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Operator
Good day everyone, and welcome to the Gray Television's Third Quarter Earnings Release Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. For opening remarks and introductions, I'd like to turn the call over to Mr. Bob Prather. Please go ahead, sir.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Thank you, operator. I want to welcome everybody to our Third Quarter Earnings Call. With me on the line is Hilton Howell, our Vice Chairman, CEO, and Jim Ryan, our Chief Financial Officer. Hilton will just say a few opening remarks. So, Hilton, I'll turn it over to you right now, and then we'll go from there.
Hilton Howell - Vice Chairman, CEO, Director
Well, thank you. Thank you very much, Bob. First, I wanted to just take this opportunity since my recent appointment to introduce myself to the investor community here with Gray Television, but I also want to take a moment to compliment Bob Prather and Jim Ryan, who have been handling our investment relation calls in the past, because I think they've done a superb job and they're going to continue in that role.
But, I wanted each of you to know that I will be participating in many of these calls going forward because I think that it's very important for our management team to make itself open and available to you. Bob and Jim have always said that we answer our own phone calls, and we're always available to talk to you whenever you need to talk to us, and I'm certainly in that same camp with them.
But, I also want you to know that while I'll be participating, I don't intend for us to step on each other's toes as a management team, because I want these guys to be able to answer those questions. But things that may come directly my way, I want to be able to be here for you, because there is nothing more important to each of us and certainly to me in particular than increasing the shareholders' value in their investments in Gray Television because truthfully, all of us believe very sincerely that Gray is the best operator of TV stations in this country and that Gray has the best single collection of TV properties in this country.
And I personally believe that long-term, I have a truly high degree of optimism about the television broadcasting business and the television station business in particular because as I look around at all the businesses that I have had the opportunity to work in or to look at and review, it remains about the best business that I know of.
And many of you may know and many of you may not know, but the Howell family has been an investor in this company through some of its predecessors since the early 50s with the advent of KWTX at that time. And I'm proud to say that we haven't sold a share in all of those years, and it disappoints me greatly to see where our share price is right now, because I think it's -- it shows a real fundamental lack of understanding of the true value of our businesses.
I'm 46 years old and since I was a little boy, I was listening to dinner table conversations about the TV station business. And you know, something that I have always noticed that I've never fully understood is that this is just about the biggest Chicken Little business that I have ever been a participant in, because it's either been the remote control from a long time ago or the advent of cable television or the phase-out of network comp or the advent of TiVo that the investing public or the management teams wring their hands over.
But, I am certain that if we continue as a business to pay attention to our markets, to our viewers and most importantly, to our advertisers, that it's still going to be one of the most outstanding businesses going forward. And you know, as I look forward to 2009, there's a lot of negativity out there because our economy is an open question, and people are concerned about advertising levels going forward, and it's a legitimate concern.
But, I am truly optimistic and really excited about finally getting a return on our enormous investment over the years in High Definition Television. I am particularly pleased with what is going on with regard to retransmission consent in our television broadcast business and with what I think that Gray Television will be getting out of that going forward.
And I'm also really excited, and Bob has always made a great point of this and I think it's really quite profound with the advertising revenues that we are getting from our Internet websites, because I mentioned in that Chicken Little comment that people were concerned about the phase-out of network comp. A statistic that I absolutely love is that our advertising revenue from our websites, in many instances, has eclipsed the high mark in network comp that we got in the past.
And you know, I think something else, which is really important, as eyeballs have begin to migrate from the printed page, I believe that more and more opportunities will be open to our local television station, to our sales teams and our various managers to take those advertisers because I believe very sincerely, that the best way to drive traffic into a retailer's operation is broadcast local television. And I think that our TV stations in our market have the best ability to do that.
And so, I think as long as our businesses continue to do the blocking and tackling that I think we are particularly good at, then I think that the future for great television is really really excited -- or exciting, and I am personally very excited about being able to participate in a more direct and open manner with the management of this company.
