I read an article that said iHeart was warning investors it may not last out the year of 2017 because of their overwhelming debt. Kinda serves them right for killing all the local radio markets. Remember when we had choices on AM? WKRC, WLW, WCKY. They all had their own news departments and distinct formats. Certainly, the internet would have eventually killed these stations, but I think all the consolidation hastened that. I wonder who will get the Cincinnati stations, and for what fire sale price?
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iHeart close to bankruptcy?
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Very good point. In a cluster, a marginal station can be sustained while as a stand-alone, chances are good for an ethnic or religious format.
It may extended the life of those heritage stations, but it has also created a situation where the company bought too many signals in a market and dumbed them down so much that they are boring to listen to. WKRC WCKY & WSAI in their day served the area with separate programming and they were competing for audience share which made for more compelling programming which was locally produced. IHeart and Cumulus are both in bad shape and one reason is the never invested in programming that can create the attention of listeners and advertisers.
With all the new FM entries, the possibility of 3 or 4 locally produced talk formats in a market the size of Cincinnati isn't too likely. At least WLW is 24/7 live local and not many markets that size have that. Taft's WKRC, as I recall, gave up the ghost in the early 90s in favor of LMAing with Jacor.
This does not explain how, in markets like New York and Los Angeles, iHeart occasionally has 4 or 5 stations in the top 10. The issue at iHeart is its debt load, not its programming.
Jacor bought the cluster at that time which was owned by Great American Insurance. It was either in 1992 or '93. They also purchased 92.5 and the old NewsTalk 1530 and moved Rush to 55KRC which Jacor changed calls from 55 WKRC to WLWA. As I Remember, they also had a local show on the Afternoon called Chick Talk which didn't last long. Times change but the programming hasn't. They are all all out of the age demo most advertisers find attractive, and that includes WLW.
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So microbob, tell us what should be done with 1360 WSAI? It's a marginal signal now and doesn't cover the market night or day. 1530 is just about living up to its potential. Big signal, but high on the dial and loses the northern part of the market. Do you even realize how expensive it is to run one of these stations? Good luck turning a profit with your dream format of live and local programming all day. As you say, back "in their day" it was the 1980s. 2017 is a little different in case you hadn't noticed.
iHeart will reorganize and be better than they are now. By itself, the media division performs quite well. No comapny is going to survive long with $21 billion in debt.
iHeart will reorganize and be better than they are now. By itself, the media division performs quite well. No comapny is going to survive long with $21 billion in debt.
And by the way, 55KRC is working right now with a 5.1 share 6+ to make it the #5 station in the market. Not too shabby.
I do realize that Digital and Podcasting have replaced AM talk radio for the younger 18-34 Demo that advertisers crave. I do not think AM radio no matter how well it's doing in the Cincinnati area has much of a future left. It sounds bad and no one younger than 35 will listen to it. I'm not saying the clock should turn back 35 years at all. These days there all other sources for news and that radio is not the first choice people think of to get that info any longer. Time has passed it by. It's digital now that's the new talk radio.
Keep in mind that iHeart is not a public company, so it was not warning investors. This was a message to the SEC. That's kind of a different thing.
The reality is that iHeart has been trying to renegotiate its debt for two years. Its lenders have responded by ignoring their offers, and instead taking them to court. This has the signs of becoming an ugly mess, and the SEC needs to know what's going on. I doubt any investors need to be told of the company's woes. That's part of the reason why they took the company private in 2008.
The days of fully staffed, full service AM radio ended before consolidation. The old insurance and electronics companies that started these stations cashed out when they still could. Lincoln Financial was the last insurance company in radio ownership, and they got out two years ago.
Do you know how much Rush Limbaugh makes? Elvis Duran? The guys at WLW? I have a lot of friends at both iHeart and Cumulus, and they all tell me the best pay, benefits, and work environment are at those two companies. Don't confuse debt with lack of investment in programming. That simply is not true.
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Didn't Limbaugh resign for less money due to the number of advertisers that he lost after he made his controversial Sarah Fluke remarks? I know Bill Cunningham has said He's the highest paid personality at WLW and I'm sure Mike McConnell does pull in a decent Wage being in morning drive despite having lower ratings than his predecessor had. Last I saw he was getting beat in total Cume by Q102 in mornings. WLW has fallen in terms of programming in the last few years and if it wasn't for the Reds and Bengals they wouldn't be doing as well as they have been. WGRR has beaten the for the #1 spot for the last few months in the PPM.
Limbaugh took a pay cut more due to his declining audience size and ageing demos than for the Fluke incident.
