Say g'night to radio as you grew up listening to it

Posted by Cumuwhore on 2/12/2009, 8:37 pm

Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey is not disappointing anyone who predicted he would use Clear Channel's recent assassination of 1,850 careers as cover to do the same to his employees.

Now, his dying company -- $1.87 a share (down 13 cents just yesterday alone) -- is following the Lee & Bain playbook for Clear Channel and trashing their assets.

Dickey initiated mass firings Friday when he wasted several dozen great and loyal employees.

According to Tom Taylor "the most likely to be riffed were midday personalities, nighttime jocks and morning co-hosts. But also office managers, some GSMs and AEs. There even are reports out of markets like Toledo and Fayetteville, NC that management is ordering part-timers to work for minimum wage. Several news staffs were vaporized, leading the Columbia (MO) Daily Tribune to ask whether talk WFRU (1400) can still call itself “the station Columbia depends on.”

My Repeater Reporters (named for "Repeater Radio") tell me it's even uglier.

Some market managers were let go over the telephone.

Classy. Real classy.

Cumulus survivors feel more cuts are coming and probably soon.

One Repeater Reporter said one Cumulus executive had a confidential telephone call with chief bean counter Jon Pinch and was advised to not have anyone else in the office -- and that includes the business manager.

Some Cumulus markets are running a whopping 40% behind last year which helps explain the suicidal mood at the mothership.

Agency business is vanishing -- Cumulus-supervised selling is the order of the day. Talk about nationalization of local radio. Some managers refer to Cumulus corporate as "big brother is listening".

According to a Cumulus Repeater Reporter Lew Dickey, in an unusual move, demanded market managers project revenue through March indicating the continued fear of a severe falling off of revenue.

What's unimaginable is that at least one Cumulus employee says Dickey is claiming to be working on taking over some other companies that are in deep trouble.

Perhaps management agreements with their lenders or the bankruptcy courts -- a scary thought.

That's the rationale Dickey is apparently using to spin the recent blow out of personnel.

But it wouldn't be surprising to see Cumulus itself in default or very close to some loan covenants.

So far Dickey has not volunteered to give up his near $8 million signing bonus for having his "arm twisted" to sign a new employment contract. Things are not that bad.

But he has become Tricky Dickey -- now you see his $8 million bonus, now you don't. Now you see your radio job, now you don't.

But wait. It gets worse.

It has become known that during a previous round of firings, Cumulus offered to keep some part-timers -- according to a Toledo morning show host -- for minimum wage.

Perhaps these things can help you get a better handle on what's so wrong in radio.

The consolidators are taking compensation for themselves like there is no recession -- no advertising downturn, business as usual. But for everyone else, it's Armageddon -- the battle between good and evil. Of course, they are the good. Everyone and everything else is evil.

Dickey has no conscience as he keeps his "signing" bonus -- a trumped up way to bury compensation that was totally unnecessary. Like -- where is Dickey going? Nowhere -- fast.

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From Rman... Cumulus bought Susquehanna's stations a couple years ago. It was a family/employee owned company of the KC stations whose logos are represented here. Susquehanna was fairly well liked by employees, but they got out before radio started seriously collapsing. What's befalling Cumulus as it cuts staff expenses with automation in an era of soft advertising and huge profit losses is not unique to Cumulus or Kansas City radio companies.

All the big corporate owners are doing it. What we're seeing is radio as we've known it collapsing...cost cutting the human voices of disk jockeys and news people in all larger markets in dayparts other than mornings. Companies are converting midays, evening, overnight and weekend shifts to jockless broadcasting, run by computer. Other stations are bringing in syndicated programs from the coasts. Only local staffs lament that radio will die without 'live and local' on air presence.

Yet radio program directors have been muzzling all but the morning deejays so most listeners can't really tell whether jocks are live or memorex, in Kansas City or from Los Angeles. The mantra is shut up and move the music, read what's on these 3x5 cards and that's all!

The era of live deejays playing our requests and talking to us from down at the radio station won't be back. Its demise is largely blamed by radio people on the consolidation of ownership after FCC under Republican leadership gave in and let broadcast companies own more than six radio stations. Since that decision, a dozen big companies have bought up all the stations in larger markets and run cookie cutter formats, pretty much dictated from their home offices.

The fact is, radio listeners are finding other listening choices and aren't showing much loyalty to stations anyway. And out of town owners aren't really into local traditions that probably would have been the saving grace of local broadcasting. Today's corporate owners will change a station's format and call letters like many people change their underwear. Rman suggests that listeners realize this. There are a lot of choices for our ears and a lot of choices for advertisers. Only Internet advertising is growing. Radio isn't.

Radio people all over the country are having to find something else to do because the jobs are diminishing even faster than the general economies. The late Wolfman Jack is now on tape only on XM6!