Emmis Revenue Down but Jeff Smulyan Promises Greatly Deleveraged Emmis.

During his conference call with analysts, Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan reported net revenue down 11% -- down just 3% when excluding the stations majority owned by Merlin Media – for the quarter ending February 29.  But Smulyan says his company is paying down debt – some $1.5 billion to date – and when current transactions are complete Emmis will be one of the least-leveraged companies in the radio business.  With recent transactions, Emmis is now a company operating clusters in Indianapolis, Austin, St. Louis, Terre Haute, and, of course its two major market signals: Hot 97 in New York and Power 106 in Los Angeles.