Cape Cod & Islands Anyone left at iHeart Cape Cod cluster?

[spt87]

WCIB and WCOD morning shows are now both sourced from Providence stations with Joe Rosati and Nina Jackson gone. Kevin Matthews is back to PM drive on COD. I read this on fybush.com

I'll admit I don't really care since I have refused to listen to any of the iHeart CC stations since the last purge in January 2020. It seems for on air staff about all that is left on 4 stations is Kevin Matthews and Ed Lambert plus maybe one news person. Must be a depressing place to work for the few that remain.

Interesting that WQRC/WOCN have a stronger local news presence than "Newsradio" 95 WXTK.

 

[Kent]

I'll admit I don't really care since I have refused to listen to any of the iHeart CC stations since the last purge in January 2020. It seems for on air staff about all that is left on 4 stations is Kevin Matthews and Ed Lambert plus maybe one news person. Must be a depressing place to work for the few that remain.

If iHeart has two people in Cape Code, that's more than it employs in some of its other markets. There's another thread (I believe on the national board) that talks about iHeart stations that have no local personalities. A handful of those clusters are in larger and higher revenue markets than Cape Cod. There are also larger markets that have only one or two local staffers.

I realize operating fully staffed stations in every market isn't economically feasible, but I don't know how you cut your way to profitability when you're cutting your cheapest people everywhere.

 

[ScottBurns]

I am surprised that iHeart hasn't just created a simulcast for B101 and Cool 102. The playlists are often identical anyway, played at the same time ("B101...at 101.5 in Providence and 101.9 on the Cape").

Just sad how these stations have been gutted.

 

[N1WVQ]

I am surprised that iHeart hasn't just created a simulcast for B101 and Cool 102. The playlists are often identical anyway, played at the same time ("B101...at 101.5 in Providence and 101.9 on the Cape").

Just sad how these stations have been gutted.

Too true! 101.9 was great when I was in high school as it was just music in the morning; no stupid morning show! Even into the 2000s it was about the only station worth listening to, & they played a LOT of Buffett! Now, it’s a wasted signal!

 

[TheBigA]

I realize operating fully staffed stations in every market isn't economically feasible, but I don't know how you cut your way to profitability when you're cutting your cheapest people everywhere.

What would you do when there's no growth in broadcast revenues and costs keep increasing? That's no way to be profitable either.

There are two ways to increase revenue in radio: Add more commercials or increase the price so it's beyond the reach of local business. That's why their only real choice is to cut expenses.

 

[Kent]

What would you do when there's no growth in broadcast revenues and costs keep increasing? That's no way to be profitable either.

If I were cutting, I'd be cutting more from the top. Don't know if iHeart is doing this, but I know Cumulus, under the previous regime, cut tons of people at the low end of the pay scale while corporate was generally exempted. Those corporate offices in Buckhead were lavish while little was invested in many of the individual properties.

Again, I don’t know if iHeart corporate has seen the same level of cuts local markets have, but I can’t remember reading any articles about senior management there forgoing bonuses or raises. From the outside, it looks a lot like Cumulus looked 15 years ago.

 

[TheBigA]

If I were cutting, I'd be cutting more from the top.

iHeart is a big company, involved in a lot more than just local radio. The radio stations' budget is based on what they take in. The top part of the company benefits from other more profitable businesses. No reason why they should give up their money because of losses in Cape Cod.

But you avoided my question: Which do you prefer? More commercials or increase the price? Those are the only options.

 

[Kent]

iHeart is a big company, involved in a lot more than just local radio. The radio stations' budget is based on what they take in. The top part of the company benefits from other more profitable businesses. No reason why they should give up their money because of losses in Cape Cod.

Cape Cod is merely a small market in the iHeart chain. I wouldn’t make my decisions based on that market alone either. I don’t see top part of the company making tons of money elsewhere either. Maybe podcasting and the web portion of the business is really some big cash cow for the company, but it certainly doesn’t look that way. The expenses are high, revenue per impression is low, and margins are tiny.

But you avoided my question: Which do you prefer? More commercials or increase the price?

Actually, I didn’t because I'm not opposed to cuts at the local level in and of themselves. That wasn’t the point I was making. You've dealt with me enough to know I've spent my share of time in for-profit business. My point was that cutting at the lowest salary levels rarely makes up for losses and rarely makes a business significantly more profitable. If you want to know what I'd do if I were managing or owned that cluster, I honestly don’t know, and I'm glad I'm not involved in it. I realize iHeart is probably charging as much as it can get, and raising prices isn’t likely an option. It's probably also airing as many commercials as it can. I remember the old Brill Media had the philosophy that you weren’t sold out if you were playing music. That led to bankruptcy. Problem is, how much more can it cut? iHeart has already cut all the local airstaff in a number of its markets, and, if it cuts any more, it’s going to have to start cutting people who make their own paychecks and bring in the sales.

