Lamar Advertising Co (LAMR) 2006 Q3 法說會逐字稿

[OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS] In the course of this discussion, Lamar may make forward-looking statements regarding the Company, including statements about its future financial performance, strategic goals, and plans. Lamar has identified important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially than those discussed in this call on the Company's reports on Forms 10-K and 10-Q, and the registration statements that Lamar files with the SEC from time to time. Lamar refers you to those documents. Lamar's third quarter earnings release, which contains the information required by regulation G, was furnished to the SEC on a Form 8-K this morning and is available on Lamar's website at www.lamar.com.

I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Sean Reilly. Mr. Reilly, you may begin.

Thank you, David, and welcome all to Lamar's third quarter conference call. Kevin is out of the country, so Keith and I will be handling the call today. Let me just hit three quick things from our third quarter release. Number one, we are extremely pleased with the top line growth that the Company's enjoying. We really are hitting -- on the top line, we're hitting in on all cylinders across all of our outdoor products. Number two, we're also obviously pleased with the continuing success we're enjoying on the digital front. The more we learn about that model, the happier we are with how the deployment is going. And number three, we have experienced throughout the years some nagging expense issues, Keith is going to go into some more detail on that front, but it -- suffice it to say that they're nagging issues. They're not anything we can get our arms around. And as we go into '07, the Company has some initiatives in place that will hopefully move the expense growth into the 3% to 5% range that you all are more familiar with.

Before I turn it over to Keith, I'm going to hit a couple of the familiar operating metrics that I provide on the operations front. First on digital, as of November 3rd, we had 263 units in operation in 79 markets. And again, we're pleased with the way that rollout is going. Occupancy and rate statistics, interestingly this quarter we actually picked up a couple of points in occupancy in both categories, posters, and bulletins. Occupancy Q3 '06 for posters was 73%, Q3 '05 was 71%. On the bulletin side, Q3 '06 82%, Q3 '05 79%. So we're getting some occupancy gains, which is nice to see. We're also having good gains on the rate side. On the poster front, Q3 '06 over Q3 '05, a gain of 6%. And on the bulletin front, Q3 '06 over Q3 '05, 10.3% rate gain. So we're getting it on both fronts and that's nice to see. National versus local, it's the same story, 82% local, 18% national. It does appear that, after sort of a sluggish end of the summer, that national's picking up and we're looking at a stronger finish than the mid year. On the acquisition front, year-to-date we've closed 63 transactions for a total purchase price of $183.479 million. Of that amount, about $40 million was the purchase of easements.

So that's the usual data we go over and I'll turn it over to Keith for more detail on the financials.

All right, I'll be brief. For the third quarter you saw the press release, the consolidated revenue, EBITDA and margin results. Overall these were basically in line or slightly ahead of our guidance and expectations by the market. Pro forma revenue growth, as you saw, was up 8.3% for the quarter. As Sean mentioned, this was due to strong demand from our customer base and, of course, the continued expansion of the digital program. Guidance in -- for Q4 for pro forma revenue growth is approximately 9%. Business is good. It continues to trend well. Looking out through the end of the year demand continues to be strong and the digital rollout continues on at an exciting pace. And we'll give some more color on that later as far as the digital contribution for the quarter.

As far as expenses for the third quarter on a pro forma basis, operating expenses before corporate overhead -- and those are the expenses related to the billboard, logo and transit operations only -- were up 7.8% for the quarter. To highlight some of the contributors to that growth, they -- it continues to be basically the same as in previous quarters, but I've narrowed it down to basically three. At the billboard level, higher energy costs accounted for 1% of the 7.8% increase. Digital-related expenses accounted for 1%. Remember we are comping against very little digital expense in '05. The rollout for digital really began in ernest last year at the end of the fourth quarter and in the first quarter of this year.

