Roosting Chickens

[SirRoxalot]

I've railed against "cutting your way to prosperity" here many times in the past, and it seems that some important people may recognize the futility of that course of action when considering the impact of talent on programming, sales, engineering, and management.

Mary Berner, new head of Cumulus, has a new direction for the company. Her focus, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, "would be on increasing stations’ ratings and fixing problems that had caused more than 2,000 Cumulus employees to leave the company over the past 18 months."
“This company has lost more than a dollar of revenue for every dollar of expense reduction over the past four years,” she said. “So I’m focused on intelligently managing the cost structure.”

The whole article is worth a read. Give the self-serving "radio is dying" from another old-media rival it's proper weight. Otherwise, lots of salient content is available at:

http://www.myajc.com/news/business/radio-giant-cumulus-tumbles-after-flying-high/npx9H/

Another "highlight"?

"...Cumulus scrimped on programming and labor costs and fired or lost popular radio talent in key markets, including New York and Washington, D.C.

Listeners deserted. While iHeartMedia’s audience ratings in its largest markets grew by 5.7 percent from 2012 to 2015, Cumulus Media’s ratings dropped 10.7 percent in the same period..."

 

[TheBigA]

The truth is that listeners were deserting those stations in NY and DC BEFORE the talent left. The real problem at those stations is lack of focus in the music. That situation hasn't really been fixed. By the way, in both cases, the departed talents were replaced by live and local talents, not a computer or syndication. For all the criticism, iHeart is just doing a better job of programming. And from what I've seen, the new CEO at Cumulus hasn't really done anything.

 

[tbolt909]

Upper management may recognize that cutting doesn't generate
new revenue, but they don't care. It slows the bleeding a little and
boosts their pay for a while longer.

Anything they say in a press release is just spin.
The public knows that Radio formats are disposable.
That's why there's no passion...

 

[flybynight]

Upper management may recognize that cutting doesn't generate
new revenue, but they don't care. It slows the bleeding a little and
boosts their pay for a while longer.

Anything they say in a press release is just spin.
The public knows that Radio formats are disposable.
That's why there's no passion...

Just an aside (and maybe a big part of the problem radio faces):
I was listening to a song on the radio today and, because I liked it, instinctively grabbed the remote to play it again---when I remembered, it's the radio.

Also, it's nice to hear a CEO say what I've said for years: You cannot cost-cut your way to prosperity in a business where creative talent is essential.

Whether that changes anything, eh, I'd be surprised. I wonder if CMLS CEO thought of this before or after they dumped Geraldo from WABC. lol

 

[TheBigA]

The public knows that Radio formats are disposable.
That's why there's no passion...

You seen pretty passionate when it comes to a format you like. That's how most people are. If you go to a WYRK event, you'll see a lot of very passionate people. If you go to a WBFO event, you'll see a lot of passionate people. They are passionate about what they like. Just like you.

 

[davideduardo]

The public knows that Radio formats are disposable.

No they don't know that.

The average person only listens intentionally to a couple of stations. In the average market, there might be 1 or 2 format changes on significant stations. The average listener does not even notice 90% of format changes because they don't listen to the station that changed.

Formats change because they expire, such as smooth jazz or 60's oldies. Formats change because a station fails to succeed and does not make money any more, and often in those cases there are beaten by a better station in a similar format.

Successful stations that have lots of listeners and which bill well don't change. The ones that change generally had limited listenership to begin with.

 

[TheBigA]

I wonder if CMLS CEO thought of this before or after they dumped Geraldo from WABC. lol

Spending money on him isn't going to help that station.

 

[Rusty Bridges]

Cumulus, the Humpty Dumpty of radio companies.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Cumulus, the Humpty Dumpty of radio companies.

I prefer "iHeart Lite". BTW, iHeart is going back to Randy Michael's idea of regional station groups, market managers, and much more local control. Seems like Bob Pittman is recognizing that top-down really isn't the way to run what's essentially local media. In this case, he's following Mary Berner's decentralization of control.

http://news.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=n32277

 

[TheBigA]

I prefer "iHeart Lite". BTW, iHeart is going back to Randy Michael's idea of regional station groups, market managers, and much more local control. Seems like Bob Pittman is recognizing that top-down really isn't the way to run what's essentially local media. In this case, he's following Mary Berner's decentralization of control.

To be honest, iHeart has always been much more decentralized than Cumulus. And I haven't noticed that Cumulus has actually done any decentralizing since the new CEO took over. They simply replaced John Dickey with Mike McVay. Otherwise, everything is still the same. At least for now.