“Cap-Ex” comparisons. Cap-ex means capital expenditures, and while no group is buying gold-plated antennas and moving into Trump Tower, the current Earnings Season reveals some wild variations. For instance – this TRI Newsletter has written about what appears to be a comparatively low amount devoted to cap-ex by Cumulus. It owns and/or operates 570 U.S. stations and spent $1.1 million total in cap-ex in the first three months of 2012.
Compare that to Clear Channel, which had about 850 stations, and spent over $10.9 million on cap-ex. Compare both of those to a smaller group like Saga. It has just 91 radio stations, some state/ag networks, plus TV operations in three smaller markets. Its cap-ex for the first three months of 2012 was $1.2 million. T
To look at things another way – Clear Channel, with just over $670 million in revenues, had $10.9 million in cap-ex. That equals about 1.6% of revenues. Cumulus had total revenues of $245 million, and cap-ex of $1.1 million. That's less than half of 1%. (0.5%)