On the logo and transit side, as we've talked about in previous quarters, we've seen some creep in some of our contract costs, and that cost added 1% also for the quarter to the 7.8. So of the 7.8% growth, the three categories that I've mentioned accounted for 3% of that growth. So if you back those out, you'd be at about 4.8 for Q3, which we normally say our standard pro forma expense growth is between three and five. For Q4, operating expenses before corporate overhead I would assume that the run rate will be approximately the same as Q3 plus 7% for the quarter. And the same drivers that I mentioned for Q3 would come into play in Q4. The digital, we're hoping we'll get some relief on the -- due to the decline in energy prices, but the logo and transit contract expenses will still be in place, as well.

Just to touch on the corporate expense side, only expenses at corporate, as I think most of you are aware, are people and technology. We have spent additional monies so far year to date in '06 on those two categories. We are strong believers in technology and so that's part of that increase. The other reason for the increase in corporate expenses was the third quarter of last year, the corporate expenses were the lowest of any quarter for the 2005 fiscal year. So we were up against a tough comp on the corporate side and we're thinking that on a pro forma gross basis that should show some decline in Q4.

Lastly, the CapEx, as you saw in the press release, we spent $174 million through the first nine months of this year, September 30th. For Q we spent $59 million. The break down by category, if you haven't seen it, is on the last financial schedule on the press release. It breaks it down between traditional billboards, digital, logo, transit, real estate, et cetera. For Q4 our expectation is that CapEx spend would be approximately the same as Q3, roughly $60 million. And for the year that would bring our total CapEx spending up to the $230 million mark. We previously thought it might be in the $200 million area, but we think digital will be running at about the same rate in Q4 as Q3, as well. So digital will come in a little higher than expected at probably about $85 million for the year.

That being said, I guess that's all the comments from this end and we'll open it up for questions.

[OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS] Our first question comes from Mr. Chris Ensley with Bear, Stearns.

Thanks for taking the question. I guess I'll ask the obvious. Digital, if you could tell us what its contribution was in the quarter? Or sometimes you talk about your latest month what its contribution is,so whichever you prefer. And one quick follow-up afterwards.

Yes. I'm going to interpret the question as what was digital's contribution to organic growth in Q3? Of the 8.4% organic pro forma growth, digital contributed about 2.2% of that. You know, the billing continues to ramp nicely. October's billing on the digital side was right at about $3 million in net billing.

And how many displays would that be in October, if you don't mind?

I have the total number that we're actually up and operational. I don't know how many were in billing. So with that caveat we had -- as of the end of the month we had 263 up. I don't know if they were all billing.

And then another thing. Last quarter you talked about your real estate category. You said it was something to keep an eye on. We've had some of our TV and radio companies say it was a very good category for them, a very strong category. And I was wondering if it continued to be the same for you all?

Yes, it's actually been a pleasant surprise. Just to give you the categories of business for September. September of '06 real estate was 8% of our book, September '05 it was 7% of our book. So it still remains an important category and it seems to be hanging in there nicely.

Great. Thank you very much.

Our next question comes from Mr. Jason Helfstein with CIBC.

Hi, thanks. Two questions. First on the digital and then an expense question. So, if I take what you said as far as 268 displays and I subtract that from the 175 you had at the end of last quarter and I divide that over effectively the four months, right, because that was as of in October versus September, then monthly run rate is about 22 digital displays a month and I think you ran at about 19 displays in the second quarter. So my question is that -- is the current run rate of digital, is it sustainable? So when we think about next year, should the baseline getting roughly 22 displays per month or potentially more than that? That's question one and then I'll follow-up on expenses.

Yes, I'm going to do my best to avoid that question. You know, it's -- we've been very cautious as we talk about this because of the various logistical and regulatory issues involved in rolling out digital. So I don't know that the difference between 19 and 22 is difference makes a difference over the long pull. I do know that we feel very good about the pipeline we have in terms of getting them up and getting them operational. There are a couple of states that are very important to us from a regulatory point of view. If we got so relief in those states, it would be very nice, those being Texas and New York. Obviously large market, large states with a lot of Lamar markets involved. So, you know, those things aren't necessarily predictable. But in any event, we're comfortable with the pace we're rolling. I wouldn't want to extrapolate too far out in the future.

