KC radio station chain making big cuts

Job cuts for radio corporation Entercom, owners of #1 talker KMBZ, #1 rocker 98.9 The Rock, and soft rocker KUDL.

From Radio & Records
By Keith Berman

On Wednesday (Oct. 15), as the stock market made an ominous 733-point drop, Entercom took some steps to try to shore up its own bottom line, starting with cuts: R&R has heard that a significant number of people are on the downsizing list nationwide, with around 15 in Kansas City, including market legend VP/co-market manager Herndon Hasty.


Meanwhile, R&R has learned that CEO David Field blasted out a companywide two-page letter that didn't do much to soothe people's nerves -- as part of the company belt-tightening to make sure the company "makes some necessary changes" to ride out things out, Field announced that Entercom is suspending its matching contributions to 401(k) plans "indefinitely with a plan to reinstate it at some point in the future, after the economy recovers."


Additionally, Field and company brass are "actively considering a wage freeze in 2009. No decision has been made, but you should be aware that this is a likely possibility."

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This from an anonymous poster in the local radio message board:

I thought HH was a god....is this a major f-u--up on the part of Entercom?
That must be an incredible morale boost...not matching 401's, and nothing else.
I think Entercom would be well served to gather a management team that recognize and are passionate about the on-air product and revenue opportunities from it, instead of glorified beancounters. But oh well...this is, and has been old news for a long time now...it's just now hit critical mass.

Radio's been pretty sickly nationwide for a couple years due to soft advertising income. Some companies have sold less profitable stations in KC and elsewhere. All local stations have been belt-tightening by cutting staffs, increasing jockless hours with automation, making people work longer shifts.

Morale's been bad for a couple years how as staff has seen high turnover. The soft advertising is due in part to more choices to reach customers. Newspapers have suffered including the Star. Times have been tough in television as well resulting in the networks pay less for programming, cutting news and other staffs. Much of the shift in where companies put their money is in the internet. Advertisers are learning how to target their messages better through cable television and internet readers.

This event is but another sign that the media which matured during the last half of the 20th century is undergoing a major redefinition because of the internet.

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