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Cumulus Sold

P

PCTVandRadio

Guest
I mentioned this on the Florida board, but Cumulus Media has been sold to Merrill Lynch Global Private Equity.

Value of the deal is $1.3 Billion.

AllAccess.com and Radioandrecords.com both have few details.

This primarily affects Mobile, Huntsville and Montgomery.
 
Are they contemplating a selloff of their smaller market stations?
 
Let me clarify my previous post...Cumulus is going private...merging with Merrill Lynch...

Who knows what this means for small market stations....time will tell.
 
I'd have to think a few stations will have to be spunoff due to the new market definitions. Think about the Clear Channel spinoffs that are expected to come after the company goes private. You'll likely see at least a little of that at Cumulus.
 
For your imagination, here is an adaptation of Johhny Cash's "Ring of Fire". It could become the ode of all the investors that tried to put together sellable clusters in small markets because if Cumulus follows CC and dumps out small markets then all the prices will go a predictable direction.


The taste of money's sweet (trumpets here)
and it makes a heart beat

I fell for it like a child (trumpets)
and I fell into a ring of fire

I fell into a burnin' ring of fire
I went down down down
and the flames went high
and it burns burns burns

the privitazation, the privitazation.
 
So they go private.. same people driving the bus.... what changes... same memo pushing, liner card reading, consultant crap. I took a tour through the dial the other day.... All the cumulus stations sounded just like they did the day I walked out of the building. Fox was right on time with the Led Zep at 10mts past the hour. 8)
 
PCTVandRadio said:
Let me clarify my previous post...Cumulus is going private...merging with Merrill Lynch...

Who knows what this means for small market stations....time will tell.
Click to expand...

The main reasons they are doing this:

  • They want to consolidate the company that was formed with the Susquehana purchase into the main company
  • Clear Channel did it
 
Fact is that nobody knows what this will bring save the Dickeys. If they determine to sell off the unprofitable properties, that will cause massive clenching of anuses (ani?) across the country. Look at the ratings - they consistantly get their clocks cleaned by CC wherever they go against them. This winning from a company that apparently has it's snout buried in PCP considering moves like "adlets", no more imaging, :20 max breaks and now "station naming rights". Labatts Blue Country 106.7? Good God. The Dickeys are smart - they wouldn't have built the empire they have by being stupid, but they've sure tolerated some massive incompetence on a major scale. It's all about the $ when it gets right down to it, and I figure they're tired of bleeding money to markets they're sucking in.

Cumulus is as good as the leadership. From a local standpoint, some of the best that'll ever grace the industry. From the top? Uh.....
 
Bass-ass(assin):

Do your homework before you post.

As PD of three Macon Cumulus properties, I can assure you that, consistently, the CMLS cluster as a whole trounces the local Clear Channel properties by a factor of at least 2:1. Where it REALLY matters - revenue - they're not even close (but then, neither are any of the other media operators in the market). We take close to half; the rest fight for the remainder.

True, they have a few spotty victories from time to time (maybe WIBB #1 12+ [whoop-ee!!!]), but only one of their local properties is ever anything close to consistent in demos that matter, and that would be their Urban AC - WRBV (which is a pretty darned good radio station, in my estimation).

Cumulus has its issues, for sure. So does every other radio operator, whether big or small. The Dickeys are following in the footsteps of the Clear Channel Mayses simply because Wall Street is not in love with radio, and this presents an opportunity to move the company up the ladder more quickly and with far less financial red tape to work through. Will there be some spin-offs? Maybe, maybe not. I'm not privy to that information, and to be honest, I'm not sure that Lew Dickey or his family have even approached that bridge yet. If it does happen, then it happens. Don't think for one moment that the world will stop spinning or - heaven forbid - the radio stations' playlists will get any fatter.

TDO
 
Nothing like a little brown on the nose to get a promotion. Keep it up Macon PD.... your own you way.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
 
If telling the truth is brown nosing, then I guess all of us actual working talent and management are? Lighten up Francis. :D

Seriously, I am the Former PD at WPEZ and now VP/GM at one of David's local competitors. In over ten years of knowing him, I never saw a brown nose on him. Red maybe from all the remotes, but not brown.
 
