013 10:00:30 PM)
Radio has always been a brutal, cutthroat business.

In the 1970s I worked for management that bought a station, walked in the next day, fired everyone except the receptionist, and went on the air with an entirely new air staff.

T'was ever thus.

(1/3/2013 3:03:28 PM)
In an eralier comment, someone mentioned that what is missing in radio these days is FUN. I agree. But equally important, and equally missing is PASSION. Radio has always been a business of course, but of late it seems to have evolved into a BUSINESS! Cold,calculating and cruel. The creative part seems to have been replaced by the balance sheet and overseen by a bunch of bean counters. What happned to all the people who actually LOVED radio and would work and work and work for lousy money because they had a serious passion for it? Oh, I know...they've all been fired. I spent 20 years in small markets and big markets, and it breaks my heart to see what these money vultures have done to "my" radio.
(1/3/2013 12:47:13 PM)

An objective analysis of the impact of consolidation in the radio industry might lead one to conclude that the process is birthing a much-needed evolution through the forced process of adaptive innovation.

The consolidators are actually benefitting small market operators on at least a couple of obvious fronts:

First, they are paying the price for being first adopters in what will quickly become a huge market for “off- the-shelf” products from digital media service providers;

Second, they are conceding perhaps 85% to 90% of the total radio revenue in many medium and smaller markets by focusing on the type of transactional business that a “national footprint” (de facto network) traditionally attracts.

While ownership consolidation certainly presents huge challenges in the short term, the long term competitive strategy and, conceivably, the advantage to small and medium market operators should be obvious.

Step up your game and you may wind up actually being grateful to radio’s “big-boys” in the long-run.

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Has Consolidation Critically Injured Radio?

1-3-2012

Ed Levine received a lot of praise for "telling it like it is," on the topic of consolidation yesterday. Our story with the Galaxy Communications CEO generated pages of comments to us and an inbox full of e-mails for him. Levine said messages started rolling in at 6AM and never stopped. Consolidation is one topic that always generates enthusiastic passion from our readers and Levine plucked that nerve. With the NAB and the big groups in favor and pushing for even more deregulation "so radio can better compete with a changed media landscape," is the divide between big and small destined to get worse? And how does that help the industry "tell a better story" hoping to bring home a bigger share of advertising revenues.

One of Levine's supporters wrote yesterday, "Well said, Ed. There really is a growing divide between the big groups and us independents. I marvel at the accolades, high regard, and deference lavished by Radio Ink and so many others on these "industry leaders" who have critically injured a once-great industry."

Levine was congratulated by many for saying what others are apparently thinking. We went back for more from our interview with Levine which will appear in our January 21st issue. This time we asked Levine to talk about the people in the radio industry, how they've been treated, how they should be treated and how to keep good people on your team.

Show them some respect, Levine says. "That's one item that's vanished from the radio business these days. The guys I just hired from Cumulus (on-air) came into the Syracuse market two years ago. Nobody knew them. Within a couple of years they became a top team in the market. Cumulus simply let their contract expire. These guys wanted to stay there. They asked multiple times, "What's our status?" They received no answer. That's basic disrespect. That doesn't help anybody."

"Nobody has to work at your radio station. We have treat employees well. Way more than compensation or anything financial. It starts with basic respect for them as business partners. When somebody does a good job, tell them they are doing a good job. If they don't do a good job, it's your responsibility to deal with that too. The lack of respect for employees in the radio industry in the last ten years is horrendous. I think that is one of the things that needs to change, too."

Reader Paul Robinson posted the following comment yesterday, "The one element that is sorely lacking in radio today is "fun"... It is contagious and everyone - the listeners, your station's business partners, your staff - all desire nothing more out of life than to have fun - at least once in awhile. Create an environment where everyone enjoys being involved and success will follow. BTW: The trade-off is a significant decrease in those 50% operating margins. So, if greed is your primary motivation you need to find an alternative career/investment opportunity."

Larry Patrick, who owns radio stations in addition to being one of the most respected brokers in the radio industry is also in our upcoming small market issue. He spoke about the importance of how you treat your people. "I think generally, this industry, typically in the larger markets that we read about all the time, people have been treated rather poorly in the last couple of years. They are treated like commodities. Depending on what the quarterly call has been and how things are going for private equity operators. It's just sort of a box they put themselves in. People get fired. People get told you're not programming locally, you're doing other things. It's a business where, unfortunately, sometimes the best and the brightest, if they don't have this burning passion for radio, they are sometimes lured to just give up and go into a different business."