Okay. And then Keith, on the expenses. What gives you the confidence to say that you can get back to the 3% to 5% next year given -- you know, is it -- clearly you're going to keep spending on digital, so digital was an additional percentage of expense growth, why wouldn't it be something additional next year and then -- so just can you talk to what gives you confidence that you can bring your expenses back to the 3% to 5% range?

Well, just as we break out the digital revenue contribution to give the market a sense of what the core business really does, we'll break out the digital expense contribution to give you a sense of the core expense growth, as well. So we will segregate that. The other thing is part of the increase this year was the higher energy cost, which has basically been running about 1% a quarter. Energy costs are coming back into line and we'll be comping next year against some tough energy comps. The other thing is on the contract expenses. When those things do lap themselves, those contracts are in place on the logo transit side for anywhere between five and ten-year terms with no rate hikes.

Now there may be some rate hikes in future renewals. We can't tell that at this point in time. But you know, again, as I said in the past on these calls, any rate hikes on expenses are followed by rate hikes in revenue, as well. You just don't see the -- necessarily the hike in revenue because we don't break it out. And as Sean mentioned, we have had meetings here at corporate and our regional vice presidents in the field, and everybody is diligently focusing on the expense side of the equation. We're actually preparing our budgets well in advance of our normal budget cycle so that we'll have a look sooner than we normally do at expected expenses. Everybody's been asked to hold the line. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Yes, let me just echo Keith. The last few years our focus has been on making sure that we had things in place to take advantage of, number one the upturn in the ad climate, and number two, the rollout of digital. Some of the digital expenses we spent were building a platform that, quite frankly, will scale and scale nicely. Other expenses are probably just the no -- you know, the fact that for the last couple of years we haven't really focused that much on that side of the equation. We're going to focus a little more tightly going into'07, so I feel pretty good about it. Again, it's been a little -- it's been a little more nagging this year than we would have liked, but I feel like we'll get our arms around it going into '07.

Thank you very much.

Our next question comes from Gordon Hodge with Thomas Weisel Partners.

Yes, good afternoon. Couple questions. Just can you gives an update on the cost of putting up a digital bulletin or a digital poster, whether there's been any changes there? And then, if you could talk about -- just to clarify, on the digital revenue contribution of 2.2%, I gather that what you're looking at is revenue incremental to the prior board? So in other words, stripping out what they would have made last year and just looking at incremental that came from digital, is that fair to say? And also on the expense side is that the right way to interpret it?

Yes, Gordon, that's correct. I'm looking at Keith to make sure that amount of rigor went into that -- to the calculation, but essentially we strip out what the boards otherwise would have billed last year and it's a net incremental gain.

So 2.2% off of the base of last year might be like $6 million of revenue. And then digital probably did more than that, given they probably did some revenue, obviously, last year.

Yes.

Correct.

Perfect. And just on the cost to put up a digital sign these days for bulletins and posters, any --?

Yes, no change there. No change there, Gordon. It's -- you know, we kind of flattened out the curve a little bit. I think you guys have heard this before from us that one of the reasons is we keep insisting on better resolution. So while we are driving the cost curve with volume purchasing, we're flattening it because we're getting a better product. And as we said today, there's no change from previous discussion.

Terrific, thanks.

Our next question comes from Mr. Jonathan Jacoby with Banc of America.