And advertisers don't buy cume, they buy impressions measured in rating (not "share") in the target demo.
WLW's issuess are more related to its format than to the talent; all AM news/talk stations are aging. WLW is at its best over 35. In 18-49 it is 7th on average and in 18-34 it is 10th.
Still, it billed last year pretty much what it did 10 years ago, so it is not losing revenue... just not growing (the market itself grew less than 1% annually in the last 5 years). And it outbills WGRR by nearly 60%.
The reason is simple. iHeartRadio and Cumulus Media have gotten too greedy with buying all these radio stations nationwide. And with the poor economy that Obama left behind for America; they are going to stagnate, even in Trump's years. All of this is Karma for both industries taking advantage of and abusing the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Me, personally, I think it would be a good idea for them to sell some of their stations. But this will only leave another radio giant like Entercom to come and buy them all up.
These big radio industries are the reason why FM and AM radio will meet it's downfall. If you take a look at something like Emmis and what they've done, they have managed to have a steady income as a radio group without buying out too many stations in a market.
These big radio industries are the reason why FM and AM radio will meet it's downfall. If you take a look at something like Emmis and what they've done, they have managed to have a steady income as a radio group without buying out too many stations in a market.
One thing most people complain about when talking about Radio is that Clear Channel (or iHeartMedia) always make their radio stations in America sound the same. Same programming, same branding, same music played 24/7. No originality. The lack of flavor in their stations is simply what is making people bored of radio. This applies to Cumulus Media as well. This is the problem with both of these two radio industries. (i.e. who wants to hear a Country station in the USA that features Nash ICON? And then only to drive into another city and find another country station with Nash ICON etc. Pretty boring) it makes people bored and uninterested; all radio stations in the USA are unoriginal, robotic, and beginning to sound exactly the same. (back in the 1970s and 80s; radio was more creative, experimental and daring; and formats were not as strict. For instance, a station would switch to Album Oriented Rock/Hard rock, Country and then Jazz/Beautiful music, or a combination of all.) these days, radio stations are only exclusive to playing one format only.
The Millenials are especially not interested in radio these days. Mainly because the music these days in the music industry is unappealing; and Millenials will often seek out other alternatives in Mass Media than FM/AM radio to hear something they enjoy.
While you may have a point that both of the two companies you listed have good pay; the reason that draws listeners away is the lack of originality and experimentation that both companies put into radio. As I stated before, in the 1970s radio DJs would play random music from all over the world but only if it sounded good. The rock band Rush got a big break in the music industry simply because a female American DJ kept playing "Working Man" on their radio station over and over again. This is what got the band Rush famous. And they were not even American, but Canadian. This is what is lacking in Radio these days - independent music artists never get their music played. The DJs are robots and are afraid of experimenting and bringing in new music, in order to lose their job.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rush_(band)#1968.E2.80.931976:_Blues_and_hard_rock_years
From Wikipedia: "Rush had limited local popularity until the album was picked up by WMMS, a radio station in Cleveland, Ohio. Donna Halper, a music director and DJ working at the station, selected "Working Man" for her regular playlist. The song's blue-collar theme resonated with hard rock fans, and this newfound popularity led to the album being re-released by Mercury Records in the U.S.[11]"
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The big companies were formed 20 years ago, and both have been shedding stations since then. I am quite sure thaty both would like to sell additional stations, but with today's prices being about a third of what they were in the 90's and the pre-recession 00's, the losses would be big.
And that. in what way, explains why Emmis has had to sell properties and is currently looking to sell $80 million in additional ones to meet the requirements of its lenders and shareholders?
And yet, in city after city, including Cincinnati, their stations are consistently top rated. The fact is that AM/FM is part of the millennials regular dosage of music and media. It may not be their only source, but they use it more than you indicate.
AN A/C format in Portland is going to be a lot like one in Raleigh or one in Hartford because music has been universalized by the Internet and instant communications. In fact, if you look at most of the CHR songs in Minneapolis, they are the same as the ones being played by the CHR in Santiago, Chile.
Songs are now being released simultaneously world wide, and promoted simultaneously.
So why wouldn't stations in the same format be playing substantially the same music and using the same presentation?
How can a person in Indianapolis be bored with radio because in Salt Lake City there are stations playing the same songs and doing the same formats as in their town? If you focus on the local market, there should always be an assortment of good FM signals with the most mass appeal formats for that market.
Except for block programming on some small market stations, there was never a station in those decades that played AOR part of the day and Beautiful Music another part of the day. Strong, continuous, exclusive music formats have been part of stations in all significant markets since TV forced the industry to do that back in the 50's.