" I think the best thing you can do is, and this sounds trite, but do sincere thank you's. Catch them doing things right. We try to do a hundred little things to say thank you to the people. It may seem silly but, I have an engineer that came to Wyoming not because he wanted to work at our radio stations, but because he's an avid fly fisherman. After he built us a station or completed some other huge project, we often send him up to the mountains to a cabin with some new fishing rods and bait or lures and tell him to take 3 or 4 or 5 days and go fishing. We say thank you a lot."

So, has consolidation critically injured radio by gutting its good people? Or is this just a natural step in the evololution of an industry? Will additional deregulation actually help us generate more revenue? Leave your comments below or reach out to Ed directly at galaxyceo1@gmail.com or Larry Patrick at larry@patcomm.com

To read more from Ed Levine, Larry Patrick and others about Small Market Radio in our January 21st cover story, order an 1-year subscription to our digital issue HERE. To get a print subscription, go HERE or call 561-655-8778.

(1/3/2013 10:00:30 PM)
Radio has always been a brutal, cutthroat business.

In the 1970s I worked for management that bought a station, walked in the next day, fired everyone except the receptionist, and went on the air with an entirely new air staff.

T'was ever thus.

(1/3/2013 3:03:28 PM)
In an eralier comment, someone mentioned that what is missing in radio these days is FUN. I agree. But equally important, and equally missing is PASSION. Radio has always been a business of course, but of late it seems to have evolved into a BUSINESS! Cold,calculating and cruel. The creative part seems to have been replaced by the balance sheet and overseen by a bunch of bean counters. What happned to all the people who actually LOVED radio and would work and work and work for lousy money because they had a serious passion for it? Oh, I know...they've all been fired. I spent 20 years in small markets and big markets, and it breaks my heart to see what these money vultures have done to "my" radio.
(1/3/2013 12:47:13 PM)

An objective analysis of the impact of consolidation in the radio industry might lead one to conclude that the process is birthing a much-needed evolution through the forced process of adaptive innovation.

The consolidators are actually benefitting small market operators on at least a couple of obvious fronts:

First, they are paying the price for being first adopters in what will quickly become a huge market for “off- the-shelf” products from digital media service providers;

Second, they are conceding perhaps 85% to 90% of the total radio revenue in many medium and smaller markets by focusing on the type of transactional business that a “national footprint” (de facto network) traditionally attracts.

While ownership consolidation certainly presents huge challenges in the short term, the long term competitive strategy and, conceivably, the advantage to small and medium market operators should be obvious.

Step up your game and you may wind up actually being grateful to radio’s “big-boys” in the long-run.

(1/3/2013 12:37:43 PM)
What are they going to do? Fire me? Send me to Vietnam...? Besides, these guys pay no attention to reason, logic or alternative strategies anyway. They've already got it all figured out. Thanks for comin' out. :)
(1/3/2013 11:30:15 AM)
Cumulus mentioned specifically? Aren't you guys scared of the "Big Bad Wolf"?
These guys are the most RUTHLESS Aholes on the planet!

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Consolidation is Killing the Radio Business

1-2-12

Ed Levine once worked for Mel Karmazin at WJFK in Washington DC. He says he learned more working for Mel at Infinity in two years than anyone else at any time during his radio career. While employed by Infinity Levine was assembling a plan to make his dream of ownership come true back in upstate, New York. In 1992, Levine would give back his Infinity stock and launch his first station in Utica.

Levine, now with clusters in Syracuse and Utica, is the Radio Ink cover interview on January 21st which focuses on small market radio. Levine says there's a battle brewing between small market radio and the big guns. "Consolidation has caused radio revenue to go backwards. These are not McDonald's. These are not one-system fits all. Every radio station is it's own living, breathing organism."I think that's going to be a very interesting competitive battle over the next five or ten years. It?s really a battle for the soul of radio." Here's more from our interview with Galaxy Communications CEO Ed Levine.

On why the radio industry is not growing its revenue...
"It gets back to blocking and tackling and taking care of the local communities with local personalities, local promotions and local events. You will reap the rewards of that. We've spent the better part of the last 15 years, since consolidation really took hold, coming up with easy answers. At the end of the day, there are no easy answers. The more that we continue to eliminate staff, the more that we continue to broadcast nationally into small markets, the more vulnerable we are going to be. 