Hey, good afternoon. First question. I know you've been asked this many times, but do you have any better sense of sort of how many boards you can turn into digital? The second is, it seems in the quarter you had some slow down in your stock buy back program for the second quarter about 19 million verses about 88.5. Just thoughts on free cash flow deployment? And then lastly, although I know you've been sort of beaten up on the expense questions, but can you break out perhaps the expense growth by segment? Sort of the billboards posters is one bucket, maybe logos and transits is another. Last call there's a lot of talk on some of these contracts you've had. So I'm wondering if basically we have to go through a cycle of contract renegotiation to look at some, you know, moderation in the expenses of those segments? Thanks.

You want to hit the expense thing real quick?

Yes. And we generally sort of stay away from segment reporting. But because we are on the high side of the expense -- expense range, we'll go ahead and talk to it. On the outdoor side -- this is all before corporate overhead -- for the third quarter, our outdoor pro forma growth was 6.8% and expenses on our logo side, it was 31%. Now, that -- the three of those are a total of consolidated basis to the 7.8. So logo and transit added 1% to that -- the 6.8 that the outdoor produced.

Let me talk briefly to the notion of digital penetration across our whole footprint. You know, I've said this in other settings that I don't know that the right question is, if you have 150,000 billboards, how many can be digital? The way we look at it is given a middle market, you know, let's call it Little Rock, Arkansas, what is the critical mass of advertisers that can afford the wide scale deployment of a digital product? What is the absorption rate of the local market? When do you hit saturation? And we do not know that answer yet. We've -- we're very pleased with the variety of settings within which we've deployed digital. It seems like it works in big markets, small markets, competitive markets, large format, small format, they work network, they work standalone. ,We have a variety of different ways in which we package digital and they all seem to be appealing to our advertisers. But we haven't reached that point where we know, yet, how much digital a given market can absorb and that point at which we begin to cannibalize our core business.

I think it's going to be a high-grade problem. I personally believe that we're going to get to go a long way before we hit that wall. But we haven't -- we haven't deployed enough digital in a single market to give you a clear cut answer yet. So that's really the best answer I can give you. You know, we do know that in a given middle market that there can be a digital network of posters operating alongside a handful of bulletins. We don't know that we can have another digital network of posters in a given market. We're going to find that out pretty soon, hopefully next year. We haven't hit the saturation point on bulletins yet. How many bulletins can a middle market hold? Anyway. we look forward to finding those answers, and as soon as we know, you'll know.

And then on the buy back?

Oh, the buyback. I think that was a logistical issue in terms of a blackout period. The question was the buy back slow down in --

No, we had entered a 10b51 arrangement, which we always do in every blackout period, and we have set the number of shares and the price at which we would buy back. And once the buy back agreement is in place, it's not changeable. So as soon as the blackout's lifted, we'll begin again at whatever level we deem appropriate.

Great. Thank you so much.

Our next question comes from Ms. Marci Ryvicker with Wachovia.

Thanks. Do you have any change to your digital billboard forecast for the year? I know you said you had 263 at November 3rd, so I'm assuming you're going to have more than the 275 that you stated previously. And also can you tell what that gain on the disposition of assets was for $7.5 million?

Marci, this is Keith. That gain was due to the airplane that we sold. We had a question on the last call about why operating equipment CapEx was up to $10 million and we mentioned that we acquired a new airplane and we sold the other one. We sold the other one for $7 million. It had no basis. It was fully depreciated. So that's the $7 million gain you see on the P&L.

Okay. And the digital forecast for the year?

Probably going to be what we put out there before.

275?

es, I think we'll beat that. I don't know by how much, but we feel good.

Great. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Mr. James Dix with Deutsche Bank.

Good afternoon, everybody. Just a couple of questions. I guess, first in terms of the category growth that you're seeing going to the fourth quarter, Sean, you mentioned that national was picking a little bit. Any categories in particular contributing to that? And second, what margins are you seeing on the digital displays that you've set up once they get a run rate? I'm just trying to -- just curious as to how that's shaking out, especially with the energy costs, which you're seeing for them? And then finally, what do you think -- how important is supply as a gating factor on the digital rollout right now? Just the ability of suppliers to meet the demand that you and others have for them? Thanks.

