iHeartMedia clusters that have zero local personalities

[Kent]

They're also selling off properties. There is a listing in Panama City, FL on Loopnet.com for their studios on Lisenby Avenue.
1834 Lisenby Ave, Panama City, FL 32405 - Office for Sale | LoopNet

That would seem to be. It sold 311 Lexington in Ft. Smith last year for just under $500,000. iHeart, however, doesn't seem to be completely pulling its studios out of those markets. It Ft. Smith, it moved into a mixed use strip mall on the east side of town. If anybody closes its Ft. Smith office and consolidates, I expect it will be Cumulus moving those properties' studios to Fayetteville. It already has one GM over both markets, and most of the same people are programming the Cumulus properties in both markets.

I bet they would gladly sell all of those stations if someone made a reasonable offer.

With the exceptions of Jackson and Montgomery, iHeart has already tried to sell those markets. It actually had a buyer for Tupelo who took it over and operated it for several years only to end up selling it back. I was told on some of those under 100 markets, the private equity firms who bought Clear Channel only intended to keep those with a 30% margin. I don’t know how you achieve a margin that high doing small market radio, but, apparently, a few of them were accomplishing it. iHeart also considered Waco and Killeen/Temple one market, which meant both clusters did better than they would’ve appeared to have done at first glance.

 

[CTListener]

That.. that he is not local. They say hes based somewhere else.

Its one thing if he was in montgomery and it was their hometown guy doing shows elsewhere.. does my point make sense? lcoal gu ydone good, not someone elses guy.

So you're saying telling the truth in a bio is bad? It's not like they're making stuff up about him. I mean, if he wanted iHeart to do so, I suppose the bio could include his real name and other air names he's used. That's not stuff you usually read in a radio bio, because there's always things that DJs don't want in their bios for reasons of privacy. But again, the info about Jo Jo's career is basically accurate, as far as I can see. Do you think iHeart is risking losing listeners by publishing this info? I don't think the average listener will care one way or the other, especially if they like the jock's on-air work.

So no, I don't get your point. Try again. I may not be reading you right.

 

[exdjted]

That would seem to be. It sold 311 Lexington in Ft. Smith last year for just under $500,000. iHeart, however, doesn't seem to be completely pulling its studios out of those markets. It Ft. Smith, it moved into a mixed use strip mall on the east side of town. If anybody closes its Ft. Smith office and consolidates, I expect it will be Cumulus moving those properties' studios to Fayetteville. It already has one GM over both markets, and most of the same people are programming the Cumulus properties in both markets.



With the exceptions of Jackson and Montgomery, iHeart has already tried to sell those markets. It actually had a buyer for Tupelo who took it over and operated it for several years only to end up selling it back. I was told on some of those under 100 markets, the private equity firms who bought Clear Channel only intended to keep those with a 30% margin. I don’t know how you achieve a margin that high doing small market radio, but, apparently, a few of them were accomplishing it. iHeart also considered Waco and Killeen/Temple one market, which meant both clusters did better than they would’ve appeared to have done at first glance.

I think they are going to look at consolidation down the road. They could really just lease out sales offices and run stations geographically. Panama City and Fort Walton Beach in FL could be run from Tallahassee or Pensacola. Fort Smith and Fayetteville could be run from Tulsa or Little Rock.

Nothing would surprise me about Cumulus. KNSH in Fort Smith doesn't even rate anymore, and that's their NASH FM that they're so keen on.

 

[gr8oldies]

I think they are going to look at consolidation down the road. They could really just lease out sales offices and run stations geographically. Panama City and Fort Walton Beach in FL could be run from Tallahassee or Pensacola. Fort Smith and Fayetteville could be run from Tulsa or Little Rock.

Nothing would surprise me about Cumulus. KNSH in Fort Smith doesn't even rate anymore, and that's their NASH FM that they're so keen on.