What has made radio great locally, is serving the community. It?s an old fashioned concept but it works. That doesn't mean you can't use technology to your advantage. I?m not suggesting you need a full-time news department 24 hours a day. I?m talking about putting some sanity back into the process. If you look at what's happened over the last 15 years, first it was cutting the fat, then you cut the muscle, then the bone. Now they are splitting tissues apart. A lot of the people that have done this are no longer in the industry but they did a lot of damage.

On Pandora...
They found a niche. If you want to have a product that competes with Pandora, and iHeartRadio, God bless. I don't have an issue with that. But to turn your radio stations into nothing more than local versions of Pandora is insane. We are so hung up right now on Pandora and how that's going to destroy radio. Our answer is we make our stations sound more like Pandora. That's crazy logic.  

On how to treat people...
Show them some respect. I think that's one item that has vanished from the radio business these days.

Do you agree with Ed? Leave your comments below or reach out to Ed directly at galaxyceo1@gmail.com

To read more from Ed Levine in our January 21st cover story, order an 1-year subscription to our digital issue HERE. To get a print subscription, go HERE or call 561-655-8778.

(1/2/2013 7:41:37 AM)
All radio, like politics, is local.

Only with radio, people vote with their dials and advertisers with their dollars.

(1/2/2013 7:08:00 AM)
Only corporate management and other delusional individuals would argue against Mr. Levine's position on the damage done by the consolidators and their minion clones.

However, sticking "live", warm buns back behind the microphones at the local level still won't do the trick.

For radio to re-engage audiences and advertisers will require a great deal more skills from those "live" communicators and the writer/producers of the advertising content.

Otherwise, all we would have accomplished is the reinstatement of higher overheads with a minimal chance of enjoying higher ROI's. Still, Ed's suggestions could be considered as an improvement... of a kind.

(1/2/2013 6:29:59 AM)
Great Message! Anyone who loves Radio is applauding...and hopefully taking action.

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What Is The Tipping Point of Consolidation?

by Dan Halyburton

The past few years have been hard on those who have made Radio their chosen vocation. Vets and rookies have been rocked by the tectonic moves in a business that they really love. The radio station of today is dramatically different than the station of 15 or 20 years ago but from the outside the listeners don?t seem to have noticed the changes. The industry continues to ?test? their listeners with new approaches to product and it looks like we will see more in the year ahead. Cume is holding and that?s good. Time spent listening is off, but you?d expect that with all of today?s media choices.

Consolidation, market pressures, measurement changes have caused less true innovation. The opportunity to potentially double the number of FM broadcast signals using HD2 frequencies was not approached with innovation but with cookie cutter music services with only a few notable exceptions.

Paychecks haven?t grown. They have declined as the staff compensation model was reset. The people who run todays stations have been asked to wear more hats, work more hours and receive less. The fundamentals of the business aren?t broken, but they could be headed that way.

Many look down the road to what has traditionally been the answer to consolidation. Heavily consolidated industries usually generate new more customer-focused products and companies. In broadcast radio that can?t happen because the government controls the supply of frequencies. The industries new verb is ?riffed? The result means a growing number of talented radio people with fewer and fewer places to work. They are looking for a sign, a ray of hope.

There will likely be a tipping point but we may not recognize it immediately. A tipping point can be something small and seemingly insignificant that makes the difference. Internet Radio could provide that tipping point, but it faces significant challenges.

We are seeing the result of consolidation and technology in the rapid rise of Pandora, with its radio like execution and ability to serve a user in a very personal way; their growth is clearly significant. Pandora is a bit of an enigma. It has growing revenue but most of the music based Internet radio efforts struggle with low advertising CPMs and high royalties.

Internet Radio has been primarily nationally focused music based services but broadcast radios? greatest strength is local. We have seen a few innovative music products like Radio Paradise and Soma FM or tightly focused music offerings like Digitally Imported.

We have seen a few locally focused Internet radio efforts. Personality focused East Village Radio in New York City, FishBowl Radio in Dallas Texas and talk radio, SoFloRadio from greater Miami, all take a unique approach to attracting an on line radio audience with some local focus.

The challenges are many; royalties represent the single greatest obstacle. Our current system penalizes success. Internet radio faces the challenge of a media buying system where size of an audience is valued over the composition of an audience. We are still a mass media world.

Where is the tipping point?  Many hope and believe its mobile, with 62% of people under 45 years old owning a
Smartphone device and the arrival of Internet Radio in the automotive dashboard will usher in a new era. The Radio industry and the people who make it run are looking for a future, a future of growth and employment. Internet radio may provide that opportunity.