Sure. The last question first. You know, supply's not a huge gating issue. It's a little bit of a backlog. I think delivery now we're being quoted 90 -- 60, about 60 days from making the order and getting the board, so that's not so bad. On the sort of model, I'm going to use some round numbers based on September's net billing for digital. We had run rate billing in September of about $30 million analyzed net digital. And the margin on that was in excess of $20 million run rate cash flow. We try to very rigorously slice and dice to make sure that we're accurate here. And every time we slice it, we're coming up with about a 67% incremental margin contribution from digital. You know, a single digital unit. We're also very comfortable in saying that the return on investment, given the CapEx to put those units in operation, which was about $50 million, is a 40% IRR. So -- as I looked at the business as of September's billing, that's the business we've built and those are the fundamentals and we like it. Was there anything else?

And just the categories, the growth you're seeing going into 4Q?

Oh, it's the same categories of business that you're familiar with us talking about on the national side. Wireless is doing fine, auto's doing fine. Regionally, as I mentioned earlier, the real estate category is extremely strong in certain parts of the country. Out west and in the Southeast. It really is across the board. We're not seeing anything that would suggest anything other than good strong demand across the board.

Okay. Great, thank you.

Our next question comes from Laraine Mancini with Merrill Lynch.

Thank you. You had mentioned in the past that you were trying to sign longer term leases on areas that you that thought might be beneficial for digital billboards. What percent of that do you have done and what types of rate increases are you seeing there? And second on your logo expense from the higher cost of those contracts, when will we anniversary that? And what do you expect -- when do you expect the digital CapEx for -- or the CapEx for digital billboards will start to go down? When resolution will be peaking and you'll be able to get the costs down?

On the cost of a digital unit, we're very comfortable with the resolution we're buying right now. And it took us a while to get there when we first rolled these things out. They had [pitches] of -- in the 30's and now we're down to the low 20s and we're comfortable where we are. So. hopefully. as we get more units purchased either through our industry or other entrance into the manufacturing arena, the cost curve will start going down again. Keith, do you have information on when the logo contracts cycle through?

Yes, on the transit logo contracts, we had a couple of additions -- renewals in the back half, third quarter, I guess. of last year that we had mentioned previously that we had -- were adding to the expense grief in the back half of last year and the first half of this year. And, of course, those have lapped themselves. We had several -- two on the logo side and three or four on the transit side that were renewed in May and August of this year, '06. A couple of them were a large logo states and one or two large transit markets. So we won't see a coming around on those until the end of the second quarter and third quarter of next year, not counting any additional increases in contracts that are coming up for renewal, of which we don't have that many. We has one that renewed -- a large one that renewed in October of this year and it renewed at no increase in fees whatsoever. So we were very pleased at that result.

And in terms of your lease?

Oh, the question about leases. You know, typically it's like any other real estate transaction. If it's a very valuable piece of real estate and you're going to try to go long, you're going to pay a little bit more. Our view of the world is that, given the capital expenditure we're putting on a particular piece of ground for digital, that we want to be secure. And so, I don't have an exact number for you because you're talking about thousands of individual negotiations that are going to be ranging all across the board. Those fundamentals of real estate we're not immune to. When we go long, it costs us a little bit more. But we're believers in the digital business model and we're able to make that sacrifice to make digital happen.

Great. Thanks.

Our next question comes from Mr. John Blackledge with JPMorgan.

Thanks for taking the question. A couple of things. What kind of delays have you guys experienced from the municipalities, on average, when you decide to go into a market and put up boards? Generally what kind of push back or delays? Second, the margin that you said for September, was that a blended margin with bulletins and posters? and just wondering how many boards are networked over the total at this point? Thank you.

Sure. That was a blended margin. Posters and bulletins. We are experiencing a slightly better return on investment with bulletins than posters, but both of them are investments you would want us to make. How many are networked? Most of the posters we're deploying are digital network posters. I don't have a number offhand. If I went market by market, I could tell you. I've got the number of posters and the number of bulletins, but I don't have them by whether they're networked or not. Why don't I give you that?