 

[TheBigA]

Cape Cod is merely a small market in the iHeart chain. I wouldn’t make my decisions based on that market alone either. I don’t see top part of the company making tons of money elsewhere either.

Since the bankruptcy, the company is owned by the lenders. They hire top management and decide how much they get paid. It's not like top management is paying themselves. They answer directly to the banks and investors. If you choose to work for a company like that, you know how the game is played. Also if you're an employee in Cape Cod, you get the same benefits as an employee in Boston. We know the Boston office takes in a lot more money and can afford those high insurance costs. The office in Cape Cod, with its seasonal residents, has a tougher time meeting those expenses. That's why they want to cut full timers. My cousin has a house on the Cape, and he's only there a few months a year. Most local businesses shut down during the winter. Yet radio has to stay on the air. These are the choices the market manager makes, and why staffing in Cape Cod is down. Sure, iHeart could sell to a local owner, but the situation would be exactly the same. They might have local staff, but they'd get paid a lot less.

 

[Kent]

If you choose to work for a company like that, you know how the game is played.

My experience has been that business is pretty much the same no matter the business or who owns it. Ultimately, your job is to keep the fat guy fat. Whether it's a local or national company or whether it's private or public, if the fat guy's belt starts getting too loose, he gets mad. I've always found private companies to be a little better than public ones in terms of how they treat people, but they’re capable of the same deeds that the boards of directors at publicly traded companies are.

Also if you're an employee in Cape Cod, you get the same benefits as an employee in Boston. We know the Boston office takes in a lot more money and can afford those high insurance costs.

Last I'd heard, each of the top-10 stations in Boston takes in more revenue than all of Cape Cod.

The office in Cape Cod, with its seasonal residents, has a tougher time meeting those expenses. That's why they want to cut full timers. My cousin has a house on the Cape, and he's only there a few months a year. Most local businesses shut down during the winter. Yet radio has to stay on the air. These are the choices the market manager makes, and why staffing in Cape Cod is down. Sure, iHeart could sell to a local owner, but the situation would be exactly the same. They might have local staff, but they'd get paid a lot less.

As much as I'd love to see local owners start taking those clusters over, that train left a long time ago. It's not coming back, and most everyone knows it. Cape Cod has always been a difficult place to make money. Cape Cod Broadcasting had a bankruptcy about 15 years ago, and I seem to remember reading about turnover in the other cluster around there, too. I’m sure iHeart would sell that cluster if it could find a buyer, but that buyer probably doesn’t exist. The old Clear Channel wanted out of markets the size of Cape Cod years ago. It was going to sell most of its markets below about 100, but, even before the Great Recession, it couldn’t find any takers for most of them, at least not at the prices it was wanting. It only went into Cape Cod because it did a swap with Qantum and Connoisseur for WALK 97.5. I can think of plenty of markets that had reputations for being difficult, yet people overpaid to get into them after the Telecommunications Act passed. I'm sure it looked good at the time, but I don’t think too many of them saw the results they wanted or needed. Most of them ended up with clusters of six or seven underperforming stations instead of three or four.

 

[TheBigA]

My experience has been that business is pretty much the same no matter the business or who owns it. Ultimately, your job is to keep the fat guy fat.

The way to solve that problem is to become the fat guy. I think radio would be different if DJs were entrepreneurs who were paid a percentage rather than a salary. I know a few who have that deal. They live a very different life.

 

[Kent]

The way to solve that problem is to become the fat guy. I think radio would be different if DJs were entrepreneurs who were paid a percentage rather than a salary. I know a few who have that deal. They live a very different life.

If you could tell people how to do that, you'd be one of the fattest cats to ever walk this planet.

The problem is, in order to become the fat guy, you generally already have to be fat. Building a successful business almost always takes a lot of money. While all of us have heard of people going from nothing to wealth on a good idea, those people are the exception, not the rule. We pay those people to share their stories because so few of them exist. The reality is those people had a good idea and even better luck. Far more concepts fail than succeed, and a sizable number of those failures were good ideas. I'll grant you a lot of people overestimate the potential of their own bad ideas, but failure in and of itself isn’t an indictment of the concept.