With that being said, let me turn it over to you, Bob, for your comments.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Thanks very much, Hilton. I want to start out today -- I always like to start with a quote. A good friend of mine, who's in a third-generation family business recently said his grandfather told him 50 years ago, he said, "Son, when business is good, it'll get bad and when it's bad, it'll get good." And I'm looking at it's bad, it's going to get good right now, and I'm going to focus on the positive things that have been going on for us.
I'll start out with the fact that our results are right at the very top of the industry, if they're not at the absolute top, in a bad economy and in a tough time for broadcasters as particularly because of the ills of the automotive industry. But, I think our numbers are right at the very top of our industry as far other public companies go.
Number two, Hilton mentioned the Internet. We continue to grow Internet and it grew 18% in the third quarter and here again, that's in a tough economy with prices actually coming down online even. The online advertising prices have come down pretty much across the board over the last few months, but we continue to grow this business double digit, and I think it will continue to do that in the future.
One area that we're really pleased with is our retrans negotiations. We're in the process of negotiating about 60% of our cable subscribers right now for year-end renewals, and we're in negotiations with several of the large MSOs. We've already made deals with a good many small systems at very favourable prices for us, and we've actually made a deal with one system, over 100,000 subscribers that we're very, very pleased with. In addition, we just signed a new five-year deal with DISH on all our markets with a very good retransmission deal with them also, so we're very pleased with that.
Another thing that's very positive for us, you've probably all seen a little bit in the press about NBC. We have an agreement in principal with NBC to renew our Huntington-Charleston WSAZ station for three years at virtually the same terms that we had previously. We're just amending our old affiliation agreement. It'll expire. And also, they went ahead and they extended our station in South Bend, WNDU, through 2011. It was up next year, so all our NBCs will come up for renewal now at the end of 2011 at that point with NBC. So -- and we're very pleased with that deal.
One other thing I think that is very positive for us is at the end of last year, I put in a program will all our managers that -- where we -- we call it the Triple Play Challenge where we really went after traditional advertising, newspapers, local cable advertisers and continued growth in the Internet, and I'm pleased to say that at the end of nine months, we've added $19 million of revenue from those sources.
This obviously has had a huge impact on our continuing to -- our numbers to continue to be right at the top of the industry. It's made up, in a lot of cases, for declines in traditional TV advertisers, especially automotive obviously. But, it's something we're very, very pleased with, and we think we can continue to do even better with this as we get better at it.
We're -- we've got programs at all our stations to -- where we really know how to go in and show advertisers exactly what our sales proposition is compared to newspapers, compared to local cable and other forms of advertising they're doing. Yellow Pages is another one that we also concentrate on. But this has been a very good area for us, and we think this will continue to grow. And we think the basic business will start coming back at some point.
I don't know how long this economy is going to last like it is, but we're concentrating on watching our expenses. Our budgets are being finalized for next year. Right now, we're cutting our expenses significantly going into next year. We've already got -- our General Managers bought into the fact that we all need to cut expenses going into next year because obviously no political and no Olympics next year is going to make it a challenge.
But on the other hand, I think next year could be better than people think too. I think at some point, the automobile industry's got to get out and advertise. They want to sell cars. I think people will only go so long without buying new cars, and I think this is just a function of at some point, these guys stepping up and say, "Hey, we've got to start advertising again," especially the big three domestic makers. And even the foreign guys, Toyota, Honda, they've all been hit pretty hard by this automotive recession we're in right now. But, I think next year could be better than we think in that area.
But, we're going to watch expenses very close. We're going to watch capital expenditures very close. Going into next year right now, our plans are basically -- the only capital we're planning to spend is just pretty much for emergency purposes. We are very happy that the digital transition's happening on February 17 of next year. I think it's going to be good for our industry. It's going to be good for everybody, and the viewers, the advertisers and the -- our -- the station operators, so I think this is going to be a win, win, win for everybody. So, I'm looking forward to that.
