Shareholders don't have anything to do with management. This past week, Entercom's President announced a big list of management promotions, all from within Entercom. David Field's people will have the upper hand in decision making.
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Buddy's WECK?
- Thread starter yugoidar
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Shareholders don't have anything to do with management. This past week, Entercom's President announced a big list of management promotions, all from within Entercom. David Field's people will have the upper hand in decision making.
Technically, it's a merger under the terms of a special provision of the tax code that avoids any capital gains for CBS, since they are spinning the radio division off to their own shareholders. The company in control is Entercom. The company that will, and has, appointed the new management structure is Entercom.
In any case, CBS radio ceases to exist as an operating entity. Entercom is the surviving company, and Entercom runs the show.
Regarding Entercom-CBS, I would have responded as Mssrs. Gleason and A. It's a Reverse Morris Trust maneuver, but, Like Sniff and the Tears, Entercom management will be in the driver's seat. BTW, did anybody notice that Entercom, in last week's investors' call, has promised to increase the dollar amount of synergies from $25 million to $100 million. That could effect the Buffalo and Rochester clusters. It sure caught this poster's attention! BTW, WBEN didn't make my list of stations not because it's AM, not FM. I chose WBFO because of trust, content, habit and style preference. I do occasionally listen to WBEN, but did not listen during the "survey week" which ran Monday-Sunday.
That's a good observation. People on this board noticed when Lew Dickey talked about synergies. I really don't expect a lot of additional synergies from a market where there aren't any new properties. But one change I'd expect specifically at WBEN would be podcasts. If they're not doing them now, they WILL be doing them soon.
As veterans at the former CBS Buffalo stations will remember (if any remain), they did things very differently from a lot of other radio-only companies. I'm sure David Field has seen some managerial economies in the CBS clusters. I bet there are $25 million of synergies in the NYC cluster alone. Especially if he outsources a lot of the digital business.
What's the "survey week"?
as mentioned in my OP, the company asked a few employees if they would "keep track of the radio stations they listened to next week". It wasn't an official rating survey. More of a company questionnaire. Reminded me of when we were in school and the teachers and principal asked parents and students what radio stations they listened to for school closings, when school closings on the radio were really a major item. Kids listed two or three AM or FM stations that played Top 40. Parents listed the big AM MOR station that played Andy Williams. Hah, just recalling that makes me feel old.
As some of the others have mentioned, in a Reverse Morris Trust, the acquirer essentially sells to the target, which has agreed to replace its management with the acquirer's. The agreement specifies the exact terms, and the shareholders vote on them. So, the management will be Entercom and Entercom-approved managers.
The Sears/K-Mart merger from a little more than 10 years ago was also a Reverse Morris Trust. It was Sears management that took over, and it's gone only a little better than the Citadel/ABC deal.
Yugo: I also subscribe to AllAccess...and trust me when I tell you this: ONLY the stations that are in clusters pop up. That excludes WECK and WBFO(not chain-owned and public, respectively, as to the reason why). (Another example, though out of market: WEHP(Happi 92.7)/Erie, PA doesn't show up in that city's ratings race; it's owned by Erie Radio Company...and they only list the Connoisseur & Cumulus stations. In Rochester, however, WDKX/103.9 does appear despite not being owned by a cluster.)
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Wrong. Doesn't matter whether it's a corporate owner or a single-station owner - they have to buy the book for the numbers to show up in publications like ALL ACCESS.
To put it a little differently than Rob, if Buddy Shula wanted to be published in the "beauty pageant" ratings listed above, he has the option of sending Nielsen a very large check. I imagine Nielsen's sales force calls Buddy every few weeks to remind him of this fact.
Most of the big chains (iHeart, Cumulus, CBS, etc) buy the ratings on a nationwide basis. In almost every market the big boys run the top stations, and the ratings pay for themselves. If you're a single station operator, you probably don't have the signal, programming, promotions, or sales staff (one or more of these) to be a top station, so buying the ratings offers a lesser return and may in fact be a losing proposition.
