Citadel delisted - what's in the future?

[CAwasinNJ]

The delisting of Citadel from the New York Stock Exchange happened today as announced. The stock is now being trade "over the counter" under the symbol CTDB. It closed today at 5 cents a share.

I believe before the acquisition of ABC Radio, Salt Lake was Citadel's biggest market. Now it's way back. I think it's become very clear that purchase was a mistake. Of course they couldn't have seen the economy turning sour, but even without that it seems like just too big a piece to bite off.

So what do you think is next for the company and particularly for the Salt Lake stations? As I suggested last November, I think they need to do something radical. I suggested just dumping everything below market 20 for whatever you can get for them to raise cash and then market the hell out of whatever's left. That would include the SL cluster. Who do you think might be a buyer here if they chose to do that?

[henry]

In my dreams I envision a day when Citadel just spins off all of their markets into separate companies ... ala Citadel SLC becomes "SLC Radio Inc." or something. Similar to what Marathon did for Millcreek.

Imagine if the local ad dollars STAYED at 434 Bearcat Drive?

[dxstuboy]

Coming from the source, we are doing okay as far as the SLC office goes. The economy has been hard on the staff as it has any other business. Purchasing ABC Radio probably was a mistake but it was in the big guy's hands, not really SLC market stuff. We are running ads for our sales staff since they are working their butts off. Radio is still a good medium to advertise on. Judging from our remotes, people are still listening to Citadel stations. We have our loyalists, but over the past few months I've seen new people come out to our (at least my) remotes etc. KBER was at Golds Gym this morning and we got a huge amount of people. Yesterday KBEE was up at Rosecrest in Herriman and again, lots of people. Advertising works no doubt so I don't think we'll have it as hard as other markets.

Anyone know if Citadel owns stations that aren't in major markets, like podunk towns in Wyoming or Colorado etc?

[seattlefollower]

Mar 7, 2009 1:48:33 GMT -6 dxstuboy said:

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Anyone know if Citadel owns stations that aren't in major markets, like podunk towns in Wyoming or Colorado etc?

Sure, all kinds of cutbacks in relatively po-dunk just under top 100 Boise, Idaho...
Apparently all staff were required to take a 5% pay cut and some air talent have been tossed (Melissa Dawn being the most glaring example)

Here's Citadel's full market list:
www.citadelcommunications.com/citadel_broadcasting.aspx?id=2635 Spokane continues to have a dot, but they sold the cluster there to something called "Mapleton" about 2 years ago.

Citadel's biggest weaknesses seem to be:
* large clusters in the rust belt and southern U.S., two part of the country that are struggling. Southern ad revenues have been especially soft in TV and radio.
* major market revenue drops in Los Angeles, San Francisco due to California and national economic woes

[dxstuboy]

The 5% pay cut is company wide, it happened in SLC too, I know first hand .