AEJMC Trailblazers of Diversity Interview with Frank Montero

Speaker 1: Good morning, it's Tuesday, August 7 2018.  

And this is George Daniels from University of  Alabama. We're in Washington DC talking today with  

Frank Montero for the AMC oral history project.  The reports from this interview will actually  

be available on the AMC website, and also the  Briscoe Center for American history website.  

Frank, thank you so much for talking with us  today. But the first question I have is to tell us  

a little bit about where you grew up in your early  life. Just a little bit of how you get started.

Speaker 2: Sure, George would be a pleasure, and it's good  

to be here. So I am originally born and raised  in Brooklyn, New York. I am the youngest son  

of parents from the Galicia part of Spain,  which is that portion of Spain that's in the  

upper northwest corner. And my parents actually  met in New York during the Second World War.  

And, and there, you know, ran a small Bar and  Grill back near the Brooklyn waterfront when  

the waterfront was very active. And, back  in those days, that portion of Brooklyn was  

very ethnic, very Spanish, a lot of Spanish  and Puerto Ricans in that part near the  

waterfront. A lot of them worked on the piers,  my father who had been a merchant sailor, and,  

and the, the, the seeds were planted there. We all  learned, my brothers and I had to speak Spanish.  

And we spoke Spanish as the primary  language in our household growing up.  

And, and also during the summers, we actually  

would spend time with my grandparents who  also spoke Spanish all the time, as well.  

So we very much grew up even though we were in  Brooklyn, in New York, immersed in, in Spanish  

language and Spanish culture. And it's been  very much a part of my identities all my life.

Speaker 1: So you are practicing law  

here in the Washington DC area, talk about some  of the work that you do in that particular area.  

What are the types of clients you have? What are  the types of cases that come through your hands?

Speaker 2: Sure, I'm the managing partner  

of the law firm of Fletcher hielden. Hildreth,  and we are a communications law firm here in  

Washington resort. We're actually an 80 year old  communications law firm dating back to the 1930s.  

And we represent media and broadcasting  companies, but also satellite and different  

types of telephony and internet companies. I got  involved in representing broadcasters fairly early  

on in my, in my career, I, I left Brooklyn, and  went to college at the University of Michigan,  

I was actually the first in my family to  actually leave New York to go to college,  

which was sort of unheard of in my family at the  time. And, and then, after college, I applied to  

and got into law school down here in Washington,  DC, where I stayed. I started practicing in a  

large firm back in the 80s. And one of the first  jobs I got was working with a newspaper company,  

the gun net company, which at the time purchased  the LDR e o newspaper in New York. And at my law  

firm, they didn't have anybody who spoke Spanish,  and they needed somebody who could, you know,  

read the articles and understand the articles,  because they were sometimes involved in libel  

suits and that sort of thing. And I was the only  guy there that could speak the language. So that  

kind of launched me in a career of working with  Spanish language media. I, a few years later,  

got the idea of trying to organize a  group of Spanish language radio stations  

to form what was then the very, very  first Spanish language broadcasting  

Association. We called an order from the  American Hispanic owned radio Association,  

something that had never been done before.  I was only three years out of law school. So  

I was, I didn't even know what I was doing  at the time. But, but I spoke the language  

and those things You and there weren't many  back in those days, Hispanic broadcasters who  

actually own their own stations, you know,  they like to speak in their own language,  

they felt comfortable with me because I did. And  also because I understood the culture, you know,  

back then, if you if you happen to own a Spanish  broadcasting station, a small little a and most  

of these guys and and there were a few women who  owned these small am and FM stations out in Texas  

or in California, if they came to Washington, and  had to interact with, say, the US government or  

the Federal Communications Commission or other  officials, nobody spoke their language. So for  

them to have somebody who could represent  them in their own language was a huge plus.

Speaker 1: What's the  

timeline here? What year  are we talking about around

Speaker 2: This would have been  

in the late 80s. The American Hispanic owned  radio Association out out was formed in 1989.  

And many of those original founders of the  association, you know, they went on to basically  

grow some of the biggest broadcasting companies  that we see now they were the founders of SBS  

of what is today Univision, of some of the  larger broadcasting companies in the country,  

which is funny what nobody would have thought  that that would have happened back then.

