The Business Takeaway From Imus Loss

If you ever wanted to know the irrelevance of radio, take a look at CBS' (CBS - commentary - Cramer's Take) stock today. CBS has now lost its one post-Howard Stern major talent, and it doesn't even matter.

I have been reading everything Imus, like everyone else, and the thing I was most struck about financially was how irrelevant Imus was to anyone's bottom line. He was, maximum, $20 million? Maybe less after expenses? (They're saying that Imus earned $15 million in revenue, but there was also money from MSNBC, and his after-show also made more money, so I'm saying $20 million.)

An episode of American Idol makes that.

An episode ofCSI, amortized over multiple viewings, makes that and then some.

Radio's not big at all. It is so small as to be infinitesimal to any entertainment conglomerate.

And it is getting smaller. I am not saying that radio was so irrelevant that it was not hard to throw Imus over, although, given the declining ad spending, anyone who has a big contract in this radio business is radically overpaid.

I am saying that every single radio stock remains overvalued and that the Clear Channel (CCU - commentary - Cramer's Take) private-equity buyout deal is a classic example of hubris, much like McClatchy's (MNI - commentary - Cramer's Take) Knight Ridder deal. The cash flows here stink.

Radio just doesn't matter.

Random musings: Don't believe me about the semiconductor/tech problems? Check out Keithley Instruments (KEI - commentary - Cramer's Take). Awful quarter.

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Please note that due to factors including low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float, we consider Keithley Instruments to be a small-cap stock. You should be aware that such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information, and that postings such as this one can have an effect on their stock prices.

At the time of publication, Cramer had no positions in any of the stocks mentioned in this post.

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