Okay.

Of the 263, 146 were bulletins and 117 were posters. And again some of the bulletins are networked. A lot of the posters are networked. But keep in mind they're networked within the DMA.

Right.

That's how we sell them. So I suppose offline I could give you a more detailed answer on that. Was there another part of the question?

Yes, the other question was the average -- and this is probably tough -- the average delay that you get from a municipality that you try to go into?

Again, that's individual negotiations. I'll give you the tenner of them. We've been surprised, actually, over the last year and a half. By and large, the local discussions are very fruitful. Once city administrators actually see the unit and they understand we're not pulling up motion pictures. Once they see the amount of light emitted, they're generally comfortable. Now, you know, I mentioned two states were having issues in, Texas and New York. And we're probably going to create some headlines there. You'll see some skirmishes between some local Lamar markets in cities in those states, because we're fighting an interpretive battle there with the state regulators, and the city administers are a little more skittish. The bigger picture story is, once people actually see the units, they get very comfortable with them very quickly.

Thank you.

Our next question comes from Mr. Mark Wienkes with Goldman Sachs.

Great. Thank you. How often does the board review other potential methods to get your leverage into your target range? And then second, with some larger market billboard assets being talked about potentially for sale, are there any other areas of the United States that you think will help build out your platform, especially with respect to digital?

Well, you know, on the digital front, right now our attitude is it works well everywhere, so I don't think there's a large market, small market difference there. We obviously -- when you look at our overall footprint, it would be nice for us to have a larger presence in some of the top ten markets. You know, that would probably be a good thing for us. It's not a necessary thing, but it would probably be a good thing in terms of our national sales efforts. And it would, in all likelihood, accelerate the roll out of digital. You know, the board at every board meeting thinks about where our leverage is and where it ought to be and thinks about various ways to get to the optimal leverage. You know, I think that's -- obviously, if Kevin were here, he'd be fielding this question. That's one of his fundamental charges. Without speaking for Kevin or the board, I can tell you that at every board meeting, that's a topic of conversation and we get extremely rigorous and good advice on it.

Okay. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Mr. John Klim with Credit Suisse.

Good afternoon, guys. Any discrepancy between the performance by region? And then more specifically, have you seen any help wanted advertising on the digital side? Thanks.

This is going to be anecdotal, but we have had some what would have traditionally been newspaper help wanted, use our digitals. You know, that was the case in Scranton, for example. But, again, that's anecdotal. I don't have any statistics for you, precentages or anything like that.

All right.

The other question was about --

The discrep -- any discrepancy between performance by region?

Same story. You know, life is a little more difficult in Michigan. But again, if I break it out, you know, heartland, midwest, east coast, west coast, it's not like the heartland is in a recession. It's the difference between 4% and 5% organic growth and six and seven. And on the coast, it's, again, the difference between six and seven, and seven and eight. It's a little bit bicoastal, a little bit more challenging in the heartland, but nobody's talking -- none of our folks that run our operations there are talking about recession.

Great. And then if I may follow up, did you see an influx in political?

I'm sorry?

An influx of political dollars?

We get a little bit of political. Most of that goes to TV. If you were looking for the type of seasonality, or I guess, annually that TV experiences, we don't have anything like that in terms of a noticeable pop in our book.

Okay. Thanks.

Our next question comes from Mr. Jim Boyle with CL King.

Good afternoon. What has been your digital ad rate increases year on year on any digital renewals? And second, are the poster clients in the last quarter or so, are they booking their short-term business any earlier so as to tie up their preferred locations?

