Clear Channel's western slaughter continues - SD next?

[Bob_Hudson]

Exactly a year ago CC took a broad ax to its staffs back east and many wondered when the executioners would hit the west. A couple weeks ago they finally got to Texas and this past Friday Nov. 30 they hit LA: http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,86871.0.html no doubt creating a merrier Christmas for CC stockholders.

 

[DangerousLoner]

Is that what you're hoping for? Would that be entertaining to hear about?

Personally, I hope no one loses their job, at CC or anywhere else.

 

[SDRadio]

no doubt creating a merrier Christmas for CC stockholders.

Really? Considering that CCU has gone sideways all year; and is off it's five year high by a third ... I don't see how loosing folks in la LA will make it a merrier Christmas? That is, unless the stock triples by the year end.

While I agree that no one should loose their job at anytime of the year, blaming it on stockholders is not the issue Bob.

 

[Bob_Hudson]

While I agree that no one should loose their job at anytime of the year, blaming it on stockholders is not the issue Bob.

Quick Chris - contact the moderators - some capitalist pig is using your name!

I don't blame it on the shareholders but certainly the typical corporate justification for this sort of thing is the shareholders because they still believe that's the only constituency which counts and that they have no obligation to employees or listeners.

 

[Lopaka]

No sympathy at all here. They were working for an evil enterprise, in doing so they furthered its evil. I am very glad the people who worked for Enron lost their pensions and their life savings, their entire work histories were directed toward stealing money from us Californians, nobody ever deserved poverty more. And I am glad this is happening to the people who worked so hard to further CC's evil goals. Hopefully we will see CC and all its properties liquidated in bankruptcy.

 

[SDRadio]

They were working for an evil enterprise, in doing so they furthered its evil.

Successful companies do not succeed with out growing pains. While I am not crazy about job cuts, nor do I like to read or report about anyone's dismissal, the bottom line -- is that radio has moved from being a family bidness to a corporation portfolio controlled by bean counters in distant cities.

The average listener outside the radio spectrum will not complain, nor will they do anything about them. I'm not a capitalist pig as Crusty Bob suggest, I'm just pointing out the merely obvious. In this case, CCU stock has moved sideways all year. In the overall scheme of it all, as the CCU prospectus points out, radio is a changing bidness and this year, bidness was bad.

It's easy to throw verbal darts at the biggest targets and in most cases, they are deserved. However, the original summation applies: layoffs will not give stockholders of CCU a merrier Christmas, unless the stock triples between now and the 25th.

Bob knows that I worked for a major telecommunications company and I was laid off -- six years ago. However how painful that was, I have recovered. I expect the radio experts in that face the same decision will recover as well.

As I stated, successful companies do not succeed without growing pains. Some of the growing pains that face radio is the share of the advertising dollar. The internet share of advertising is expected to rise next year to 9.4 percent. Radio's share of the ad market will drop to 7.9 percent. So, less money will come into the radio stations and .... the cycle continues.

Stay Tuned.

 

[doublecashkgb]

Chris that sounds like some fancy dancing to me. First of all while this doesn't help shareholders specifically. It makes the local cluster's bottom line look a hell of a lot better. Second: Growing pains? WTF Who are you kidding?. This isn't a couple of guys with a start-up were talking CC. They are cannabilizing their various stations in a manner which will profoundly effect how this business is conducted. The only viable strategy for anyone outside of superstar talent is an exit strategy from the business.

 

[RBA]

Didn't they just hire a lot of "talent" for KLSD? Talent is use loosely. Before they only had one morning show, now they have several new sports shows. I would think it would be cheaper to just take what comes off the satellite than doing a bunch of local sports shows nobody wants to listen too. How much talking about the Aztecs sports talk does one need in a day?

 

[Bob_Hudson]

By the way, this is not something necessarily being done in response to recent events involving CC and/or advertising. This is an an annual event. Go back through the radio-info.com archives and you will find the Nov. 2006 post in which I wrote: "Radio and Records has a tally of markets hit by the Clear Channel "Restructuring Team," and it's a long one."

That was an east coast and midwest bloodbath and it stopped just before Christmas, before they got out west. After a one year hiatus the "Restructuring Team" has hit the west just in time for the holidays. I figure they do it now so they can save not only on salaries and benefits, but also on refreshments at the office Christmas parties ("Sorry lad, we're giving your cookies to DS&C and Roger....").

