Absolutely. This isn't their first down quarter. As others have said, this is just the most recent in a series of downsizings. They still haven't turned a profit, and other parts of the company are being held down by losses on the broadcast side.
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Bertolucci Out at KFI
- Thread starter HerbNero
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Absolutely. This isn't their first down quarter. As others have said, this is just the most recent in a series of downsizings. They still haven't turned a profit, and other parts of the company are being held down by losses on the broadcast side.
FYI:
Say what you will about Seacrest, he has a strong "likeability factor." And iHeart has done a much better job than any other radio company in building name brand talent. Ryan is the Dick Clark or Larry King of this generation. The only one who comes close is Steve Harvey, and he's also an iHeart talent.
However, what he said, and granting a degree of hyperbole, is essentially true. Pittman named the three most listened to morning talents in radio today.
Seacrest is primarily known by the general public as a TV host, though, not a radio DJ. In the TV realm, I agree he does a very good job.
His voicetracked airshifts that air on various CHR/Pop and Hot AC stations, mostly in middays, are forgettable. In L.A., his numbers took a bit of a dive once Ellen K. left his show for her own shown on KOST-FM.
Bobby Bones' show airs largely on stations that were already in very good shape prior to his arrival. In any top 100 ranked market, has he converted any unsuccessful country station into a successful station by virtue of his arrival? He is certainly very successful, but in most cases, he was handed the proverbial keys to morning drive on stations that were already very successful stations. In situations where that hasn't been the case (Chicago, Boston, Denver, and San Francisco as examples), his numbers have been mediocre.
I am surprised Steve Harvey's name was not mentioned by Pittman. That would have been a credible name. Harvey's radio success pre-dates his mainstream television success, too.
It really doesn't matter. He's a known national talent, more so than Ellen K or anyone else at KIIS. People know who he is, and have formed an opinion, which is what Pittman was saying.
So what? None of those people had the national name recognition that Bones now has. That's Pittman's point. Bones did it the others before him did, using multiple media outlets beyond radio.
You're looking at these people in terms of their local success, not that they've become the national successors to Larry King or Casey Kasem. I can't think of any hosts at any other company, Cumulus, Townsquare, or Audacy, who can claim that level of national recognition. Radio alone doesn't have the ability to create national personalities the way TV does. That's been true for a long time. That's what Pittman was saying. People know and like these people. For radio to survive, it will need to expand beyond its own limited geography. That's what iHeart is doing. It's fine to be a local hero, but we're living in a national or even global media world.
The way it once did, straight up.
So it's mostly about apps and streaming going forward? How will terrestrial (or radio) and the internet play off each other long term? Is radio to become the big tipping service for the global internet? Or is the internet to be the TIVO for radio? Can the internet ever really function in part as a one to many platform? The podcasting IMO is too damned fragmented and provincial or insular for wide appeal, although much more interesting to listen to. Radio is best for general entertainment and sound quality, but the ads are drying up within it. Heaven help us!
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It's been a long time. Video killed the radio star.
My view is it's not one or the other, it's both. The way to have an impact is to be everywhere. That takes a big company with a lot of resources.
That's not the driving force, no. When Spotify or Apple try to do linear radio, they fail. People want what they want when they want it, and they want it for free. So it's up to media companies to provide what the people want. What we're talking about is also affecting TV, with companies looking to get out of 24/7 channels and instead provide on-demand programming.
That's why you need all of it, and you can't put all your eggs in one basket. That's what's going on now at iHeart. They were spending way too much money on broadcast radio, and it's not growing. The revenue at KFI wasn't enough to pay for all local talent plus a single-station PD. Something had to give. Advertisers are looking to reach mass audiences, and it's up to these radio companies to put together a package that works.
Not that you're wrong about anything in your post, but we need to remember that in two months, Ryan Seacrest will have been the morning talent at KIIS-FM, a legendary CHR in Los Angeles, for TWENTY years. He's within three years of Rick Dees' tenure in that job.
We should also note that it was his radio job (at LA's KYSR when it was Star 98.7) that got him the job with Idol.
Speaking of Dees, he of course got national recognition thanks to a #1 song Disco Duck. That's how he got to LA and ultimately national recognition.
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But before idol and kiss 102.7 in the late nineties Ryan Seacrest had a small role as a game show host on Beverly Hills 90210.
MassMusicMan
Banned
Read the chapter entitled "Host" in David Foster Wallace's "Consider the Lobster."
Thanks for that. It's a great look into what talk radio (and KFI) once was. I remember what it was like then. Not like that now.
That's what talk radio was like when radio operated from a position of courage and strength. When it didn't worry about advertising or bankruptcy. Not like that now. That was sort of the last golden era, before the financial crash of 2008.
It's a matter of perspective. Running TWO syndicated shows (Rush and Dr. Laura) doesn't constitute a golden era for me.
It was when, in 2010, I drove to Los Angeles for a friend's wedding and found LIVE/LOCAL talk on air at 9:30 PM (the Conway Show) that I was stunned. And then returned home to keep listening in the iHeart app (new to smartphone ownership) to find that other than Limbaugh, it was LIVE/LOCAL pretty much all day long. And then they dumped Limbaugh, and it was LIVE/LOCAL all day.
I'd say we've been living the golden era right up until last week.
It was when, in 2010, I drove to Los Angeles for a friend's wedding and found LIVE/LOCAL talk on air at 9:30 PM (the Conway Show) that I was stunned. And then returned home to keep listening in the iHeart app (new to smartphone ownership) to find that other than Limbaugh, it was LIVE/LOCAL pretty much all day long. And then they dumped Limbaugh, and it was LIVE/LOCAL all day.
I'd say we've been living the golden era right up until last week.
There was a time when Rush had a show that stations WANTED to carry. They dropped their local shows and paid cash money to get it. It wasn't about local or syndicated. It was about being good. As I said, it was a very different time. They didn't carry it to save money, but to make money. That's a hard thing to grasp now. That changed in 2014. That's when KFI banished him to his own private island. KEIB. He no longer fit KFI's format.
Also some of their advertisers probably didn’t want anything to do with his show.
That is OK. He managed to fit the format at over 600 other stations.
He single handedly changed talk radio. In that way, he WAS the format at those stations. Just not at KFI.
America's most-overexposed broadcaster. Kinda like Arthur Godfrey in his prime.
Richard Wagoner interviewed Robin Bertolucci, and she apparently resigned ahead of the layoffs knowing her husband was going to be let go, as a stand of solidarity with him.
www.dailynews.com
KFI’s holiday layoffs underscore the problem with iHeart Media leadership
Plus, a radio mystery causing listeners to hear audio errors.
www.dailynews.com
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