Speaker 1: So in this time in the 80s,  

why was there a need to even start this  particular organization? Why do that,

Speaker 2: I think it was the late 80s and early 90s,  

where a transitional point for the Hispanic  population here in the US. And I think there  

was a recognition that the this demographic in the  US was growing at was having greater influence,  

greater economic influence, and the  infrastructure was growing to basically  

service that that demographic, a seminal event  was the 1990 census, because the 1990 census  

was the first time that the US government  predicted that by the turn of the century Now,  

mind you, this is 1990. So they're predicting  the year 2000, that by the turn of the century,  

the Hispanic population would become the largest  ethnic minority in the US. And that really sent  

shutters through Washington, and by the way  through Wall Street, suddenly, Wall Street  

took notice, and realized, wow, that this is going  to be a big group. And we want in so one obvious  

major way to reach this, this audience was through  broadcasting. And so that was the beginning of the  

growth of Spanish language broadcasting in  the US, that was a major issue back then.

07:56 Speaker 1: What do you think that  

did for just in general, the broadcast industry  realizing that this was a reality that was coming?

Speaker 2: There was a lot of difficulty in accepting  

the fact that Spanish language broadcasting was  a real thing, and that it was there to stay.  

You know, and in the 60s and 70s, when I  was when I was, you know, a kid, you know,  

Spanish language broadcasting and media was  really relegated to like the bacteria it was,  

for those of us who are old enough for those  those weird, fuzzy UHF channels that you could  

barely picked up, or, you know, am stations  with really bad signals. And nobody really paid  

much attention to it. It was just sort of the  small little back corner of the media industry.  

And they still treated it  that way, in the early 90s.  

All the while that these companies were really,  really starting to grow. And I think, you know,  

for example, there was a major event when  a an FM station in Los Angeles, k LA x,  

which was owned by Spanish broadcasting systems,  became the number one station in the Los Angeles  

market, not the number one Spanish station, the  number one station, and the other general market  

stations could not believe it. They thought  there was a mistake. Howard Stern went on the  

air saying, oh, there must be a mistake. Arbitron  messed up their numbers, but no, I mean, it was  

when people suddenly had to wake up and realize,  wow, this is a real force to be reckoned with.

Speaker 1: So at some point in that  

period, you connected with the  Federal Communications Commission?

Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I absolutely. As  

these groups started to grow. I was working with a  lot of them in helping them with their growth and  

purchasing stations and developing new broadcast  stations and during that process, I became friends  

with another broadcast attorney in Washington  by the name of William canard, Bill canard.  

For those who don't know, Bill canard, he went  on to become the very first African American  

chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.  And Bill was working with a lot of minority  

business development organizations that were  investing in and helping in the growth of  

minority businesses. And so my clients, the, the,  these Hispanic broadcasters, which were having  

difficulty finding, financing at times, went  to those organizations. So when Bill was named  

chairman of the FCC, he asked me to join him at  the FCC to be among other things, his liaison with  

the Hispanic community, which I did, so I was  sort of there to introduce him to the various  

civic organizations nclr and Lu lac, and to,  you know, make sure that he was able to get  

out to those constituencies to convey the message  that he and that administration wanted to convey

Speaker 1: 

It could have ever been done, and they ever  had a liaison to the Hispanic community.

Speaker 2: Um, at that level, probably not, I mean,  

really, a very innovative thing that the FCC  did back then, was that they created an Office  

of Communications business opportunities ACO,  and it's still in existence today. And Oppo is  

sort of a unique office at the FCC in that it is  an office really devoted to assisting minorities  

and women to access the telecommunications and  media marketplace and the s, nd and the processes  

of the FCC, because there was an understanding  that these groups may have difficulty getting  

into these markets. And it's there to help.  So I was the director of ACO during that time.

Speaker 1: Let's talk  

a little bit more about the difficulties.  

What were the barriers at that time for those  individuals accessing the meeting market?

Speaker 2: Well, I mean, in blunt terms,  

I mean, there were still and you know, and may  still be there still is a racial discrimination  

that exists in the marketplace. Right. So I mean,  if there was difficulty in gaining access to  

capital, to acquire stations, there was difficulty  in gate gaining what's called deal flow, which  

is sort of knowing what deals are available.  And, you know, they were not the groups that  

large broadcast groups, or, or finance  organizations thought to go to, to underwrite  

or to provide business opportunities to these  groups. So they, they were usually, you know,  

not invited to the table. Or they found out about  the negotiations too late, when all the better  

properties were already gone. So, so certainly,  you know, accessing opportunities, and capital and  

financing were major obstacles that they ran into,  because keep in mind, you know, back, you know,  

everybody thought, Well, you know, minority  businesses, you know, you must be talking about  

little grocery stores or little bodega is nobody  thought, Oh, this person wants to buy a radio  

station, a radio station, what are you talking  about? minorities don't buy radio stations. You  

know, that's, that was sort of the reaction you  got. And so you had to sort of overcome that bias.

