Young-end revenues were a challenge, says Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan, with movie and cellular business weaker than expected. For the fiscal quarter ended November 30, U.S. radio revenues were down 4%. In part, that is a reflection of comparisons to late 2010, when political revenues were coming in. Emmis' October 2011 revenues were off 9% from the previous year, because of the "comps." Ratings-wise, Smulyan says "we saw the best ratings we've ever had in PPM at Power 106 in Los Angeles." Urban KPWR is the leader in the 18-34 demo. New York's urban "Hot 97" WQHT is running either first or second in its demo. But both stations were hurt by the disappointing amount of young-end ad buys in the marketplace. Smulyan admits that "Our biggest challenge is with New York's Kiss." Both urban AC WRKS (98.7) and Inner City rival WBLS (107.5) saw their pre-PPM shares cut nearly in half when Arbitron took the market to electronic ratings measurement.

Emmis calls the new HD Radio app "a game-changer", and Jeff Smulyan says "we are big believers that [radio's] hidden power is the power of the terrestrial signal, the same signal that reaches almost 275 million people a week." Emmis is also a significant player in digital, and its results from Emmis Interactive show a 24% gain in revenue.