Our political is a little bit disappointing. I think this is the good news and the bad news. The good news is there was more money spent than ever on TV advertising politically. The bad news is if you -- they are getting much more targeted with their advertising; and if you weren't in a spot where they thought that they could really make a difference, they moved the money somewhere else.
I'll use the example of Tallahassee and Panama City. Traditionally, we've gotten great political advertising down there. This year, it was way off, and our only thought on that is is they thought that was pretty much Republican territory, that it wasn't going to make any difference who advertised there, and they spent all of their money down in south Florida and Orlando and Tampa, and I think you're seeing that going on around the country.
The good news for us, we had tremendous political advertising in Colorado, Nevada, some areas that we hadn't necessarily gotten near as much in the past. So from that standpoint, we were in the right spot. So I think going forward on political, it's really going to be you've got to be in the right place at the right time. We're going to be much more careful on how we budget political in the future and try to figure out where we've got areas that there may be some vulnerability that the counties will want to spend money on, but I think that's going to be a continued trend in the future.
At this point, I'd like to turn it over to Jim and let Jim -- let him go through some more details. Then, we'll open up for questions. Jim?
Jim Ryan - SVP, CFO
Thanks, Bob. Good morning, everybody. I'll try to keep my comments very brief. Looking at the quarter, our overall revenue with the political in was up 12%. Local, ex political, was down 3%. National was down 9%.
In comparison to the reports that the Television Bureau of Advertising puts out, that's a survey of over 400 stations and dozens of group owners, TVB indicated in the Q3, local ex political was down about 8.5%, and national was down almost 11%. So on a relative basis, we're pleased with our results, and certainly the local is reflective of the initiatives Bob was speaking about about the Triple Play Challenge and converting newspaper and cable and other local media dollar expenditures back over to our stations.
The Olympic number in Q3 ended up at $3.4 million, which is consistent with the Summer Olympics in '04 as well. As far as categories go, we did see actually Telco up a little. Medical was up, restaurants up as well. I think that may have been some buying associated with the Olympics, and supermarkets were doing well. As everybody is reporting, our auto was soft. It was down about 18%. We also saw some weakness in the entertainment category, financial, the furniture, appliance, electronics and the department discount stores.
Operating expenses came in slightly under where we thought they were, and Bob already commented that we worked very hard on our '09 plans and will be significantly reducing our operating expenses going forward.
For the nine months, the trends are very similar as well. Year-over-year with our political, we are up. Local is trending down about 3.5% and national down between 6% and 7%. But again, those trends and local and national excluding political are still very favourable in relation to the TVB reports for the whole nine months. TVB was indicating that local was down 7% and national down 10%.
Political for the nine months is at $21.1 million. Based on the political guidance we've put out for fourth quarter, it looks like political fourth quarter came in at 20 -- $26.5 million, which would put the total year at about $47.6 million. The $26.5 million in Q4 would be up a little bit from Q4 '06 and be basically consistent with Q4 '04 as well on a pro forma basis for the acquisitions we've made since '04. So, political in fourth quarter on a historic basis actually finished relatively strong, and Bob's already commented on the concentration of political in certain markets. And we had some winners and some losers this year, just like everybody else.
Turning to balance sheet items for a moment, cash at the end of the quarter was at $32.6 million. In early October, we voluntarily prepaid on our term loan $10 million. Debt at the end of the quarter was $830.4 million, and after that $10 million in early October, it stands at $820.4 million.
Our leverage ratio under our credit facility at the end of the quarter is at 7.29 against a 7.75 covenant. We had CapEx in the quarter of about $5.4 million, bringing the total for the year to about $11.6 million. Negligible cash taxes in the quarter of about $300,000, cash taxes for the year are about $700,000 to date and will be a little shy of $1 million for the full year. Program payments were $3.7 million in the quarter, and the amortization was about the same number as well.
At this, Bob, I'll just turn it back to you.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
All right. Thanks a lot, Jim. Operator, at this time, we'd like to open up for questions.