Speaker 1: Now,  

during that time, we also came around  to the Telecommunications Act of 1996,  

where bigger was better, and to some extent,  still, it still continues more than 20 years  

later, but at that time, you have this new  policy that was promoting larger and larger media  

companies. What did that do to this challenge  for broadcasters from underrepresented groups?

Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, I mean, you you it was a  

double edged sword. I really do think that I mean,  throughout the 90s, even right, leading right up  

to the 96 Act, which is that we frequently  referred to the telecom act as the 96 Act.  

There had been steady growth in these  Hispanic broadcast groups. Like I said,  

earlier, Univision started to really  grow Telemundo really started to grow.  

You had HBC which became Univision radio  was growing SBS others the the 96 Act.

Speaker 2: basically lifted  

didn't entirely left but it  significantly raised ownership caps on  

media ownership and To us, and that led to sort of  a buying frenzy. And, and so there was, you know,  

groups that were already big we're starting to  get really bad. Yeah, that was the birth of, of  

the modern Clear Channel which became net,  which is now I Heart Radio for example and,  

and other Sinclair broadcasting on the TV side.  And you saw some of that, by the way, in Hispanic  

media. I mean, it was during this period  that, that Univision really grew much bigger  

that, that that groups like, back back in  the US, like I said, earlier, you had HBC,  

which is spanic Broadcasting Company, which  became Univision radio that they they grew  

z, Spanish Radio Network grew very big. And  so they were able to sort of ride that wave,  

until eventually they got purchased. I mean, HBC  got big, but then became a member, and then it got  

bought by Univision. So what happened was that  there were fewer owners in the marketplace.  

And even to this day, if you're going  to get into broadcasting, it's very,  

very difficult to compete, no matter what  language you're going to be in, because  

you're almost immediately going to be going up  against competition that has not one, not two,  

but maybe 567, or eight stations in the market.  And that's a really hard, you know, competitive  

environment to enter into. And that's that was the  change in the demographic and the dynamic there.

Speaker 1: So you serve with Chairman Connor For how long?

Speaker 2: I was at the  

FCC for about two and a half years, three years.

Speaker 1: And what happened after that?

Speaker 2: Well, I mean, we  

got into the, into the 2000, you know,  presidential race. We were on the road.  

Chairman Canard was a Democrat. Bill  Clinton had already served his two terms. So  

al gore was running for president at the time,  if you may recall against George W. Bush.  

And, you know, you for your younger audience.  The election really ended up in a deadlock where  

really the issue was the Florida electoral  votes, and it actually went, you know,  

there was a count there was a recount, there  was then there was a Supreme Court challenge,  

Bush v Gore. And at the end, the Supreme Court  prevented a recount, which ultimately gave Bush  

the state of Florida, which then  gave Bush the national election. So  

basically, when the Republican Party won  the White House, Bill canard left office,  

I also went back into private practice, and, and  really have stayed in private practice ever since,  

although I've always worked very, very closely and  continue to work closely with with Hispanic media,  

although it's it's evolved, right? I  mean, it's not all about broadcasting  

anymore. Now it's evolved into a lot of  new and innovative technology. So for me,  

it's always an interesting challenge to see where  this is taking me because it started out in the  

morning, then went to FM them once a TV and  satellite radio and you know, and satellite TV.  

And now, you know, my clients are doing everything  from, you know, podcasting to digital streaming,  

to, you know, Ott content. So it's  really diversified pretty dramatically.

Speaker 1: Do you see yourself as doing advocacy  

as an attorney? Now? You're not in a role with  an organization necessarily, but as an attorney,  

are you doing advocacy on behalf of those who are  spanning broadcasts on one against broadcasts?