Most of the big chains (iHeart, Cumulus, CBS, etc) buy the ratings on a nationwide basis. In almost every market the big boys run the top stations, and the ratings pay for themselves. If you're a single station operator, you probably don't have the signal, programming, promotions, or sales staff (one or more of these) to be a top station, so buying the ratings offers a lesser return and may in fact be a losing proposition.
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Buddy Shula
Guest
Rob is correct. You must purchase the book for you to appear on All Access. The full rankings will not be on All Access until Jan when the Fall book comes out, which WECK now subscribes to in the Fall and Spring for the next few years, so yes, WECK will appear in the fall book on All Access, but only 12 plus. I can tell you in the Summer book, WECK had a 2.6 share 12plus. I can also tell you that our trends in Fall book are astounding. If this continues, WECK will be over a 4.0 share 12 plus and be a top 8 station. In 35 plus, WECK could be top 5. No kidding. That is with a 1K station vs. 50K stations. Impressive. Wish I could tell you more. Here's to great local radio.
$25 million for NYC alone??? Astounding! But given NYC is market #1 and the stations CBS owns, not unimaginable. A (now) consultant who's worked for CBS as GM in a smaller (but Top 25) market says he "could easily see $10 million cut in NYC. Maybe $25 million comes after a gradual phase out and attrition on personal services and union contracts. But still, it would take a long time to heal." Outright RIFs and personnel consolidations are likely and the "$100 million in synergies" could reach deeply into medium and smaller markets like Rochester and Buffalo. Entercom's synergies might go beyond "creating podcasts" (as you suggested). Entercom has already downsized their operating plant's footprint at Corporate Parkway and is consolidating transmission sites, bringing highly rated Kiss 98.5 to the WBEN-AM site. Small step, but one that will reduce some costs and allow for sale of the WKSE transmitter site. Wonder if Entercom would put stations like WWWS and WWKB on the block. Probably not, since they run unattended, and who's they sell those stations to in the first place. Still, "$100 million in synergies" might require wringing blood from a stone, so one never knows.
Only because that's where a lot of their engineering and digital people for the entire company are based. Not just the local station people. Based on how Entercom has been running, I'd expect them to shut down a lot of that part of the company. Then in markets where both companies own stations, you have a lot of duplication.
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Buddy Shula
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Nope -Monday-Fri 7p-10p. Just a feature. I like it. Its a little different
I think that the "$25 million in NYC alone includes the closing of the CBS radio corporate operations there. Salaries, services, rent, taxes, etc.,
Or it could be focused in areas like centralized traffic, combined national sales (an maybe their own rep firm), combined or regionalized accounting, a single legal department and HD department, negotiation of service contracts and suppliers, etc.
Kelly, Thomas, Gretzky, Koufax, Johnson, LeBron... the best in their game, Hall of Famers (or soon to be), acknowledged the value of consistent coaching and guidance. Legacies all, they knew and value(d) constructive criticism because they knew it would make them better performers. John Wooden, Marv Levy, Scotty Bowman, Tony Francona, Lombardi and Landry... Shula... great coaches who guided great players who would ask, "How can I make myself better? How can I make my team better?" Legacy players and performers need, value and welcome their coaches' guidance, constructive criticism and support.
Great point, Just Past Buffalo! And that's what Program Directors are there for. To give direction. I'm sure great radio PD's like John Rook, Rick Sklar, Bill Drake, Paul Drew and closer to home, Jeff Kaye in his time at KB Radio weren't bashful when it came to coaching the legendary jocks that worked for them.
Drake & Drew were control freaks, not coaches. Sklar wasn't either control freak nor coach. TTBOMK, Sklar never opened a mic.
An interesting discussion and I can see points on both sides. When I worked for Storer in Miami early in my career Ed Salamon was acting as group PD. He had never opened a mic so I had zero respect for him. His idea of coaching was to burst through the door each time I broke a rule in his format. After a couple of hours of this I was a mess and he gave up. Having said that I believe the guy that's paying you has the right to tell you how he wants it done. But there is a good way and bad way to put the idea across to the talent who is there trying to do a good job.
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