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Toucher & Rich bring back laid-off producer

I heard that this morning. Evidently Beasley is charging them more than just the salary.
Rich said he would have had to arrive 1 hour early to handle production otherwise.
 
I heard that this morning. Evidently Beasley is charging them more than just the salary.
Rich said he would have had to arrive 1 hour early to handle production otherwise.
the FICA employer contribution, workman's comp, FMLA, sick leave, etc etc etc

the true cost of an employee is always wages plus about 40%

I don't know if Beasley (BBGI) and their managers are that dumb or that desperate with all these layoffs.

Pretty decent article in the Globe



Now normally I'd say at their next contract negotiation renewal T&R would not only get a a producer of their choice and paid for by BBGI in the contract, or they could go the Stern route and take a set amount with an escalator clause and bonuses for ratings and run the show themselves, paying the staff out of the pile of money.

But everything I have read about Beasley, everything I have heard, everything I have been told by current and former employees since the CBS/Beasley swaps that were announced 8 years ago right around this time is that Beasley is a cheap outfit to work for, loyalty means nothing, that they are quick to fire and slow to hire. As someone mentioned recently "Measley" is an appropriate and well used name for the company by insiders. Beasley is so dumb they would sh*tcan T&R if they thought they could bring up the dopes from Detroit they have parked on WBOS, and there is no doubt in my mind Carolyn Beasley and upper management would dump T&R without giving it a thought

Just ask Julie Devereaux , June Knight, Paula Street, Mason Dixon, or Paul Jaxon, or a whole bunch of other folk that have been Beasley'd over the past couple of years
 
This is the right way to do it. We talked about this in the WMMR thread in Philadelphia. Some morning shows are hired as outside contractors. That's how Howard Stern worked. His entire team worked for him, and he had a contract with Infinity to deliver a show.

I don't know if Beasley (BBGI) and their managers are that dumb or that desperate with all these layoffs.

Nobody wants to lay off staff. Especially family companies who don't answer to stockholders. This advertising situation is very bad. People don't realize how bad it is. There aren't a lot of fixed costs these stations can't cut, and their utilities and insurance are going up due to inflation. You have to adjust somehow, and the only option is salaries.
 
Are BBGI's executives taking salary reductions? I'll hang up and listen. 🥸

It's a privately owned family company. None of that is public information. They haven't done interviews on the subject. If its like most private company, most of their salary is based on revenue. If it's dropping, so is their salary. They're the ones taking the risk. They're the ones liable and responsible.
 
Jokes from their form 10-k
As of February 16, 2022, we had a staff of 811 full-time employees and 349 part-time employees. We are a party to two separate collective bargaining agreements with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Both agreements automatically renew for successive one-year periods unless either party gives a notice of proposed termination at least sixty days prior to a renewal date. We are also a party to a collective bargaining agreement with the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 262. This agreement applies only to certain of our employees at one radio station in Boston. The initial term of the collective bargaining agreement expired on July 16, 2021 however, it automatically renews for successive one-year periods unless either party gives a notice of proposed modification or termination at least sixty days prior to the expiration date or a subsequent renewal date. We consider our relations with our employees to be good.



.


We have debt that is substantial in relation to our equity. As of December 31, 2021, we had long-term debt of $300.0 million and equity of $263.1 million. Our long-term debt is substantial in amount and could have an impact on you.



Our business depends upon the continued efforts, abilities and expertise of our executive officers and other key employees. The unique combination of skills and experience possessed by our key executives would be difficult to replace, and the loss of a key executive could impair our ability to execute our operating and acquisition strategies.

In addition, we compete for creative and performing on-air talent with other radio stations and radio station groups, radio networks, and other providers of syndicated content and other media such as broadcast television, cable television, satellite television, the internet, podcast producers and satellite radio. Our ability to attract and retain key personnel is an important aspect of our competitiveness. Our employees and other on-air talent are subject to change and may be lost to competitors or for other reasons. Any adverse changes in particular programs, formats or on-air talent could have a material adverse effect on our ratings and our ability to attract advertisers, which would negatively impact our business, financial condition or results of operations.


As Chief Executive Officer at BEASLEY BROADCAST GROUP INC, Caroline Beasley made $2,889,133 in total compensation. Of this total $1,244,907 was received as a salary, $1,250,000 was received as a bonus, $0 was received in stock options, $369,500 was awarded as stock and $24,726 came from other types of compensation. This information is according to proxy statements filed for the 2021 fiscal year.
 
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Nobody wants to lay off staff. Especially family companies who don't answer to stockholders. This advertising situation is very bad. People don't realize how bad it is. There aren't a lot of fixed costs these stations can't cut, and their utilities and insurance are going up due to inflation. You have to adjust somehow, and the only option is salaries.
Layoffs are a bad look. People who have survived the last round start looking at opportunities elsewhere, and outside talent gives pause to joining.
 
