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Any SEA staff furloughed?

L

LITTLEBOYBLUE

I see iHeartLess is cutting some people loose -- at least for awhile.
I would hope one of them it Pittman … then the company would run about 45% smarter.

Anyone in Seattle affected?
What about other ownership groups?
 
You've probably seen the recent cuts as part of their reorganization/right-sizing initiatives. From what I'm hearing, that process is still continuing. Content production and national sales will be geographically centralized. Office and studio leases are being re-negotiated for less space or out's completely. When everything is said and done, programs/voice tracks will be produced centrally, and transmitter sites in all those cities and towns will be just another point of distribution.
 
Kelly A said:
When everything is said and done, programs/voice tracks will be produced centrally, and transmitter sites in all those cities and towns will be just another point of distribution.
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I'm not sure that generalization will apply everywhere. Seattle has no iHeart news/talk stations. In markets where they have news/talk, such as LA or Cincinnati, they're keeping a lot of local talent. The company doesn't really have a central program production center. They way they described it is "hub and spoke." Programs and voicetracks originate from local stations. So if a local talent does VT for other stations, they will likely continue to do that. Although I saw some VTers and even a few syndicated hosts were cut in February. So it's all being done case by case.
 
TheBigA said:
So it's all being done case by case.
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From what I've heard via fairly reliable sources: The centralization strategy is being rolled out in phases. Phase one started with smaller to medium market stations. In between phases, station transmitter sites are being retrofitted with equipment and common remote control gear to control from a soon-to-be-determined centralized hub. Transmitter sites will be fed programming via a WAN or satellite path. Current plans are that hubs will be created in three locations, serving stations in three regions: West of the Mississippi, East Coast, and South. The hubs may indeed be at existing 'owned' real estate, or locations with long leases. In other cases, where leases are coming up for renewal, new hub facilities may be built.

As I believe you've already mentioned.. This is all in preparation for a potential suitor like Liberty/SXM. If that happens, it wouldn't surprise me if the new hubs will be located in Washington D.C., Atlanta, and Los Angeles. Coincidentally, where SXM already has offices, data centers, and live plus production studios.
 
Kelly A said:
From what I've heard via fairly reliable sources: The centralization strategy is being rolled out in phases. Phase one started with smaller to medium market stations.
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The main issue has to do with local sales. The national sales system has been in place for almost ten years, but some markets still get a large percentage of revenue from local sales. That may be regionalized, with the regions being smaller than the three you've mentioned. Louisville is a big sales market because Yum Foods is based there.

As far as tie-in with Sirius, they have more than three production studios. They have several in NYC. They have a studio & performance room in Nashville. Another location in Austin. Liberty is based in Colorado so they may end up moving some distribution there. iHeart is building a digital content facility in Nashville. It's in a separate building from their radio stations. They have relocated Daren Davis there. That should open in June.
 
TheBigA said:
As far as tie-in with Sirius, they have more than three production studios. They have several in NYC. They have a studio & performance room in Nashville. Another location in Austin. Liberty is based in Colorado so they may end up moving some distribution there. iHeart is building a digital content facility in Nashville. It's in a separate building from their radio stations. They have relocated Daren Davis there. That should open in June.
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They've been looking for financial justification to rebuild the DC XM location for years. It's a dump. Has seen no technical updates literally since it was built for XM's launch 20 years ago. There are something like over 70 studios in that building, probably half go unused. The DC building is also owned. LA is a new-owned facility that they dumped a boat load of money-into with lots of room for expansion. Atlanta already acts a backup to NYC., and has a lot of open spaces for expansion.
 
Kelly A said:
They've been looking for financial justification to rebuild the DC XM location for years. It's a dump. Has seen no technical updates literally since it was built for XM's launch 20 years ago. There are something like over 70 studios in that building, probably half go unused. The DC building is also owned.
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iHeart's main DC area building is rental space in Rockville MD. The XM building in DC got some favorable tax incentives too and its own Metro stop. So that may be an easy consolidation.

Looking more broadly at iHeart's talent, they obviously have Delilah in Seattle. That's not changing. She will stay where she is. They have several similar deals with talent. If you're a talent working out of your house now for COVID, get used to it. It may be permanent. Same with sales. This crisis may be a way for iHeart and other broadcasters to shut down obsolete offices and replace them with home studios.
 
Kelly A said:
As I believe you've already mentioned.. This is all in preparation for a potential suitor like Liberty/SXM.
Click to expand...

BTW I saw a few things today that make me think this may be postponed (to say the least). The stock price for both Sirius and Liberty Media are down about 30%. That's obviously not unique. In fact it's better than some other media stocks. But it may cause them to postpone any merger talks until things stabilize. The fact that iHeart won't get that infusion of cash may be why they've pulled back on a number of things, and moved to this phase of layoffs. It's a domino effect.
 
TheBigA said:
BTW I saw a few things today that make me think this may be postponed (to say the least). The stock price for both Sirius and Liberty Media are down about 30%. That's obviously not unique. In fact it's better than some other media stocks. But it may cause them to postpone any merger talks until things stabilize. The fact that iHeart won't get that infusion of cash may be why they've pulled back on a number of things, and moved to this phase of layoffs. It's a domino effect.
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That could very well be. Media companies are ducking and covering right now. Overall, M&A activity has completely halted.
iHeart could still move along right-sizing, just at a slower rate. As with any recession, most groups will need to start looking at expense cuts anyway. How lean they decide to go will be the question.
 
Kelly A said:
iHeart could still move along right-sizing, just at a slower rate. As with any recession, most groups will need to start looking at expense cuts anyway. How lean they decide to go will be the question.
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Keep in mind that the decisions won't be made by the company, but by the lenders who now run the company. They had been hoping to cash out by selling a portion of the company to Liberty Media. Instead they're stuck with a company that's seeing revenue drop and costs stay the same. They don't want to invest any more money, so that's why iHeart had to take out an extra line of credit.
 
TheBigA said:
Keep in mind that the decisions won't be made by the company, but by the lenders who now run the company. They had been hoping to cash out by selling a portion of the company to Liberty Media. Instead they're stuck with a company that's seeing revenue drop and costs stay the same. They don't want to invest any more money, so that's why iHeart had to take out an extra line of credit.
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Sure, but I have to believe the Lenders, who it's safe to assume know nothing about the media business, are wringing their collective hands asking for any acceleration of expense cuts. And as we all know, expense cuts in this business equate to first item on the list; FTE's.
 
Some stations have their on-air personalities working from home via Internet.
 
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