Dayton moved from their previous digs in the Oregon District to much smaller facilities in the Arcade, still downtown, apparently with only one live and one production studio for the cluster (4 FMs, 2 AMs).

 

[SomeRadioGuy]

So you're saying telling the truth in a bio is bad? It's not like they're making stuff up about him. I mean, if he wanted iHeart to do so, I suppose the bio could include his real name and other air names he's used. That's not stuff you usually read in a radio bio, because there's always things that DJs don't want in their bios for reasons of privacy. But again, the info about Jo Jo's career is basically accurate, as far as I can see. Do you think iHeart is risking losing listeners by publishing this info? I don't think the average listener will care one way or the other, especially if they like the jock's on-air work.

So no, I don't get your point. Try again. I may not be reading you right.

Well, i was trying to say it between the lines and not call anyone out in particular.

But yes, im saying telling the truth in the bio is bad, in a way... the average listener doesnt realize one dj can be in part of the country doing shows all over the nation.

If hes not gonna be locally based, put up a bio, but make it non location specific

 

[TheBigA]

I think they are going to look at consolidation down the road. They could really just lease out sales offices and run stations geographically.

I've seen this as well. Bob Pittman announced this at the start of the year. He said in this article "We will never return to the office as we all knew it."

iHeartMedia Outlines Blueprint For A ‘New Work Environment.’

As more employees return to the workplace after COVID forced millions to work from home, different corporate approaches are emerging. For its part, iHeartMedia now views the office as a

www.insideradio.com

“We will never ‘return to the office’ as we all knew it; instead, we’ll be returning to a ‘New Work Environment,’” the execs say in their joint memo. That takes into consideration what they’ve learned in the past year and a half, “from new skills and new ways of working to maximizing our technology to enable us to communicate, innovate and work together as a team.”

“Although we’ll start as a hybrid of working from home and some use of the office, we know it will evolve as we learn together,” the memo says. “We should all think about the office as a productivity tool, vs. that more rigid ‘home base’ we’ve been used to – and the office will always be open for your use.”

Even in NYC they've been shrinking their footprint. They used to have several offices around town, as well as the iHeart Theater in the AT&T building.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

I am somewhat perplexed, though, that iHeart hasn't came up with a unified branding/station name for stations of the same format in small to medium sized markets. Especially if a lot of them share the same personalities and music scheduling.

Like in Canada, all Bell-owned AC stations are Move, and all Bell-owned adult hits stations are branded as Bounce. Also in the UK, all Global-owned ACs are branded as Heart.

I knew KIIS-FM has been unified for CHR and HotAC stations owned by Iheart and its flagship station that gets referenced is KIIS-FM Los Angeles. Note KIIS-FM was originally a reference to 1150 AM Los Angeles at the time of sign on.

Breeze was supposed to be unified for Soft AC for Iheart owned stations but Breeze is mainly doing well for places like Sacramento and San Francisco.

https://ratings.****************/content/arb065

https://ratings.****************/content/arb009

 

[101tm]

iHeart doesn’t have any local personalities in the Augusta GA market, and Columbia SC is down to one I believe. Macon and Savannah GA may not have anyone left locally either.

 

[Y2kTheNewOldies]

Voicetracking is a widespread practice in the radio industry, but there are clusters within iHeartMedia that, in fact, do not have a local host in any of their stations.

Some I can think of on top of my head:
Dickinson ND
Gallup NM
Jackson MS
Montgomery AL
Tupelo MS

Granted, these are minor, low revenue markets.

Isn't this also that market managers have to cover more than one radio market too as a factor why some Iheart outlets may not have local talent in some markets its that they all share the same market manager or Senior VP of Programming.

https://www.radiodiscussions.com/threads/josh-wolff-exits-iheart-allentown-and-lancaster-pa-wilmington-de-and-salisbury-md.754962/

Josh Wolff

Josh Wolff exits iHeartMedia where he served as Senior VP of Programming for Allentown and Lancaster, PA, Wilmington, DE, and Salisbury, MD. Wolff also served as PD of CHR “B104”

www.insideradio.com

Four Regional Promotion Director Leads Unveiled At Audacy.