Operator
Sure. (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Marci Ryvicker with Wachovia. Please, go ahead.
Marci Ryvicker - Analyst
Thank you. Good morning. I have a couple of questions. First Jim, on the Olympics, what's the local/national split?
Jim Ryan - SVP, CFO
Marci, I honestly don't have that number. I'd have to dig that out and get back to you. It's obviously going to weight heavily -- more heavily local. I think it would follow more or less our routine split, which is heavily weighted to local.
Marci Ryvicker - Analyst
Okay. And then a general question, how does the Board think about your dividend? Do they look at the yield? Or, do they look at the pay-out ratio?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Marci, we constantly evaluate the dividend. I think we look at it every quarter, and the Board discusses it, and I think we'll continue to do that. We've been paying a dividend for over 40 years, so as long as we think it's prudent to do it, we'll probably continue to pay it. But, we evaluate it on a quarterly basis.
Marci Ryvicker - Analyst
Okay. And then, in your retrans negotiations, has there been any trade-offs with additional channel placement? Or, is that a non-issue at this point?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
No. We're getting digital channel placement as part of it. That's one of the things we're asking for, especially where we've got digital networks. We think it's important. Most cases, that is part of the -- definitely part of the negotiation for us, and it's important for us to get as low a tier as possible. We've been able to do that so far in some of the deals.
As I mentioned, the major MSOs, Comcast, Time Warner, Charter, those guys, we are just starting negotiations with them, so it's -- we are waiting to hear back basically -- term sheets from these guys, but that -- it's important for us to get as good a placement as possible in these digital channels. If you get placed way up high on a channel placement, it's pretty tough to get people to find you. So, it's -- it is important for us to get as low a channel placement as we can.
Marci Ryvicker - Analyst
Great, thank you.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Thanks, Marci.
Operator
Thank you. (Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from [Phil Ischitz] with [Optco]. Please, go ahead.
Phil Ischitz - Analyst
How are you?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Hey, Phil.
Phil Ischitz - Analyst
I see you paid back $10 million voluntarily. Is there any reason you can't go into the open market and buy this at the heavy discount that it's trading at?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Yes, there is a reason. Our loan agreement doesn't allow that. We are studying the fact of whether we could get an amendment to allow us to do it, because we would like to do that at these discounts as -- there's unprecedented discounts, I think, for most TV guys on their debt. And it's something we are exploring with our legal team, and if it's something that is possible to do on a prudent basis, it's something we would look at, yes.
Phil Ischitz - Analyst
Now since the question before me was about the dividend, now since I'm a large common shareholder, have you ever considered, rather than the $5 million or whatever it is you're paying us out a year in dividends, you could buy back about 20% of the float with that. I'd be -- I believe in the company as well as you. Why wouldn't you consider suspending the dividend?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Here again, I think all options are on the table. I think that's something we'll be discussing at our Board meetings, and I think it's a legitimate point and it's something that is on our radar screen also.
Phil Ischitz - Analyst
Okay, thank you very much.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Thank you.
Operator
And our next question comes from the site of [Scott Vandenbusch] with [Navigear Partners]. Please, go ahead.
Scott Vandenbusch - Analyst
Hi. I was just wondering, previously, you had commented that you were comfortable meeting your covenants which I believe stepped down in the fourth quarter. Is that still the case, or anything you want to elaborate on that level?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Right now, we're comfortable. I think we're going to watch it closely. Obviously, it depends on how business goes in the fourth quarter. But based on our projections right now, we feel okay about it. But, it's -- there's very little visibility out there if -- that's a pretty popular word these days. But, I think you see it in guidance from a lot of companies in a lot of different areas, and I think people are having a hard time really knowing what fourth quarter -- I personally think that people aren't going to forget about Christmas, and I think advertisers are going to -- including the car guys, are going to realize that Christmas is right around the corner and it -- I don't think they're just going to give up on Christmas. It's too important for retailers and too important for people to -- so, I'm actually optimistic that fourth quarter might be better than we think, although I think a lot of it depends on the -- how the market is perceived in general. There's a lot of the old perception's reality is pretty true, and I think people are pretty negative right now because the stock market has been so volatile that it -- people could still be sitting on their wallets. But, I'm hoping for a good fourth -- better fourth quarter than people are thinking.
