Will CBS radio layoffs affect us locally?

[34james]

I heard major layoffs were coming.

Is this true?

https://insidemusicmedia.com/

 

[davideduardo]

I heard major layoffs were coming.

According to your source.

Is this true?

A part of it is true, a part is doomsday hyperbole.

 

[adiogor]

All Access is reporting today that up to 200 people have been laid off around the country, most in sales and support staff, but some high profile PDs and on air talent have been let go as well, and layoffs are continuing.

 

[K.M. Richards]

I heard major layoffs were coming.

According to your source.

Is this true?

A part of it is true, a part is doomsday hyperbole.

It depends on what you define "major" layoffs as.

What I have heard so far is that there are cutbacks in the sales departments and in certain support functions. That's certainly not as "major" as would be, for example, PD and on-air personnel.

 

[TheBigA]

CBS Radio really has been pretty much lay-off free for a very long time. They were overdue to have this kind of adjustment. The LA cluster is doing pretty well. Not as well as IHeart, which does what they do with fewer people.

 

[K.M. Richards]

CBS Radio really has been pretty much lay-off free for a very long time. They were overdue to have this kind of adjustment. The LA cluster is doing pretty well. Not as well as IHeart, which does what they do with fewer people.

Well, reading the updated list at AllAccess of people who have been shown the door, it's edging toward "major".

One of the Dallas PDs, a legendary business news anchor in Philly, two on-air talents in St. Louis, the hosts of a Seattle sports station's only local show, plus undisclosed on-air people in Detroit.

Nothing seems to be affecting either of the two CBS Radio facilities here in L.A. yet.

 

[TheBigA]

The on air people are mostly at the AM stations. CBS owns a bunch of these heritage AM stations that, for the most part, have been fully staffed for a long time. But their ratings are starting to slip as their audience ages, and there doesn't seem to be a future for AM. CBS can spend millions on KNX, but it's not going to change their situation. So why spend the money?

The other area where people got laid off is Radio.com. I know some people at CBS Interactive, and they had extremely high hopes for this site, and that creating original content for the web might be lucrative. Unfortunately we're learning that spending money doesn't always lead to a return on investment, especially on the internet.

 

[pjc1961]

First L.A. salvo fired (that we know of):

Freddy Snakeskin is out at ROQ of the 80s/KROQ-HD2 and 93.1 Jack-FM.
Freddy has a message on his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/roqofthe80s/posts/1172858142741045

 

[K.M. Richards]

First L.A. salvo fired (that we know of):

Freddy Snakeskin is out at ROQ of the 80s/KROQ-HD2 and 93.1 Jack-FM.

Considering how much he's been doing at CBS (he was PD for KROQ-2 and handled the music scheduling for Jack, in addition to a lot of production duties), this is going to be a move they'll regret.

How much you want to bet that within weeks, KROQ-2 has its playlist cut to playing only the songs on the year-end lists from 1980 to 1989, ignoring that a lot of them are ones Freddy removed long ago in favor of other, more memorable titles?

 

[TheBigA]

How much you want to bet that within weeks, KROQ-2 has its playlist cut

Not sure that HD radio is the priority it might have been ten years ago.