I think, Jim, what you're trying to get to is are we going to get a -- I think what you're trying to get to is are we going to get a nice influx of retail and something different happening in December than what normally happens with the product, if I'm gleaning your question correctly. I think it's too early to tell. You know, a lot of times we put these things up and they're sold out for the year. So I'm not convinced that I'm going to be able to give you a good read on whether we're selling short better or whether customers are lining up because they want to be in a certain place for Christmas. So I think it's too early to make a judgment call on that, primarily because we are selling digital like our regular product. We're selling them with our annual contracts, so it's hard to get a read.

No, actually I was talking about the static poster business and --

Oh.

-- is the economy in any way moving about that would suggest these people are going to be booking business earlier or later?

For the next year or the fourth quarter?

Fourth quarter.

Well, I can tell you that the fourth quarter looks real strong and that we're -- you know, obviously we're -- most people have their plans in place and it's done and it's probably already showing up in our book. You know, so it's been a long time since we were able to sit here and say we're looking at plus or minus 9%. And I think that'd speak volumes for you. That's the only way I can answer that one, Jim.

And you don't have any feel yet on the digital ad rate differences until you hit those annuals?

Yes. I mean, again -- and this is something that you and I -- you and I have talked about this and other folks have asked. At the end of the day, I don't think we're probing the potential of the business model because we continue to sell long. And I think once we get better at selling digital, sure, you're going to see the real power of the medium.

And how much of Q4 is booked to budget compared to last year at this time?

You're going to be skewed. There's a little noise in that because of digital, but basically all of it. You can extrapolate the nine and, you know, we're there.

Okay. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Mr. Anthony DiClemente with Lehman Brothers.

Good afternoon. I just wanted to step out of some of the minutiae for a second and ask kind of a broader question, which is a lot of us on this call also cover radio companies. And you're always being talked about in the context of radio valuation. And even going back five years ago, radio traded in the mid 20s, outdoor's always some haircut discount to radio. Now it's a premium to radio and so, I guess, my question is maybe radio is actually not the right comp comparison in terms of multiple or valuation to you and your stock. And so this is just broadly for Kevin or Keith. how would you suggest we think about comparisons, valuation comparisons to Lamar? If not radio, what other sectors and in what other time periods would you suggest we think about that? Thanks.

You know, that's a difficult question to ask of us. But if -- prior to the challenges radio was having -- is currently having with its audience -- you know, if you go back about five years and then from that point go back about 30 years, I don't think it was an unfair comp. I mean you can go back 30 years and radio and outdoor pretty much performed fairly similarly. You know, I don't think that's the case today. I think that radio's struggling with its audience. Customers are wondering if they're getting what they bargained for, you know, relative to the number of years. And I think, obviously, television and newspaper are wrestling with the same issue. We're not. When you take a look at it, our audience is tending to grow. It's a fact, More people are spending more time in traffic, commute times are longer. So I don't know that it's a good -- that there is a good comp in the traditional media space for outdoor. Just judge us for what we do. Judge us for how we perform. And, you know, we'll try to keep living up to your expectation. David, we'll take one more and then we'll call it a day.

Thank you.

Our last question comes from Mr. Bishop Sheen with Wachovia.

Hi, guys. Thanks for taking the question. Let me just go back to the -- feels like a half hour ago -- mentioning the year-to-date acquisitions. It was around 130 -- 183.5. Question is how much of that was in stock or was it pretty much all cash? And secondly, was that year to date or through September 30?

That's year to date.

That's year to date, Bishop, and it was all cash.

All cash, okay.. So you haven't been -- unlike some other years in the past, you haven't been using your stock as currency?

No. I mean, basically at the end of the day, if there's a tremendous transaction and the seller is very tax sensitive and really believes in Lamar, we may make an exception. But what we're seeing now is we're in stock buy back mode and pay cash for asset mode.

Okay. Good enough.

All right. Thank you guys. Thank you all for listening and we look forward to our call in February to discuss the full year and the fourth quarter. David, that's it. Thanks.

Ladies and gentlemen, you may disconnect at this time. The conference is now concluded.