A Citadel Syracuse Manager leaving?

[youthinkyouknowradio]

Ed Levine thinks he can talk his way out of anything. One day the sarcasim will catch up with him. He got what was coming to him in Albany...it will happen in his other markets one day. He had two decent signals in Albany. I drove through and listened a few times....they sounded good. That was most likley the doing of what ever manager he had in place at the end...we know he had no clue in Albany. Let's not forget he took a rock station that was at least consistant in the market and from what I was told listeners seemed to like...and a classic country station that was damn close to a 3.0 share and blew em up. That will teach ya to listen to some consultant who took ya money and ran Ed.

 

[yugoidar]

Genius. Pure, unadulterated genius. I hope you station owners are paying attention to this, because it's the kind of outside-of-the-box thinking you need to embrace in today's radio climate.

Biggus, you might be onto something!

Do the posts of RockinScience remind anyone else of the posts of that CC cheerleader of a couple of years back known as "The Genius"?

Whatever happened to the smart guy? Did he end up going to work for the Citadel gang?

 

[BobRoss]

Don't know about any managers leaving, but looks like at least one jock is being "temporarily" sidelined:
http://www.cnyradio.com/2008/11/18/93q-drops-big-jim-donovan

Kind of scary... we've seen the headlines about cuts here and there, but they've been mostly "there" and not so much "here" until now. Especially considering 93Q is like the bread and butter for Citadel Syracuse. The cluster already has an unfilled opening at WLTI (no morning show or PD since Dave Allen was canned) and they barely have anything local on WNSS (besides Brent Axe, who I assume is considered part-time).

So you have 4 stations generating income, and only 2 stations (93Q and 95X) have full-time air staffs to pay for. Granted, beyond 93Q the rest of the stations have mediocre ratings, but still...

I'm also surprised they didn't cut from 95X or go after part-timers first.

 

[RockinScience]

If you think that this is happening to JUST Citadel, you're naive, stupid or perhaps both. Auto Dealer advertising accounts for 20% of every dollar spent on radio in this market. That Auto Biz is down by over 30%.

What happens when 20% of your revenue is zapped from the coffers? You cull something for the good of the herd. Sorry Big Jim. That's the way it works. Although according to CIT every effort will be made to bring him back to the fold when the economy turns.

Define mediocre ratings for 95X? I guess you haven't seen the summer 08 arbitron numbers??? X is one of the top 5 stations in the market in the demos that matter. Remember nobody buys 12+ (Although being tied for 6th ain't bad out of how many stations in 'cuse??? in that group) I'll take 4th in Adults 18-54 any day of the week.

Wait till the fall book comes out after KROCK spent ZERO promotional dollars in the market!

 

[RomeToupee]

Are you ready for "Tom and Amy" mornings? How about "Ted and Tom"?

Somebody's going.My guess is that it isn't the Sales Manager as she is "connected"!

 

[SirRoxalot]

Citadel Cuts

This is happening throughout Citadel by corporate edict. The "we'll bring you back when business turns around" ploy is fatuous at best. What it really says is that local management didn't want to make the move, and might even consider the move one that will cost them more money than they'll save.

Meanwhile, Farid collects his millions....

 

[BobRoss]

If you think that this is happening to JUST Citadel, you're naive, stupid or perhaps both. Auto Dealer advertising accounts for 20% of every dollar spent on radio in this market. That Auto Biz is down by over 30%.

Never said this was just Citadel... in fact, I had said it was happening all over the country. This is just the first time we've seen someone notable getting an economy-related pink slip here, in this area. Anyone else I can think of who exited a station lately, was either fired for poor performance or conduct, or left on their own.

As far as broadcasting is concerned, I think sales managers could take away a good lesson from all of this. Don't make the mistake of relying on one single industry or sector for making up the bulk of your sales. I know it's a tough situation, because it's rare to find any other business willing to spend so much. And because any dollars YOU don't get will surely wind up in another station's hands. But this is the trap you fall into when you rely so heavily on one category of business.

If revenues are down 20%, yes, it makes sense to cut 20% of your expenses. Considering Big Jim has been there 16 years (and the 2 people who follow his show have been there for a shorter time) he was likely making more than 20% of the total air-staff budget. And with CHR stations targeting mostly teens who are (or should be) in school during the middle of the day anyhow, it makes sense to eliminate the midday guy, in order to keep afternoons and nights intact.

SirRoxalot has a good point though -- I can't stand the hypocrisy of top-level corporate managers putting people out of work, while continuing to collect their full salaries and bonuses. They already make more than enough to live comfortably, even if they ditched their bonuses and took a 10% pay cut on top of that. Yet, they choose to be greedy while they fire local rank-and-filers, who often barely make enough to rent an apartment, let alone buy a house or raise a family.

 

[SirRoxalot]

The math is simple. If you make $50K, you actually cost your employer around $75K with taxes, benefits, etc.

For every million dollar bonus that goes to one of the guys who overspent for stations and put the whole enterprise at risk because the company's over leveraged, about 13 people lose their jobs. Since $50K is above the average for radio, it's probably more like 15 people who get bumped for every million that goes to a guy like Farid.

Farid's total compensation for this year will be about $11.2 million. You do the math.