Speaker 2: I do I mean, I do and it's  

it's something that I've never really left I mean,  I enjoy doing that I work actually very closely  

with the National Association of Broadcasters  the NA B, on on various initiatives they have the  

National Association of Broadcasters Educational  Foundation, for example, has a program called  

the broadcast leadership training school wide,  which is designed specifically to train the next  

generation of women and minority broadcasters  and owners to teach them how to actually  

purchase a stay And be owners, the station, I'm on  the faculty, the what they call the BLT program,  

the broadcast leadership training program, another  initiative initiative with the NA B two, which is  

which is also aimed at access to capital to to  educate banks to make them comfortable lending  

to and making capital available to broadcasters  and specifically minority broadcasters. I  

frequently submit comments to the FCC. I did just  recently on an incubator program that the FCC just  

established to help promote minority ownership.  And I participated there. Yeah, there had been  

back in the 90s, something called the minority  tax certificate. And when there were hearings over  

the minority tax certificate, I testified to the  House Ways and Means Committee on that. So yeah,  

I'm also serving on the board, for example  of the mind of the mmtc and minority media  

and telecommunications Council. So I serve  on the Board of various organizations. And  

it's something that you know, I think, is still  vitally important, especially now because the  

media marketplace is changing so  dramatically. And there's been so much  

consolidation on the broadcast front  that these constituencies need a voice.

Speaker 1: Speaking about now,  

in 2018, at AEJMC annual conference, you  participated in a breakfast with Hispanic Media  

Panel Discussion, you kind of recap  some of those current realities,  

at least in 2018, that are facing those  who are in Spanish language media.

Speaker 2: Yeah, we covered it with a  

really interesting panel this morning. I enjoyed  it very much. And we covered a lot of very, very  

interesting topics. We had representatives from  the major networks, Univision, and Telemundo there  

had another journalist, print, media journalist,  outbreak, Alberto avendano. And, you know,  

we covered among other things, how the Hispanic,  Latino, demographic in the US is changing,  

it's becoming younger. And in some ways for the  second and third generations of Latinos that they  

are, you know, not gravitating necessarily  to Spanish only content that they're looking  

perhaps more to, you know, bilingual or trilingual  content. And so, and so that's changing all  

the same while that the delivery platforms  are changing, right? I mean, they're not;  

this audience is not necessarily tuning in to  telenovelas on Spanish language TV, like they  

once did. They're picking up their content  on their, on their smartphones, on YouTube,  

on social media, and the like. So Oh, and podcasts  are also exploding enormously. So. So these,  

the content, producers have to be on their  game to know how their audiences are changing.  

And you know how to reach that audience. We  also even talked about how the news delivery,  

and news aggregation is changing, you  know, especially in this administration,  

where you have very, very polarized  population, and a lot of editorial content,  

as opposed to just, you know, pure news, and  how the the the current political climate  

is impacting how that news is being  developed, and disseminated to this  

population. So it was a really, really  good discussion. I enjoyed it very much.

Speaker 1: One of the things that has been talked about  

a lot in the last few years, the last two years  is the political environment, and how that impacts  

the way in which journalists do their job apps.  And you know, this program, this project is  

talking about trailblazers in journalism. But  many of those trailblazers probably didn't think  

about when they were trailblazing a reality  where they could be accused of being fake news  

or doing fake news. Right. I'm interested in  your thoughts about the political dynamics for  

Hispanic broadcasters, especially given  our current political environment?

Speaker 2: Yeah. And this was actually something that  

we did talk about on the panel today. And, you  know, I think there is sort of this, this, this  

belief, I certainly believe where the line between  news and editorial content is starting to blur  

has already blurred. You know,  you, you go on to news channels.  

Now, and you don't see a lot of news, you see a  lot of editorial content, right, you see a lot of  

opinions, which is not to say that opinions are  bad, there's a role for them. But I think where  

it becomes a little dangerous is where something  is, that is, in fact, opinion, is presented as if  

it were news. So, you know, it's always been a  challenge, I think, for journalists to try to,  

you know, keep those two worlds separate, and  to try to provide, you know, unbiased reporting.  

Having said that, with Hispanic media, you know,  that they have an audience and a constituency  

that, you know, let's be honest, I think  at times can feel like it's under siege,  

right? especially in this day and age, where  there's sort of this, you know, anti immigrant  

bat, you know, flavor in the air. And, and so that  there is sort of a role for for media and for news  

media, I think, a valuable teachable moment  where they can provide to this constituency,  

a very valuable service, as long as they  maintain their you know, and I don't think  

there's any problem with, you know, expressing  editorial opinions. Right. I mean, yeah, with that  

they did the, the, the Edward R. Murrow speech  about Senator McCarthy, you know, I mean,  

there's a long proud history of the press speaking  its opinion when they see something in public life  

that they think needs to be pointed out. So I  think there's a role for that. I pointed out,  

you know, during the, during the panel  discussion early today that I think one of the  

unheralded heroes of all this is is is some of the  local media outlets, the little tiny, you know, am  

stations, local newspapers, low power FM stations,  non commercial community broadcast stations,  

for example. Because they, you know, provide a  real valuable local service to small, perhaps  

insulated Hispanic populations, not you know, I'm  not talking about New York or Chicago or LA, but  

