The Emmis CEO addressed last year’s BIA/Kelsey digital conference at a much more difficult time for the industry. He was back for this year’s Digital Strategies conference in Jersey City and says “people keep coming back and saying ‘this thing’s not dead.’” He cites strong support for radio from national advertisers such as Home Depot, Geico, auto manufacturers, wireless companies and entertainment companies. Even better, Smulyan says “we had the perception that we were over, and that’s changed.” He’s “hopeful radio revenue does grow in the high single digital or even low double digits” but says “the 5-7% range is possible”, and that would be welcome after 2009. For Emmis particularly, in the beginning of the recovery, “we saw giant growth in New York and Los Angeles, and L.A. is softer now…the smaller markets have done really well in the last 60 days”, such as Austin and St. Louis. For the industry as a whole, Smulyan cites the figure of 265 million people age 6+ listening to radio every week. He says what’s critical now is to “find ways to leverage” that relationship with listeners using databases and other tools to produce revenue.