 

[machinehead]

Lopaka,

I'm generally in agreement with you when it comes to this board and related politics, but your last post is pretty callous:

>> No sympathy at all here. They were working for an evil
>> enterprise, in doing so they furthered its evil.

Wow, maybe you're joking or being sarcastic, but you just demonized a lot of really good people trying to make a living in this business, and I'm not talking about Lowry Mays. I don't work for C.C., but I have a lot of friends and colleagues who do, and many of them truly enjoy their jobs and have even been given the opportunity by C.C. to program well and do the right thing and manage stations as best they can. I know you're bummed KLSD was put down, but if anything C.C. extended Air America's lifespan by a couple of years and continues to give progressive talk a chance in several markets other than S.D.

These are not folks working for an evil enterprise, and if you really think C.C. is evil, you might as well lump CBS, Citadel, and every other radio outfit in with them, because there's a lot of companies out there who REALLY treat their employees poorly, ultimately leave less choices for listeners, and through their cheap, obnoxious, or hateful programming are an overall negative influence on the communities they serve. Sorry, but you can't lay the blame for this on one company and folks who were just bucking to hang on to an airshift or copywriter gig or selling airtime or trying to program several stations at once.

I'm not defending what C.C. has done, and I don't defend their track record of lowest-common denominator radio over the years, especially in the rock arena. I'll be the first to admit C.C.'s business/station "models" have done a lot to homogenize and dull-down radio and radio discussion, but I'll also be the first to say C.C. has made it a point to hire some really good, talented people the last few years to turn that perception around. They're not perfect, but saying those who were fired or let go from C.C. "were working for an evil enterprise [and], in doing so they furthered its evil" is a disturbing mirror validation of McVeigh's excuse for blowing up the federal building in Oklahoma City. Really disturbing.

Amazingly, you weren't done:

>> I am very glad the people who worked for Enron lost their
>> pensions and their life savings, their entire work histories
>> were directed toward stealing money from us Californians,
>> nobody ever deserved poverty more.

You know, I happen to know people who worked for Enron as well, and I don't know how to impress this upon you, but the victims of Enrom were otherwise decent, hard-working folks in the Houston area (and elsewhere) who were just accountants, numbers-crunchers, etc., with jobs. The whole company and all of their employees were duped by the evil scumbags who ran it. Those who lost everything were not the kind of faceless bureacrats associated with arranging train schedules for the Nazi party or anything like that. Yes, there were those sons of bi---- who were bragging about ripping off grandmothers in California (and elsewhere), and I can only hope there's a special place in Hades for them along with Ken Lay, W, Cheney, etc., but to say that anyone and everyone who worked at Enron had it coming is pretty close-minded and cruel of you.

These people lost their LIFE SAVINGS, everything they had, earned during the course of what seemed to be by all appearances honest work. Who knew their 401Ks and retirment plans were surreptitiously being emptied to cover margins collapsing out of sheer greed by those at the top? That the employees of Enron who weren't aggresively, cruelly ripping people off and giving Gray Davis fits over rolling blackouts are somehow also party to Enron's crimes is a disturbingly simple-minded response. Maybe you should rent "The Smartest Guys In the Room" to get the full weight of it.

I'm disappointed. You don't need a sense of nuance to understand that not everyone who works for Clear Channel or worked for Enron is some kind of a baby seal clubber, and while I know this board is to sound off, etc., to say so is really out of whack. I have this feeling you know better anyway, but however you slice it, you posted a pretty mean-spirited little diatribe. It sucks that people lose their jobs at any time of year, and it sucks that C.C. finds new, dramatic ways of making this happen. It's tiring to hear about and does nothing to help the morale of the company's employees, but blaming fired C.C. employees for their own dilemmas is as sick as blaming a rape victim for her own vicitmization. Please, stop generalizing like this.

 

[SDRadio]

Chris that sounds like some fancy dancing to me. First of all while this doesn't help shareholders specifically. It makes the local cluster's bottom line look a hell of a lot better. Second: Growing pains? WTF Who are you kidding?. This isn't a couple of guys with a start-up were talking CC. They are cannabilizing their various stations in a manner which will profoundly effect how this business is conducted. The only viable strategy for anyone outside of superstar talent is an exit strategy from the business.

I'm not disagreeing with any of your points, just looking at the situation purely from a business model. Sure, the term "growing pains" may be in direct conflict with the business shrinking that CCU is doing. However, a business must change with the time, however painful it is.