Layoffs are a bad look. People who have survived the last round start looking at opportunities elsewhere, and outside talent gives pause to joining.

That's their choice. Not a lot of jobs right now that offer salary & benefits. The best bet is to become self-employed and offer your services on a contract basis. That way these companies don't have to pay insurance and the rest. Insurance is a killer. Up 20% this past year.
 
As someone mentioned recently "Measley" is an appropriate and well used name for the company by insiders. Beasley is so dumb they would sh*tcan T&R if they thought they could bring up the dopes from Detroit they have parked on WBOS

The former is patently false (at least in Boston); as for the latter, they're quite popular and successful in their target demo.
 
This is an interesting power play by Beasley. As stated here, the ad market is punk and the success of 98.5 is off the charts...

T&R is #1 and yes it’s AM drive, but I suspect this situation is very different than most other AM drive success stories: We might be overestimating here the actual value of T&R from Beasley perspective.

Beasley, I suspect believes IT holds all the cards as long as it has Felger & Mazz and the sports broadcast rights. Period. Don’t agree?:
Look at ALL the day parts. Look at those mid day numbers and the evening numbers. I don’t see much difference all day and night frankly,

Toucher and Rich—and others— clearly benefit from this halo. Sure, Beasley WANTS them and likes them. But on ITS terms and I don’t think T&R have nearly the leverage those numbers would almost always, otherwise, imply.
Theres a passive/aggressive statement here: the implication is clear to all employees not named Felger.
 
Maybe you haven't noticed but this situation is bigger than Boston. It's also bigger than Beasley.

None of this would be happening if revenues for this year had been stable.
I did notice and I referenced the macro right off the top.

Point is, Beasley had many options for reducing costs….doing something they knew would cause an uproar with the AM drive team….saving VERY little money in the process... well, they did it. And they stand by it. There‘s a message there to T&R: we drive the bus, you’re passengers, and you’re not the reason we’re #1. You’re beneficiaries of that fact.
 
Corporate Expenses increased by about $1 million YoY when comparing 1H 2022 to 1H 2021.

Perhaps Beasley family members need to spend less on travel and perks for themselves.

In the first half of 2022, the company generated roughly $8 million in adjusted EBITDA. That's not even enough to cover cash-pay interest expense of $12.9 million (per supplemental information section of statement of cash flows).

In the first half of 2021, the company generated roughly $8.5 million in adjusted EBITDA. So, yeah, YTD 2022 is down, but it's not the cataclysmic drop BigA is depicting (what happened to all the political ad spend that radio used to earn? I guess politicians and lobbying organizations in increasing number no longer view radio as a wise buy). Performance already was stinking a year ago, yet Caroline received a bonus equal to 100 percent of her salary.

There are clearly other considerations in play relative to the recent actions:

1) Perhaps a leverage ratio covenant is in danger of being breached soon? I need to do more research on that question. Generally, debt agreements for publicly traded broadcasters do not contain minimum interest coverage or minimum debt service coverage covenants, so the crappy interest coverage ratio should not be an issue, but I cannot say that with 100 percent certainty until I dig deeper into public SEC filings. Net leverage (i.e. [funded debt, less cash -- sometimes subject to a cap], divided by adjusted ebitda) and/or net secured leverage are much more commonly tested.

2) The company is in decent shape from a cash standpoint as of June 30, 2022, but that's mainly due to a recapitalization in first half 2021 that created roughly $35 million in new cash. The company has burned through about $11 million in cash between 6/30/21 and 6/30/22 and reported about $46 million of remaining cash on hand as of June 30, 2022. I'm sure recent staff cuts are intended to alleviate the cash burn situation. Again, would be nice if executive compensation were reduced as an act of goodwill. Bob Pittman took a significant compensation reduction in 2020, I might add.
 
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I will add that it would not surprise me if Ms. Beasley's bonus last year was due in large part to the successful recapitalization.
 
There‘s a message there to T&R: we drive the bus, you’re passengers, and you’re not the reason we’re #1. You’re beneficiaries of that fact.

The message to T&R is what they did, which was incorporate the producer expense with their show fee. That was the right move, and is how most successful morning shows operate.
 
So, yeah, YTD 2022 is down, but it's not the cataclysmic drop BigA is depicting (what happened to all the political ad spend that radio used to earn?

You're looking at national numbers. The cuts were made on a market by market basis, set by revenue shortfalls in those markets, not set by national figures.

Again, would be nice if executive compensation were reduced as an act of goodwill. Bob Pittman took a significant compensation reduction in 2020, I might add.

You're comparing a public company (going through bankruptcy) with a private family company. Two very different things.
 
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