I worked for cumulus for several year.... did 9a to 2p at the montgomery cluster and had good ratings... Got tired of all the corporate crap and quit..... I know Cumulus..... and I know how an employee sounds when they have a brown nose... lol :p
 
If you only knew what a pale white boy I am, you'd probably agree that a little coloring - even on the nose - might be a good thing.

Skipper, I know you would like to see things go back to 'dem good ole days', but it ain't happening! Corporate radio is the major part of the broadcasting landscape (and yes, I even include XM and Sirius in that), and, barring hell freezing over, that's not going to change any time soon. I've said it before, Cumulus has its problems. Even the mom and pop operators from days of yore had problems. And no one can blame the Dickeys, or the Mayses, or Farid Suleman, or anyone else for wanting to make a buck.

Perhaps the reason you 'got tired of all the corporate crap and quit' was because you just flat-out couldn't handle the accountability factor that's required in that type of situation. Or maybe you just sucked on the air and somebody called your hand on it to bring you up to par. Frankly, I don't know and I don't care, but your attitude sucks, and you wouldn't last a week as a jock on any station I program.

As for me, I'm not bucking for a promotion from Cumulus. The last time they promoted me, I ended up with two additional radio stations to program. And yes, I did get a little more money out of it, but more than that, I got the satisfaction of fixing a brand that had become tarnished, not by olhankster, who did a fine job with WPEZ, but by the PD/Ops Manager who followed him into that chair when he departed for another market. And I also got to launch another brand that has done pretty darned well for Cumulus/Macon in its two years + of existence.

Brown-nosing? Nope. Ask my immediate superiors (and I'll be glad to supply you with names, off-thread) if I'm a kiss-butt, and I think you'll find out that I'm not. But if it makes your small mind feel better to think that a hard-working guy from Alabama with 26 years of radio experience and over 20 years as a programmer kisses corporate butt, then by all means, don't let me wake you up from your (crack)-pipe dream.

Oh, and just so there's no question as to who I am, and so I'm not hiding behind some ridiculous screen name, here ya go, pal...

Diamondtwo = David Nolin
Program Director
WPEZ/WIFN/WAYS
Macon, Georgia

TDO
 
David Nolin,

Never met you, but remember hearing you on WSYA "Sunny 103" in Montgomery years ago. That was a really good radio station. The format was great. And the technical sound of the station, the processing, was to this day the best I've ever heard. I don't know how it was done, but that station just jumped out of the radio. It wasn't over-processed, it wasn't in-your-face loud, but it was tight and sounded awesome. I saw the transmitter and audio processors once after they moved to the multi-station site behind Eastdale Mall. I don't remember seeing anything I hadn't seen before. But it really sounded good. It seemed to go downhill a bit after they changed to "Mix." I didn't think the format was as good and that superior sound seemed to go away too. Seems like someone told me once that the guy responsible for that sound had been with 103.3 since its inception and had retired. Whoever was responsible, he/she knew their stuff! Even in the days when it was the sleepy "beautiful music" format, they had a very good sound.

Best regards;
Al
 
Dear David,
Let me just say I have no problem with the work, or the accountability. Perhaps it was the lying, the shady deals, watching the people who did a good job get shafted, people that didn't get promoted, ect.
I don't really care about bringing back the old days of radio. I went to work everyday and watched a group of people push emails around. They did just what it took to get to the end of a shift. Go to a remote and show up with nothing but a van and a cell phone. ect.

I thinks stations should be involved with the listeners. Promote. Work hard at it everyday. We just didn't do anything. If I ever work in radio again I want to work for a TEAM that wants to win. Not people who just voice track and go play golf.

and no I don't want to work for you in macon.

have a nice day and good luck with that.
;D

Skipper
"Windle Jay"
[email protected]
 
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