• January 20, 2003

Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan says the television, radio and publishing company has weathered the storm, brought about by its big appetite for acquisitions and the advertising recession. “We got caught with a tremendous amount of acquisitions just as the world turned, and that left us with high leverage in a difficult environment for bringing it back down. But just by being good at operations, we were able to bring that down very, very quickly,” says Smulyan, adding that he hopes it will help lead to a better reception on Wall Street. “That punishment now will start to come off very quickly, quarter-by-quarter,” he adds. This summer, Emmis is expected to split its TV and radio holdings into two separate companies. It is unclear which company its stable of city-based magazines will be placed.