Scott Vandenbusch - Analyst
Just one other question, in -- I think in the past you had mentioned it, I think it was an NBC affiliate that actually is part of the negotiation that actually tried to get part of your retransmission fees.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Yes.
Scott Vandenbusch - Analyst
Have you seen that from anyone else or kind of heard any more color on it?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
That's the only we've seen it from. It did not happen. I don't -- I haven't heard it from anybody else, although we don't have any other negotiations coming up right now, and I'm not sure -- I have not heard any public pronouncements, like NBC made, from CBS or ABC that they were going to try to go after retrans money, and I think we've just got to take it on a -- luckily, I think our -- most of our other deals are out 'til 2012, I believe it is, and so we've got some time. But, we'll be able to see what happens in the meantime with other people. But, I think it's important for us as an industry to really be united in the fact that we're -- this retrans money is important to us and we're not going to be willing to give it up to the networks.
Scott Vandenbusch - Analyst
And you don't feel -- giving any kind of guidance on what you'll get at this point, right? You're kind of keeping that close to the vest?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
In what way now?
Scott Vandenbusch - Analyst
In terms of how much you expect to get out of it on the retransmission agreements?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Oh, yes. No. We -- I -- we have not given any guidance on that. I do feel -- I actually think we're going to probably wind up there and that's all. But as I mentioned, we've got about 60% of our subs up, and I'm so far pleased with the way the negotiations are going, the deals we've made. Obviously, the big dollars are going to be with the big MSOs, which we are just -- literally just starting to talk to and -- but, I think they all realize now that they -- that they are paying local stations for retrans.
One big advantage we've got that I like to brag about all the time is we've got 24 number one stations out of 36. The other 12 are number two in their market. These are all important stations for these cable operators. We've got probably half our markets where our ratings are more than all the cable channels on that -- in that market combined, and we don't mind reminding these cable guys of that.
We -- and our local news is so strong in many of our markets that we feel like it's something that the audience is going to demand from the cable guys, and we're -- we want -- we're willing to go off the air if we have to to make a point. We don't want to do that, and we don't like to even think about doing it. But, I think we've got to be realistic in today's climate. If we've got a cable operator that's just not being realistic on what our signal's worth, it is -- it's something we have to use as one of our cards in our deck.
Scott Vandenbusch - Analyst
Okay, okay. All right. Well great, thank you for taking the call.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Sure.
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Our next question comes from [Lex Ing] with MJX Asset Management. Please go ahead.
Lex Ing - Analyst
Good morning.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Good morning.
Lex Ing - Analyst
I just need to get some color, I guess, on what the trailing eight quarters broadcast cash flow and the trailing four quarters?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Jim, do you want to take that?
Jim Ryan - SVP, CFO
Yes. The trailing eight-quarter, as defined in the credit agreement definition, was $110.5 million, and that's the trailing eight quarter.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
He wanted four quarter too, Jim.
Jim Ryan - SVP, CFO
Oh. Trailing four quarter -- and bear with me a minute. I have to --.
Lex Ing - Analyst
Sure.
Jim Ryan - SVP, CFO
--look that up for you. It would be a little bit -- trailing four quarter LTM Q3, a little bit -- around $108 million.
Lex Ing - Analyst
And you guys used these eight quarters through the term of the --?
Jim Ryan - SVP, CFO
That's correct. The loan uses --.
Lex Ing - Analyst
Got you.
Jim Ryan - SVP, CFO
(inaudible) --uses an eight-quarter test.
Lex Ing - Analyst
Okay, great. Thanks.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Thank you.
Operator
And our next question comes from Linda Cairn with Credit Suisse. Please, go ahead.