Audacy names four Regional Promotion Director Leads – Emily Pearce (Tri-State), Ruben Pimentel (Northern California), Erica Washburn (Pacific Northwest), and Veronica Weisenbach (Great Lakes). Pearce, Pimentel, and Washburn join the

www.insideradio.com

Here is Audacy's example of PD's and Market Managers serving more than one radio market.

Pearce, who will be based in New York City, will focus on company stations in New York and Wilkes-Barre. She joins Audacy from iHeartMedia Philadelphia, where she most recently served as VP of Marketing. Previous stops include iHeartMedia Detroit, Toledo, Grand Rapids, and Muskegon, along with Cox Media Group Richmond.

Pimentel will work with the San Francisco and Sacramento markets from a San Francisco base, effective July 25, and joins Audacy from the Merola Opera Program, where he was most recently Director of Marketing and Communications. Previous stops include Cumulus Media San Francisco, the Oakland Symphony, and Pamal Broadcasting Latham, NY.

 

[victorres43]

It actually had a buyer for Tupelo who took it over and operated it for several years only to end up selling it back.

I do find it interesting that URBan Radio selling the cluster back to Clear Channel/iHeartMedia hasn't made fanfare, even in radio industry websites. I believe the transaction was done back in 2014?

I knew KIIS-FM has been unified for CHR and HotAC stations owned by Iheart and its flagship station that gets referenced is KIIS-FM Los Angeles. Note KIIS-FM was originally a reference to 1150 AM Los Angeles at the time of sign on.

Breeze was supposed to be unified for Soft AC for Iheart owned stations but Breeze is mainly doing well for places like Sacramento and San Francisco.

https://ratings.****************/content/arb065

https://ratings.****************/content/arb009

That is true, but a lot of iHeart CHRs are not branded KISS. For instance, KDWB and Z100.
When it comes to branding of radio stations within Bell Media, there are very few, if any, stations that break the standard, networked formatting. CHUM-FM does have their own approach to Hot AC, but other music stations within the company are branded Move (AC), Bounce (Adult Hits), Virgin Radio (CHR), Pure Country (Country), Énergie (Rock in Quebec), and Rouge (AC in Quebec).

iHeart doesn’t have any local personalities in the Augusta GA market, and Columbia SC is down to one I believe. Macon and Savannah GA may not have anyone left locally either.

• Fattz & Cher are a local duo on WKSP in Augusta.
• In Columbia SC, WCOS-FM has the Morning Rush and Andy Woods, WNOK has Brodie, WVOC has Columbia's Morning News, and WXBT has Miss Monique.
• In Macon GA, WRBV has Terrence B.
• In Savannah, Kali Kold from nearby Brunswick broadcasts on WLVH, in addition to Scott Ryfun (also of Brunswick) being on WTKS. WQBT has CJ the DJ, and WYKZ has Mark Robertson.

So the above clusters are not filled to the brim with local personalities, but iHeartMedia managed to allocate local talent in some stations, even if some of them do not have particularly outrageous personalities.

 

[seatownmedia]

I think we are transitioning from local voice tracking to big market voice tracking. And in some markets to no jocks at all. Radio is not about jocks who have personality, it is about music. The target audience in general just doesn’t care anymore. Far cry from just 25-35 years ago. But guess what, historically this happens every few few decades. I must say this is not surprising.

 

[TheBigA]

I think we are transitioning from local voice tracking to big market voice tracking. And in some markets to no jocks at all.

Keep in mind that after the bankruptcy, iHeart is basically being run by its creditors. They are looking at low profit, low margin operations as drags on the value of the company. So if a market isn't meeting its numbers, they will keep cutting costs until they do.

The company that is the template for national programming is EMF. They run radio station with no local studios and no local staff. Just a tower, a transmitter, and an automation system. They seem to be very successful.