DanHalyburton is EVP McVay Cook and Associates and can be reached at 214-707-7237. Follow Dan @danhalyburton. E-mal Dan at dan@halyburton.com

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Consolidation Continues. Dial-Global Merges With Westwood One

August 2, 2011

Sometimes when a deal is made in the radio industry, people say holy cats, I never saw that one coming. This one isn't one of those deals. Although who was going to be the dance partner was a question mark, it was no secret Westwood One was moving in this direction. Yesterday the announcement came that Dial-Global will merge with Westwood and the The New York Times is reporting the deal was worth $250 million. Neither side is confirming or denying that figure and Radio Ink has also learned that there was at least one more interested party bidding for Westwood which may have pushed the price to the N.Y. Times quoted number.

Oaktree Capital is the money behind Dial, which was launched in 2002, and Westwood is controlled by the Gores Group. According to the Dial Global team they will manage the company when the deal closes, which is expected to be in the 4th quarter. No word yet on what will happen with Westwood employees. with Westwood a public company listed on the Nasdaq, the plan is for the company to remain public. A name of the new company has not yet been announced and D.O.J will need to approve the deal before it closes. 

Yesterday we spoke with Dial Global Co-CEO's Ken Williams and and Spencer Brown about the merger.

Brown: The two companies are very complimentary with each other.  I just think from a strategic standpoint, it made sense, given that Westwood One has always had good sports and live entertainment and a lot of marquee products.  Dial Global really is in the format business. It is something that makes sense from that point of view. Westwood really has a lot of experience and a lot of products being sold in the large market.  With our format services business we have always been kind of small to mid-market focused.  You have just a lot of fit as far as the compliments to each other."

Williams: The assets are very complimentary and with our legacy sales representation business, its just a third element that Westwood One didn?t have that makes sense for a merged entity. 

RI: Talk about the management structure and are you confident you are getting a stable product with Westwood?
Brown: The plans are for Ken, David, and I to manage the combined entity. Westwood has some tremendous assets both in terms of people and the brands that they are associated with.  We love our team at Dial Global. We think that combining our team with theirs, yeah, we are confident that we can manage this company and do well with it.  If we weren?t, we wouldn?t move forward on this.

RI: What does it mean for the Westwood One employees?
Brown: It is still in the early days.  This is a signing, not a closing.  There is a period of time in between the merger being announced and the two companies coming together.  It is too early to really comment on things like that.  At some point we will sit down with their management and plan things out.  Right now is not that time. 

Williams: As it said in the press release, there is a series of documents that have to be filed at the Department of Justice.  That all has to be reviewed.  The actual time table for that is unknown at this point.  They are listed on the NASDAQ. It will become a combined entity. Post closing it will be a public entity and still trade on the NASDAQ.

RI: Will the name be Westwood One?
Williams: That?s one of those things also.  No final plans on the name yet. 

RI: Was there another bidder? A Radio Group, and how will that affect how you work with those stations now?
Williams: Candidly, I don?t know. I can say that we expect, and look forward to, working with every radio group.  Dial Global, right now, has relationships with every small, medium, and large market groups across the country. We fully expect and anticipate to continue working with everyone.

RI: What are your plans as far as growing a company? 
Williams: I think that, by and large, what we have always had success in doing is trying to work with the market place in term of reacting to what the marketplace says it needs and just stay focused on that.   What we expect, we have a group of valuable assets between the two companies.  All of those assets are filling current needs.  Going forward, we will continue to anticipate with feedback from the marketplace creating new products that will serve those needs as well.  And do it very efficiently.    

RI: What do you think the market might need today?
Brown: We are still going to have the relationship with Triton Digital.  We think, clearly, the market for streaming and other digital products, continues to firm up and grow.  That is something through our sales efforts and our relationship with Triton, we will continue to be able to offer to the market.  I think that is something that will fuel the growth in our company and also something that we can help the other stations out there consummate their digital strategies.  We also think that, for the merger to go through as a larger entity, we will have the ability to invest further in our infrastructure.  We have already made a lot of advances on our format business.  We are in a position to really help out the small to mid-markets with their programming and services, and possibly their digital strategies.  That is something that I think is going to be important for us as a company and for the market to have somebody for them to turn to and rely on to help them to do things that they might not be in a position to do for themselves. 

Williams: We are very excited.  I think it is a reflection of the success that the Dial Global employees and the Westwood One employees have brought to the table.  Both companies have been very successful in program and service offerings.  The combination of the two, we just look forward to even greater success.  

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