Linda Cairn - Analyst
Hi. Thank you very much. I just had a couple of questions. I guess first, can you just go over the CapEx numbers again for third quarter and full year and also what a maintenance CapEx number for '09 would be?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Jim mentioned it was around $5 million for third quarter, $11 million plus for the year. I would say 80% of that was for digital transition purposes. We've -- we spent on our digital several years ago, but one of the things that we're doing is where it's advantageous to us signal-wise, we've gone back to our old channel placement. And when you do that, you have to have a new transmitter. Also, just the shear taking old equipment down off towers and things like that is running us about $150,000 a station when you have to take old antennas down, old wiring, those kind of things. But, most of our money was spent this year on digital transition expenses.
Next year, as I mentioned, we're right now planning to just look at the capital based on an emergency basis until we see how the year is progressing. If it looks like things are better than we thought, we -- we'll address that on a quarter-by-quarter basis. But, we're basically just going to do an emergency maintenance type capital for next year right now.
Linda Cairn - Analyst
So, would that be something like $2 million to $3 million a year? Is that --?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
I'm not sure. I would say less than $5 million probably, but it's somewhere in that range and like I said, if the year is looking better than we thought, we might increase that some. But --.
Linda Cairn - Analyst
And --.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
We're going to be very prudent with our capital next year, because I just think that as I mentioned earlier, the visibility is just pretty tough to see very far ahead out there.
Linda Cairn - Analyst
Okay. I guess going back to what you were speaking about in terms of buying the loan back at a discount, can you just go through -- is that a 51% amendment, or a 100% amendment for the bank group?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
That's a good question. We think it's 51%. We've got lawyers looking at it. We have -- it's something that we've -- we're talking to Wachovia, who's our lead bank on our loan agreement, about -- and I think it's something we'll need to make a decision on some time before the end of the year, whether it makes sense to try to get an amendment and be able to buy back. Ideally, if we could use our excess cash to buy back debt, we could obviously decrease our debt at a much faster rate than we could just paying 100 cents on the dollar.
And there's a lot of companies out there that are looking for extra liquidity in these lines, and we think it might be popular with the holders to have the ability to sell to somebody like us if they wanted to. It would strictly be on a -- if you want to sell, fine. If you don't, you want to keep it, we're all for you keeping it, because we've got -- we've had some very long-term holders of our debt over many years, and we've always done very well by them. So, we want to make sure we keep people that have been good to us happy over the long term.
Linda Cairn - Analyst
Okay. And I guess just going to the cost side, can you just talk about what you're doing in terms of controlling costs and if any of -- if any of those add-back cost cuts can be added back to your EBITDA for definition purposes under your covenants?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
I don't think they can. What we're doing for our budgets for next year, we basically have asked each station -- we went through in detail and asked them to -- basically gave them a number we wanted them to cut. We went through each -- with each station. Some of them, we made some compromises, some one way, some another, but we tried to do it on a basis where we thought it was fair based on the operations of each station.
And right now, we're pleased with what we've been able to cut, and I think our managers have done a very good job of realizing that this is something we need to do to be -- to make sure we're -- continue to be competitive in the future and to make sure we -- one of the things we did do is we told them we didn't want to touch our news product, and we wanted to make sure we continued to have the best news product on the air in all these markets we're in.
Linda Cairn - Analyst
Okay. Thank you, very much.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Sure.
Operator
Our next question comes from Matthew Lee with Octagon Credit. Go ahead, sir.
Matthew Lee - Analyst
Hi. Have you guys thought about broader alternatives for reducing the leverage and just chipping away at the debt, because it seems that given the current pace of the revenue decline, it looks like you guys are seeing and going into '09, leverage is going to tick up materially next year and there might be further problems. Are there -- have you started to think about other alternatives, maybe raising more capital?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Well, I -- it's two areas there, Matthew, that you're talking about. One, raise more capital, I think it would be difficult in this market. I wouldn't want to sell any stock at the price it is. Number two, if you look at asset sales, I think you'll see right now that that is a virtual impossibility. The only deal that was really out there in the public market over the last six months was the landmark sale in Nashville, and that deal fell through, and there's been no other deals announced. I just think in this kind of climate, it would be extremely difficult to do asset sales.
