In August, Tom Taylor, who first broke the story in his excellent Taylor On Radio-Info, quoted Citadel CEO Farid Suleman on the possible return of Don Imus: “There will be a little publicity for a couple of days, but after that, all that will matter is if I made money for the shareholders.”
You wish.
Not the part about the bad publicity going away.
The part about making money for the shareholders.
Even when Clear Channel's Lowry Mays lowered the bar to "We’re not in the business of providing well-researched music. We’re simply in the business of selling our customers products” the consolidators still failed.
CBS (owner of WFAN, Imus' former home) canned Don Imus for his offensive portrayal of the women's basketball team at Rutgers. Imus was deader than K-Fed's career.
Imus apologized. Even arch-enemy Al Sharpton is now open to his return. Sharpton said he has no problem with Imus getting another chance but that the reverend vows he's going to keep an ear on him. Talk about completing rehab!
I don't have a horse in this race. If someone wants to hire Don Imus -- fine. The market will vote and he will probably continue to rake in money for whatever station he is on.
But the National Association of Black Journalists is screaming "Say it ain't so, Farid" and they are fighting for him to break off negotiations with Imus.
The problem I have with Farid I also have with other smarties who spout off things that try to make you believe that their Holy Grail is building shareholder value for their investors.
Well, if that's true -- why don't they actually make some money for their investors instead of talk about it?
Take Citadel.
Its stock closed at $4.38 a share yesterday.
It was in the $10 range a year ago.
$14 two years ago.
$24 five years ago.
Has anyone noticed that the "shareholder value" Citadel and other consolidators wear as a badge of honor is going in the wrong direction?
Even Citadel's ABC acquisition couldn't run the stock price higher than the $10 range for very long.
Ironically, Imus' stock personally seems to be trending back up after just six months. But Citadel's stock -- well, as you can see, not so good. It almost can't get too much lower.
So, my friends, if what Imus said on the air made you sick, meet his potential employer, Farid Suleman, who will do the same if you buy his stock based on the promise of shareholder value.
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