I'm talking about small little communities out in  the Midwest. You know, I mentioned Fayetteville,  

Arkansas, because Fayetteville Arkansas has  people, some of you may not realize it has a very,  

very large Latino population, because there's a  lot of poultry farms there, for example, well,  

yeah. So the small stations that are there,  you know, provide an invaluable service. And,  

you know, I think that news and content, good news  and content is inherently local. And with these  

local populations, they want to have, you know,  useful information about what's going on in their  

community. Is my school going to be open or close  today? Where can I go to the grocery store? Where  

can I go to get my check cashed in a place where  they speak Spanish? You know, how can I get, you  

know, whatever, can I find a lawyer? Can I find an  accountant, a doctor that speaks Spanish, or is my  

child sick? You know, that's really the you know,  I mean, that's really the information where,  

where the local media outlets can provide a  really valuable service to those communities.

Speaker 1: I believe one of the things you do as you require  

the universities that own these licenses for  radio stations, talk more about your work there.

Speaker 2: Well, I mean, I do I do a lot of and it's funny,  

because the, the, the media environment, in, in  academia and with the universities and colleges  

is very, very, very, right. I mean, they're  small, medium, and large. I mean, you can  

look, for example, to American University  here in Washington, which has a very,  

very sophisticated operation with their w hmu.  Station, NPR affiliate, very, very professional,  

all the way down to these small little,  you know, Community college stations  

that are almost entirely student run and  student organized. But I mean, I have found that  

the college and university media outlets  frequently can be the birthplace of some very,  

very innovative ideas. You know, for example,  you know, the The the use of podcasting that the  

spoken word content and, and the dissemination of  spoken word content through podcasting was really  

championed at the at the public broadcasting  level with with these colleges and universities,  

and they've done and continue to do incredibly  innovative things, you know, mixing up formats,  

multimedia, you know, presentation, displays  of content, you know, mixing and matching,  

how they do things, you know, storing of digital  content on a sort of on demand basis, you know,  

all those sorts of things. A lot of  times it's, it's, and I think part of it.  

I mean, is is because they have this, you know,  young think outside the box, staff, right, that  

if you go to some some, you know, established  old, you know, broadcast shops across the country,  

you know, people young people are frequently told,  no, we don't do that. No, you can't do that. No,  

nobody does that. Nobody. Yeah, no, no, no,  no, no, no, no. Well, you know, at the small  

community colleges, there's nobody  there to say no, so they just do it.  

And then and lo and behold, it's like, wow, you  know, nobody's ever done that before. What a great  

idea. So, you know, sometimes you know, that's  a, that's a, that's a really good thing to have.

Speaker 1: Speaking of the universities who own the stations,  

you're at. You're at the Association for  education and Journalism and Mass Communication.  

We're the largest organization of journalism, Mass  Comm educators? Or do you think we play a role  

in this area of preparing students to perhaps  own stations, or create new media outlets? What  

are academics able to do in this area of  addressing diversity when they're on air  

product? and programming? What do you see  us as educators being able to do about this?

Speaker 2: I think you mean, I think you serve an invaluable  

role. And all this. I mean, first of all, I  mean, I think, now speaking for myself, I mean,  

when I was young and new, I mean, and new to all  this, one of my biggest obstacles, was my own  

insecurity, right? I didn't know what questions  to ask. I didn't know, you know, what to say?  

Or do and so my reaction would be just to kind of  clam up and just like not, not say anything? Yeah,  

I think, certainly an important role of the  educators, I sort of certainty see it this way,  

when not when I'm teaching classes  to these young students is, you know,  

nothing is, is out of bounds here. You know,  there is no as my father, you say, there's no such  

thing as a stupid question. They're only stupid  answers, right? So So, you know, if you if you're,  

if you, you know, speak up, we want to hear  and also, you know, instill in them, you know,  

try to anticipate some of the obstacles that  they're going to run into, and instill in them,  

you know, a, you know, an understanding that,  yes, you're going to run into these problems,  

every, you know, things are going to go sideways,  and you need to have a plan B, or a Plan C,  

don't be you know, don't be discouraged. And just  kind of say, oh, it just wasn't meant to be No,  

I mean, you have to sort of come back then,  then I have many, many clients who, you know,  

started their businesses out of the trunk of  their car. And the ones that really succeeded,  

were just dogs, they just kept going at it.  And they kept Yeah, they were not discouraged  

by by the problems that they were running into  even, you know, even more recent, for example, I  

had clients who were like, you know, ran into what  was the brick wall of the Oh, eight market crash,  

and they still were like, no, we're gonna  figure out some way so that I can finance this,  

this acquisition, so that I can make this happen.  And, you know, it's amazing. They, I mean, I know,  

I know, some of these small broadcasters who,  when they buy their first station, they're their  

own General Manager, their own program director,  their own general sales manager and their own DJ,  

they wear like, six hats, and they do it all.  And, you know, that's, it's, that's what you do.  