Fortunately, all our stations are profitable, and we -- but, I would not say that it's not something we'd look at down the road, but I don't see that any -- in the near term. I think we'll be able to operate our business in the short term to make sure we stay within our covenants. And like I say, we're wide open to ideas and alternatives if it makes sense to make us a stronger company.
Matthew Lee - Analyst
Thank you.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Sure.
Operator
And our next question comes from Larry Schumacher with Oppenheimer. Please, go ahead.
Larry Schumacher - Analyst
Hi, guys.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Hey, Larry.
Larry Schumacher - Analyst
Just a question, what's your thinking on operating expenses next year?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
We want to be under $190 million.
Larry Schumacher - Analyst
Okay.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
That's a pretty good drop from this year.
Larry Schumacher - Analyst
Percentage drop?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Yes, yes.
Larry Schumacher - Analyst
How big a percentage drop? I'm sorry.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
That's -- just to give you -- I'll give you the broad -- just over $12 million a month, but -- I mean that's $12 million a year in cuts, so -- over $1 million a month.
Larry Schumacher - Analyst
Okay, thanks. Good luck.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Thanks, Larry.
Operator
And our next question comes from [Troy Isaacson] with [Frenson Advisory]. Please, go ahead.
Troy Isaacson - Analyst
Hey, guys. You guys just recently got downgraded by Moody's, and I was just wondering if you guys are in current talks with S&P? Are they in asking questions? And what kind of guidance can you give us on those?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
You know, Moody's -- I guess you've seen, they've been downgrading everybody in the broadcast industry. They just downgraded MSN LIN in the last few days and said there's going to be more. S&P I think downgraded us a while back, and we're -- and I think --.
Unidentified Company Representative
(Inaudible - microphone inaccessible)
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
We're actually lower with them than we are with Moody's right now. They -- the rating agencies are all running scared right now. They've all got their own problems, and I think they're probably over-reacting. But, that's something we can't control right now and -- but, I think most of the holders of our debt feel good about it and so, we're --.
Troy Isaacson - Analyst
So --?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
We're -- like I said, it's something out of our control. We can -- we've got to run our business and run it as good as we can, and I think our rating -- we'll get our ratings improved over a period of time.
Troy Isaacson - Analyst
So currently, S&P is not in --?
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
No.
Jim Ryan - SVP, CFO
[Wait]. There's no active discussions with S&P at the moment.
Troy Isaacson - Analyst
Okay, thank you.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Okay, thank you.
Operator
And gentlemen, with no further questions, I'll turn it back to you for any closing remarks or comments.
Bob Prather - President, COO, Director
Thank you very much, operator. Well, I want to thank everybody for being on the call today, and I know as I mentioned, we are going through some pretty tough economic times, but we're trying to look at it on the optimistic side. One of the things that I've told all of our GMs is, we've got an extremely strong company with extremely strong market positions in most of our markets.
Let's use that strength to go get more market share and go get more business in tough times, and that's one of the things that we're going to concentrate on in the year ahead to really make sure we're out there using our number one position in most of these markets to make sure we let people know this, the best buy possible in a tough economy.
We've got the most eyeballs and the most -- as I like to mention this and I'll mention it again, but we've got 16 stations that have been number one for 50 straight years or more. And that's a pretty long record of excellence in these markets, and people trust us and believe in us, both the viewers and the advertisers, and I think we've got to play on that strength in the year ahead and we plan to.
But, we appreciate all your support. I'll mention it again. We answer our own phones so you can call any time, and we'll look forward to talking to you at our year-end call. Thank you,everybody. Operator?
Operator
This concludes today's teleconference. You may now disconnect your lines. Thank you and have a great day.