Millenials use less radio because they have more options, many of them being on-demand services. They are huge consumers of music, but use a variety... including radio... of services to listen.
Very, very, very few stations "in the 70's" had DJs that played anything they wanted. And those that did had, for the most part, limited audiences. By the mid-70's those progressive or free-form rock stations that you seem to refer to had been massacred by the heavily consulted "Superstars" execution with limited playlists and sharper focus. What was left were college stations and just a couple of precursors of the AAA format...
There is no shortage on the playlists of any current music station, whether it be Urban, Alt, Country, CHR or even Regional Mexican, of artists that a year or two ago had no airplay. New artists are getting exposed... just not with the stunts such as you mention with Rush.
WMMS was one of the benchmark AOR stations in that era. Other stations looked at it for guidance on new adds, just as in CHR in the 60's we looked at stations like CKLW, KHJ and others... so the stations that were trendseters in each format added a song and all the rest of us looked at them for guidance as we reviewed Gavin, FMQB, R&R and other airplay lists each week.
So Rush's song workked because MDs at other AORs looked at WMMS and saw the add, and then the increase in play and then the comments on "good phones" from the Music Director... and they gave the cut a listen.
Ever since the FCC began deregulations in 1996 the radio business has flunked in popularity as a form of media and is helping to fail the American music industry. These two big corporations (iHeartMedia and Cumulus) are owned by men that just do not care; and are just superfluous, careless and greedy. The problem with radio today is that these big corporations (for example) swallow the whole industry and allow no individuality. Not to the music artists, the listeners or the businesses that sponsor them. They are even so superfluous they are helping to destroy the whole Radio industry; and in the long run even harming their own foundation by using this fierce cut-throat competition.
For example, WOGY 94.1 (Froggy 94) in Memphis was bought by Entercom Media in 2000, from Sinclair and switched from Country music; to two Hot AC brandings, 94.1 The Buzz and then 94.1 WKQK and both failed miserably in ratings. This was a big mistake; as competitor Kix 106 was now the only station in Memphis to broadcast country and had no competitor. By killing Country on 94.1 Entercom now are finally seeing the damage they have done over a decade later. And they had no choice but to flip the station in 2014 back to country music as WLFP 94-1 The Wolf. Entercom are reluctant to admit it but realize that flipping a format on 94.1 in Memphis is taking too much of a step.
The point here - is that a lot of the people employed in these large radio industries are careless and irresponsible. They are clumsy and hasty and just do not understand what a radio listener really wants in a station, or even care to. A Radio listener wants variety, they do not want a big change or a "big leap". (same Country songs played over and over again - or for example, the station suddenly flipping from Mainstream Country to a strict Hot Adult Contemporary format.) This is what throws listeners off. (just take a look at how much The Buzz 94.1 lasted in Memphis - only 5 years, compared to the 8 years country as Froggy 94.)
For example, WOGY 94.1 (Froggy 94) in Memphis was bought by Entercom Media in 2000, from Sinclair and switched from Country music; to two Hot AC brandings, 94.1 The Buzz and then 94.1 WKQK and both failed miserably in ratings. This was a big mistake; as competitor Kix 106 was now the only station in Memphis to broadcast country and had no competitor. By killing Country on 94.1 Entercom now are finally seeing the damage they have done over a decade later. And they had no choice but to flip the station in 2014 back to country music as WLFP 94-1 The Wolf. Entercom are reluctant to admit it but realize that flipping a format on 94.1 in Memphis is taking too much of a step.
The point here - is that a lot of the people employed in these large radio industries are careless and irresponsible. They are clumsy and hasty and just do not understand what a radio listener really wants in a station, or even care to. A Radio listener wants variety, they do not want a big change or a "big leap". (same Country songs played over and over again - or for example, the station suddenly flipping from Mainstream Country to a strict Hot Adult Contemporary format.) This is what throws listeners off. (just take a look at how much The Buzz 94.1 lasted in Memphis - only 5 years, compared to the 8 years country as Froggy 94.)
Interesting that you say this, because iHeart has a number of campaigns aimed specifically at introducing independent and unsigned artists. One iHeart DJ, Bobby Bones, has introduced his listeners to numerous new songs and artists over the years. It's nice to wax about the 70s, but there are FM radio companies, including iHeart, breaking new artists every day. Cumulus actually owns a record company, and just launched the winner of a locally based talent contest. There are a lot of great things happening in radio today, if you'd just listen.
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