Entercom CEO Field Is Bullish On Radio

David Field

Despite reportings a one percent drop in 2Q revenue, Entercome CEO David Field says he's still  bullish on radio's future prospects.

Field told analysts on Tuesday's earning conference call that broadcast radio fundamentals are strong, with growing mass of audience reach and a superior ROI to competitive forms of media.

He also cited Nielsen for providing outstanding research, "showing that radio is the #1 medium in the country from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, and that radio delivers a 6:1 return on investment, outperforming television and digital."

Field elaborated that "with Nielsen as our research partner -- our research provider, we now have powerful information from the world's most respected research organization to support our efforts to get our fair share of ad spending. Currently, broadcast radio receives about 7% of ad dollars, while garnering roughly 23% of the public's time spent with media. Radio deserves a greater share of the media mix, and the Nielsen data provides an unprecedented and powerful catalyst for radio to be revalued by marketers and to be allocated a significantly larger share of ad dollars than it has historically received."

Field reported Entercom is actively focused on developing growth opportunities that will enable Entercom to post what he refers to as "meaningful revenue and cash flow growth, irrespective of radio secular performance. We continue to focus on investments in innovation, brand development and digital enhancements. Our goals are to improve our listener and customer experience and to enhance our growth potential."

For example, Field reminded anaylysts of June's relaunching of KNDD 107.9 FM The End, Entercom's alternative station in Seattle. The End now features the industry's first 2 Minute Promise, limiting commercials to 6 minutes per hour and never more than 2 minutes at a time.

"We expect that the enhanced listener experience will drive higher ratings. And we anticipate higher revenues and profitability from these improved ratings and from the enhanced value of the station's limited integrated advertising availabilities. While it is still early, initial response from listeners, both directly and across social media, has been outstanding.

Entercom’s decision to cut ad inventory in half at its Seattle modern rocker helped boost the station’s 18-34 audience share by one-third in Nielsen’s July survey. “107.7 The End” KNDD made the bold move only days into the July survey, which covers June 19-July 16. In survey results released Tuesday, KNDD’s 18-34 share improved 4.9-6.5, its highest mark since November 2012. Time Spent Listening in the demo shot up 30 minutes, from two hours and 15 minutes in June to two hours and 45 minutes in July

On the call, Field also touched on the launching last week of RhythmicAC KUZX 102.1 FM /Q102 in San Francisco.  In 2011, Entercom acquired KFOX, a Classic Rock station in San Jose at 98.5 FM from Clear Channel. The station was a high performer in San Jose, but Entercom also took their 102.1 FM San Francisco signal and used it to simulcast KFOX programming into San Francisco in the Northern part of the market, believing that the combined signals would generate outstanding market-wide ratings.

Fields admitted the tactic didn't work.  "Well, we were wrong. The experiment failed. The logic of the plan was compelling, but this is the media and entertainment business, and you never know for sure how audiences will react to content."

"So while KFOX continues to generate great ratings in San Jose, we were never able to duplicate that success across the rest of the San Francisco market. So now, KFOX will return to focusing entirely on building on its position as a leading San Jose station, while Q102 will provide us with the equivalent of a newly acquired San Francisco property at 0 capital cost.