Cumulus Media Inc. Q4 2008 Earnings Call Transcript

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2009-03-16 14:55:33.0

Tags: Wells Fargo & Co., Radio, Call Transcript, Cell Phone, Wachovia Corp., Earnings, Cumulus Media Inc., Advertising & Promotion, Marketing, Seeking Alpha

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

(Operator instructions) And we will begin with Marci Ryvicker from Wachovia Wells Fargo.

Marci RyvickerWachovia Wells Fargo

Hi, good afternoon.

Lew Dickey

Hello.

Marci RyvickerWachovia Wells Fargo

You both mentioned that operating expenses would be down 15% for the first quarter is that a fair assumption for the entire year?

Lew Dickey

Yes, it is Marci.

Marci RyvickerWachovia Wells Fargo

Okay. And then, can you provide us with any color on Nielsen radio rating?

Lew Dickey

Well, as you know, we signed a deal with Nielsen to up – to measure about 50 of our markets beginning this year and they just completed the pilot, which was in Lexington, Kentucky and it went extremely well. And as I mentioned recently the pilot was really focused more on logistics and methodology, the methodology has been owned in several countries where they have been measuring radio with a (inaudible). So, we have been extremely pleased with the results and the test in Lexington proved overwhelming positive, increased the number of quarter (inaudible) radio and increased – what we found across the board is that, because Nielsen has been sampling cell phone over households and it is up to 12% of the population right now, which we have not been sampling with Arbitron, this immediately what we found is that the cell phone only owning household have a greater propensity to consume radio than not and so if anything on a weighted average basis it increased the overall consumption of radio, it really showed the viability of our radio. And the cell phone owning household, which can be construed as the younger people who tend to be more technological savvy, I think what it speaks to is if we refuse the point that radio has lost its relevance with young people and that radio is a media for – transport [ph] radio is a medium of what I [ph] and so simply we are fields backs heads up and says that now the people who would be more and have a greater propensity to adopt new technology and move to wireless indeed a cell phone owning household they actually are consuming more radio than those that are – so we were encouraged by that and I believe the industry, this shows that the industry has left a lot of money on the table because there has been an inaccurate methodology for sample or consumption because we literally except the population has been left out of the sample play.

 

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