Radio is not about jocks who have personality, it is about music.

That's not really correct, and if you look at iHeart, they have invested a lot of money in on-air talent. In fact they just blew up a rock station in Dallas and replaced the music with live & local sports talk. But that's in Dallas, a market where they're making millions of dollars. That's not the case in Panama City or some of these other places. So iHeart is a company with the "haves" and the "have-nots." It's pretty obvious who's who at this point.

 

[seatownmedia]

Well of course news talk or sports need local talent. My previous opinion is describing local music stations. Sure some still do morning shows, but mostly end there with either tracks from jocks, or just imaging with no dj. I understand many bigger stations have live talent, but many big and small stations are either tracked or have no jocks at all. 25 years ago this would have been a big mistake. Today it is becoming the new normal. And I don’t think it will ever come back.

 

[TheBigA]

Well of course news talk or sports need local talent. My previous opinion is describing local music stations. Sure some still do morning shows, but mostly end there with either tracks from jocks, or just imaging with no dj.

It depends. In San Francisco, iHeart's KOSF hired former MTV VJ Martha Quinn to be the station's mid-day host. In Seattle, Hits106 has a full live & local air staff, led by Jubal in mornings. In fact most of the major markets have live & local DJs throughout the day. As I said, you have the "haves" and the "have-nots." It's all determined by how much money your market is making. If you're making money, you get to hire DJs. If you're not, then you take what you can get.

 

[seatownmedia]

That is fair. But smaller markets generally 100 plus can’t do this. My point is local programming may exist in mornings, but the rest is voicetracked

 

[TheBigA]

That is fair. But smaller markets generally 100 plus can’t do this. My point is local programming may exist in mornings, but the rest is voicetracked

I think when you look at markets 100 plus, there's simply not enough money to pay full staffs anymore. You may see a couple stations per market making enough to do it. But if stations can't access internal staffing from larger markets, you'll see more of them making deals with syndicators for other dayparts. In the meantime, these stations better start looking for other revenue streams very quickly. Maybe turn their studios into Amway showrooms or provide DJ services for weddings. Advertising is very tight, and if you can't deliver large audiences, you're struggling.

 

[Kent]

I think they are going to look at consolidation down the road. They could really just lease out sales offices and run stations geographically. Panama City and Fort Walton Beach in FL could be run from Tallahassee or Pensacola. Fort Smith and Fayetteville could be run from Tulsa or Little Rock.

I could see that, too. I really wish I'd known a month ago that iHeart sold 311 Lexington. I was actually in Ft. Smith for a day over Labor Day weekend and would've liked to have seen what that cluster's operations look like now, even if just from the outside. I always liked how Clear Channel/iHeart tried to replicate the look of the previous KWHN and KMAG studios on Garrison, which have been demolished for a gas station, when it moved to Lexington. It had the KWHN and KMAG calls that lit up at night on the STL tower. I'm guessing they didn't take that with them when they made their latest move, but that wouldn't be the first operation to decide heritage and looks don't pay the bills. From what I understand, iHeart has a cloud-based STL system, and that would pretty much negate the need for a local studio. I'm not entirely sure how well that works during an internet outage, but I assume there's a backup of some sort to the transmitter site. I hadn't stopped in Ft. Smith in almost 16 years, and it definitely looked like a town that had seen its better days. Ft. Smith was always industrial, and that industry appears all but gone today. I'd hate to be operating radio there today and trying to squeeze out a larger profit margin every year. Then again, Fred Baker does it time and again with KISR 93.7, and it's almost entirely live and local. I doubt KISR has weathered COVID without any hiccups, but it sticks to its formula and seems to be doing better than most.

Nothing would surprise me about Cumulus. KNSH in Fort Smith doesn't even rate anymore, and that's their NASH FM that they're so keen on.