As I stated in my previous diatribe, radio went from a family bidness to a corporation portfolio controlled by bean counters in distant cities.

Both Bob and you have the advantage of being behind a hot microphone working with eclectic owners and operators -- and on-air talent egos that are bigger than the control room.

My point being, that six years ago, the telco I was working for shrank and is now twice the size it was. If CCU can do this -- it'll be a private company by then -- hats of to them. However, as I believe Bob and you are right, they'll continue to move sideways in price per share (either public or private) and make further cuts. Pretty soon Bob the DJ from San Angelo, Texas will be hosting the morning show on one of the stations here in the market.

As posted, mid-days are missing Cindy Pace. Wow. She was a bright spot in the broadcast day and provided good cleanup for DSC before Ditch made his run in the afternoon.

With that said, I am looking at it from a pure business sense (BS) instead of the usual BS that seems to fill this area.

Regardless, your posts, along with Bob's are on target, and frightening a look at the past and the future.

Best.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

No sympathy at all here. They were working for an evil enterprise, in doing so they furthered its evil. I am very glad the people who worked for Enron lost their pensions and their life savings, their entire work histories were directed toward stealing money from us Californians, nobody ever deserved poverty more. And I am glad this is happening to the people who worked so hard to further CC's evil goals. Hopefully we will see CC and all its properties liquidated in bankruptcy.

Radio employees of the world, unite! Crush the evil station owners! Hail the proletariat!

 

[doublecashkgb]

Lopaka...to call your statement moronic would be too gentle.

 

[vonrollskyway1]

miss ya cindy pace! :'(

 

[daveallen99]

No sympathy at all here. They were working for an evil enterprise, in doing so they furthered its evil. I am very glad the people who worked for Enron lost their pensions and their life savings, their entire work histories were directed toward stealing money from us Californians, nobody ever deserved poverty more. And I am glad this is happening to the people who worked so hard to further CC's evil goals. Hopefully we will see CC and all its properties liquidated in bankruptcy.

Huh. So, then, when I work for a company, it's my responsibility to conduct my own investigation into their business dealings to make sure that they don't conduct any financial improprieties so that I, myself, am not implicated.

I'm responsible for the actions of others, then, is what you're saying?

I'm confused. Please clarify.

 

[sdwulfdawg]

I think the cuts have already started seeing how KOGO has decimated their news format and already overnights they are running FOX News at the top of the hour.

KFMB-AM -- my favorite target -- doesn't sound any better. I happened to turn on KFI and they are sounding VERY tight and quite listenable -- as usual -- as opposed to kOGO and KFMB which have a real flabby on-air sound.

 

[davideduardo]

No sympathy at all here. They were working for an evil enterprise, in doing so they furthered its evil. I am very glad the people who worked for Enron lost their pensions and their life savings, their entire work histories were directed toward stealing money from us Californians, nobody ever deserved poverty more. And I am glad this is happening to the people who worked so hard to further CC's evil goals. Hopefully we will see CC and all its properties liquidated in bankruptcy.

I did not see this until today, and wish I had never seen it.

What an ugly sentiment. What a magnificent lack of understanding of how business works. What a cheap socialistic rant. And, especially, what an awful condemnation of the 99.99% of Enron emplyees who were hard working, decent Americans trying to provide for their families.

Were this early New England, you would be pilloried and spat upon by the citizenry. Today, all we can do is repudiate your ugly thoughts and inaccurate lies. I spit on your thoughts.

(If I said what I really think, the post would be deleted.)

 

[Lopaka]

If you swim with sharks don't be surprised if you get bitten.

 

[SDRadio]

I did not see this until today, and wish I had never seen it.

What an ugly sentiment. What a magnificent lack of understanding of how business works.

Bravo David, bravo. Thank you for chiming in.

 

[Lopaka]

Personal responsibility: you should not go to work for al qaeda even as bin Laden's receptionist, you should not sort bullets for the mafia, you should not do trades for enron that steal billions of dollars from honest hard working Californians, and if you work for CC you either don't support the company's business practices (in which case you shouldn't be working for them), or you do, meaning you support CC's right to treat you and everybody else who works for them like "spit"; you have assumed the risk. Can anyone honestly say that this would not be a better world if CC had never come into existence, or that it will be a better one the day it goes out of business. Note--I apologize that this has upset people here, I admire you all very much and for what its worth I wish all of you the very best, as well as a merry Christmas. Again, sorry for being so abrasive.