So I think, you know, instilling in them, you  know, that the idea that this is very doable,  

and that it's these are  challenges that they can take on.

Speaker 1: Would you buy in 2018,  

a radio station or television station?

Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a really good question. Because I mean,  

one thing that I hear frequently, for example, is  Oh, well broadcasting his dad who would do that?  

And, you know, I guess my, my answer to that is,  it really depends. I mean, that's really sort of,  

it depends. I mean, you know, oh, would I  buy a broadcasting station that I knew was  

going to do well, and make a lot of money?  Well, yeah, I would, you know, so the,  

so really, that the, the, the, the, really what  you have to look at is, you know, what are the  

market opportunities that are out there? You know,  broadcasting absolutely is not what it once was.  

Newspapers aren't what they once were,  hell, you know, those CDs and DVDs and,  

and, and, and, and, you know, videotapes aren't  what they once were. But, you know, you, you,  

you look to see where the where the opportunities  were? I mean, my answer, I'm not giving an answer.  

My answer to your question is that if, if  there was a marketplace, a more niche market,  

where a radio station, for example, could really  serve a need in that market, then yeah, I would,  

I would absolutely do it, I think I still do  believe that with with broadcasting or any of  

what we're talking about, it's really all  ultimately, it's all about the content,  

good content, will, you know, people will flock  to new content, no matter what the delivery  

system is. And if it's, you know, and if it's, if  it's a, if it's a good, you know, a good program,  

whatever, it'll just migrate to  a broader and broader audience,  

eventually, through different systems,  people will come to you and say, Hey,  

can I grab your content, put it on my station?  If you have it? So it's really what you produce.

Speaker 1: What are your  

biggest challenges going forward? meaning  in your advocacy in the work you're doing,  

the current political environment? What  are your biggest challenges moving forward?

Speaker 2: Well, I think certainly right now,  

for me, and for my clients is that there is a very  rapidly changing media marketplace right now. And  

it's not just I mean, there's, there's always  been a certain amount of change. But I think the,  

the, the pace at which the change happens,  it seems to be accelerating. So you know,  

for example, you know, I mean, I mentioned earlier  that I'm, I'm running an eight year old law firm,  

I'm not 18 years old, but the firm's been  around so this firm has been around through,  

you know, you know, it started out with, you  know, Western Union, Telegraph and am and then FM,  

and then, you know, VHF TV, UHF TV, digital TV  satellites, those with every, with every shift in  

technology, the change has happened more and more  rapidly. Right. So now the changes are happening,  

and, you know, at almost breakneck speed, just  as you're getting up to speed on one, something  

new is popping up. So a big challenge for me.  And I think for everyone in the marketplace is  

staying on top, you know, where, where is my  audience right now? Where are they consuming  

media and content, so that I can be there and be  on top of that, that, that, that that's really a  

huge, huge challenge. And, you know, and also  integrating all those together because I think  

the prepense, the gut reaction,  the propensity is to to say, well,  

the new technologies are just going to be  ancillary to the, to the old, stable technology,  

right? You know, when I hear somebody say, Oh, you  know, we're a, we're a broadcast company. And if  

you like, we can also offer you some streaming  media and a podcast now, that's the ones who  

are saying, No, we are a multimedia company.  And we know, for us, as I mentioned earlier,  

it's about the content. And we can distribute that  content through a variety of different platforms.  

So here's your menu. What would you like and  we can mix it up for you. Would you like,  

you know, FM and TV, TV and social media, social  media and podcast and satellite. I mean, how,  

you know, how would you like it because I think  really having that the audience demands that  

level of flexibility. The advertisers want  that level of targeted access to the audience  

and to their customer base, and you have  to be able to offer them what they want.

Speaker 1: Frank Montero,  

thank you so much for talking with us today.

Speaker 2: My pleasure.  

I really enjoyed it. Thank you very much.