The Radio Business is blessed – so far, Tim Geithner and President Obama have not deemed it necessary to “rescue” radio. Of the “Big Radio Owners” I profiled back in 2008, about half of them have gone through bankruptcy and/or receivership. Only a few have gone out of business, and even those didn’t shut down their radio stations. Bankruptcy does not necessarily mean “goes out of business”. That’s what GM should have done.
Bustos Media is an example – they were a family owned radio company that targeted Spanish Speaking households. They were stoked up with venture capital during the wild bidding wars of the late 1990s and early 2000s. There was no way the stations they owned could ever pay back the loans.
So the company was put into receivership – the Bustos family was allowed to keep the stations they had owned personally, the lenders took a hit on their bad decisions to lend money to fuel a speculative bubble, and the company has been renamed Adelante Media. The company has new management and a second chance. What is great about America is you have the opportunity to fail. That means you also have the chance to be successful if you’re smart and work hard.
