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Beasley is making Audacy look good

Beasley's debt problem did not happen overnight but has been building for years. A lot of the problems are the same as every other media outlet; things like the Covid pandemic, changing media habits, more entities competing for the same piece of a non-expanding pie. Like so many of the big operators (Cumulus, iHeart, etc.) they have put gobs of money into things that don't make them money. Things like large performance spaces and palatial studios where they no longer have local talent to use them. The audience and advertisers don't really care about these blandishments.

Beasley also made a bunch of bone headed decisions (they purchased an e-sports team, sold off a number of low revenue but profitable stations in order to raise quick cash, counted on digital media to save their bacon, and so on.)

Many of these are industry-wide problems made worse by what might be considered bad management.

The question now is: How does Beasley (and the rest of the industry) dig them selves out of this hole?
 
PTBoardOp93 said:
> Beasley in theory should not be levereaged but...............

Beasley has significant debt problems, much like the other big radio chains. I'm not ready to say they will file bankruptcy, but it is a possibility. Let's say they're hoping for a big $$$ political season for their stations in Charlotte, Philly, Vegas & Detroit.
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I think it's safe to say that all major radio and TV groups are praying for an avalanche of political. For radio in particular, that hasn't happened yet.
 
bigdonho said:
Things like large performance spaces and palatial studios where they no longer have local talent to use them. The audience and advertisers don't really care about these blandishments.
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The audience isn't the customer. Advertisers are.
bigdonho said:
Beasley also made a bunch of bone headed decisions (they purchased an e-sports team, sold off a number of low revenue but profitable stations in order to raise quick cash, counted on digital media to save their bacon, and so on.)
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Low revenue and profitability aren't a real thing. It should be high, or respectable revenue that well exceeds expenses for the given market. That's what profit is.
bigdonho said:
Many of these are industry-wide problems made worse by what might be considered bad management.
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Really? Do you have an inside track on how Beasley's management performs alongside its competitors?
bigdonho said:
The question now is: How does Beasley (and the rest of the industry) dig them selves out of this hole?
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Neither of us can predict the future, but I'd say using their renovated regional facilities to generate unique and popular programming that can be sponsored or subscribed-to, would be a good start.
 
Kelly A said:
Really? Do you have an inside track on how Beasley's management performs alongside its competitors?
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I had the opportunity to be invited to the Beasley tables at the fall NAB in New York. I got to talk to a number of their managers, from the huge Boston cluster to several smaller ones such as the non-metro NJ groups. I was impressed by each of them and by the spirit of the group as a whole, and particularly by Caroline Beasley's management style.
 
Kelly A said:
It's amazing how many women in particular, made comments like: 'I just know that when I press this button on my radio, I hear the kind of music I like.' Same went for local TV stations...
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I find that is true about some cable TV viewers here in CT. On cable, Channel 30 (called NBC Connecticut) is on 4 and Fox 61 is on 6. I'm surprised about the amount of friends who say they are watching Channel 4 or Channel 6.
 
DavidEduardo said:
I had the opportunity to be invited to the Beasley tables at the fall NAB in New York. I got to talk to a number of their managers, from the huge Boston cluster to several smaller ones such as the non-metro NJ groups. I was impressed by each of them and by the spirit of the group as a whole, and particularly by Caroline Beasley's management style.
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And that's the thing; these opinions about how some radio group management are just a bunch of 'fat cats' playing with what amounts to Monopoly money while driving beloved radio into the ground. It frankly pisses me off. Group owner management is people like anyone else trying to do the best at their job. If market conditions change and it takes time to adjust a business that is over 100 years old, it's not fair to point fingers like you know what you're talking about. That's especially true if one amounts to a know it all member of the public on some obscure radio discussion board.
I'd like to see someone who chastises Beasley corporate management say it to their face, at least after meeting them first.
 
Bill-in-CT said:
I find that is true about some cable TV viewers here in CT. On cable, Channel 30 (called NBC Connecticut) is on 4 and Fox 61 is on 6. I'm surprised about the amount of friends who say they are watching Channel 4 or Channel 6.
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In some markets, UHF stations identify with their cable channel. In San Diego, "NBC 7" is really KNSD/39. The two oldest stations in Palm Springs originally identified as "channel 3" and "channel 6" and even got dual channel bullets in the newspaper television listings section. Ditto the three major network stations in Bakersfield, who got the syndicated "TV Week" guide that many papers provided rather than have to do it themselves, to do the same thing.

Why are you surprised that people would refer to a station by the channel number they access it by?
 
DavidEduardo said:
I had the opportunity to be invited to the Beasley tables at the fall NAB in New York. I got to talk to a number of their managers, from the huge Boston cluster to several smaller ones such as the non-metro NJ groups. I was impressed by each of them and by the spirit of the group as a whole, and particularly by Caroline Beasley's management style.
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Interesting. Would you care to expound?
 
K.M. Richards said:
In some markets, UHF stations identify with their cable channel. In San Diego, "NBC 7" is really KNSD/39. The two oldest stations in Palm Springs originally identified as "channel 3" and "channel 6" and even got dual channel bullets in the newspaper television listings section. Ditto the three major network stations in Bakersfield, who got the syndicated "TV Week" guide that many papers provided rather than have to do it themselves, to do the same thing.
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Palm Springs has two different and in many cases parallel cable companies, along with a lot of satellite TV. On each service, the channel assignments are
different.
 
TheBigA said:
Meanwhile Beasley is launching a local news site in Augusta GA where it owns several radio stations:

radioink.com

Beasley Expands Digital News Footprint With Augusta Today - Radio Ink

As the broadcaster bolsters its digital presence, Beasley Media Group has officially launched Augusta Today, a new online news site.
radioink.com radioink.com

Might they do the same in Boston? I would bet yes.
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Theres too much .. way too much media competition in Boston from much more established sources.

The places where a digital news paper from radio has worked real well is where theres alot less competition. Look at the Eagle stations in NE, KS, etc.. I know one cluster alone made over $5000 a month in small city nebraska on digital alone
 
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TheBigA said:
Perhaps that's what's killing things like DCist. On the other hand, the #1 local news site in DC is WTOP.com.

www.washingtonian.com

DCist Has Been Shut Down Again, This Time by WAMU - Washingtonian

WAMU plans to "shift away from digital publishing." 15 layoffs will accompany the closure.
www.washingtonian.com www.washingtonian.com
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WTOP has been doing it awhile and theyre a news station 24/7

Eagle has very few all news/talk stations, but they have also been doing their local digital newspapers for awhile...... some of them have little to no truly local tv signals.. skimulcasts from larger markets or very little tv compeition and not a ton of radio competition
 
DavidEduardo said:
Palm Springs has two different and in many cases parallel cable companies, along with a lot of satellite TV. On each service, the channel assignments are
different.
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That must be why the dual bullets, etc. stopped being used. Maybe there was only one dominant provider back when that was implemented.
Still, it is an example of why people would refer to a station by its cable channel number, in an area where the predominant viewing was not OTA.
 
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