Cumulus was supposedly consolidating its operations in Beaumont and Lake Charles with the studios moving to Louisiana. I'd heard the sales offices would be moving to a smaller location with no or very minimal studio operations just for production. Far as I can tell, that hasn't been completed yet. Cumulus still lists its Beaumont presence at the same location. I seem to remember hearing it was working on another consolidation in either Wisconsin or Michigan. Don't know if that's happened yet either, though.

I do find it interesting that URBan Radio selling the cluster back to Clear Channel/iHeartMedia hasn't made fanfare, even in radio industry websites. I believe the transaction was done back in 2014?

I don't remember when it happened, but you're right that it happened without making any headlines. From what I remember, the deal to URBan never ended up closing, and URBan operated Tupelo and Meridian under an LMA. That might've been why the deal falling apart didn't make fanfare. iHeart found a new buyer for Meridian but not Tupelo.

 

[exdjted]

I could see that, too. I really wish I'd known a month ago that iHeart sold 311 Lexington. I was actually in Ft. Smith for a day over Labor Day weekend and would've liked to have seen what that cluster's operations look like now, even if just from the outside. I always liked how Clear Channel/iHeart tried to replicate the look of the previous KWHN and KMAG studios on Garrison, which have been demolished for a gas station, when it moved to Lexington. It had the KWHN and KMAG calls that lit up at night on the STL tower. I'm guessing they didn't take that with them when they made their latest move, but that wouldn't be the first operation to decide heritage and looks don't pay the bills. From what I understand, iHeart has a cloud-based STL system, and that would pretty much negate the need for a local studio. I'm not entirely sure how well that works during an internet outage, but I assume there's a backup of some sort to the transmitter site. I hadn't stopped in Ft. Smith in almost 16 years, and it definitely looked like a town that had seen its better days. Ft. Smith was always industrial, and that industry appears all but gone today. I'd hate to be operating radio there today and trying to squeeze out a larger profit margin every year. Then again, Fred Baker does it time and again with KISR 93.7, and it's almost entirely live and local. I doubt KISR has weathered COVID without any hiccups, but it sticks to its formula and seems to be doing better than most.



Cumulus was supposedly consolidating its operations in Beaumont and Lake Charles with the studios moving to Louisiana. I'd heard the sales offices would be moving to a smaller location with no or very minimal studio operations just for production. Far as I can tell, that hasn't been completed yet. Cumulus still lists its Beaumont presence at the same location. I seem to remember hearing it was working on another consolidation in either Wisconsin or Michigan. Don't know if that's happened yet either, though.

I haven't been back since 1998. My Dad sold KKBD to then-Clear Channel, and KOMS went from our group to the precursor of Cumulus. I remember the engineers at Clear Channel being eager to get hold of our on-air console. If I remember correctly, it came from WPLJ in NYC, and was a showpiece. I loved the old KMAG theater.

Fort Smith was a tough market. Looks like it still is.

 

[Kelly A]

Fort Smith was a tough market. Looks like it still is.

Yep, if it was tough then, it's likely quantum levels tougher now.

 

[atthestars]

I am somewhat perplexed, though, that iHeart hasn't came up with a unified branding/station name for stations of the same format in small to medium sized markets. Especially if a lot of them share the same personalities and music scheduling.

Like in Canada, all Bell-owned AC stations are Move, and all Bell-owned adult hits stations are branded as Bounce. Also in the UK, all Global-owned ACs are branded as Heart.

For some, like pointed out before, heritage rules. No need to change KDWB or Z100 to match a national brand.
For others, it's because there might already be a station of the name they want to use in a market. KISS-FM is a rock station in San Antonio. There are Country stations that are "Kissin' Country" that would probably put up a fight for the name in other markets.
So unless the company wants to come up with a totally new brand and force it across all of their stations in all of the markets, it's tough to do currently as it is.
iHeart gets around that though by basically never having the tracked jock ID the station. Any station ID is done via imaging etc. Kind of like how Bru or Julia on Audacy's CHR's across the country handle things.