David Field is stepping down as Audacy CEO

[MarkW]

There were many other options Field could have taken to retain his ownership position.

The only conceivable ways would have been to either buy up the prepetition senior secured debt or be an investor in a New Co that would've bought Audacy's assets out of bankruptcy.

You are certainly correct that he could've fired even more staffers in an attempt to salvage the company in its pre-BK form and postpone the inevitable. Like you, I am very glad he didn't take the scorched earth approach. Nonetheless, a pretty sizable number of on-air and sales people still lost jobs as the company tried to manage its over levered balance sheet

 

[MarkW]

I was not aware that he had any management position with Audacy. Please clarify.

I did not say he did. He wrote that he did research work for Audacy (I assume as an outside consultant). That means management would have approved whatever contract(s) existed between Audacy/Entercom and his firm.

The very first sentence of his column is:

As a radio industry researcher, I did a lot of work in the ’00s and ’10s on behalf of Entercom Communications and some with Audacy after the company’s rebranding four years ago.

 

[TheBigA]

Ross says in his column that he performed consulting work for Audacy / Entercom.

I really don't care. I agree with what he wrote, and he wasn't the only one who had that view. This article was written over a year ago:

He bet big on radio's future. It crushed his family's fortune.

Audacy Inc. Chief Executive Officer David Field made a big bet when his Philadelphia-based company purchased CBS Radio for about $1.5 billion in 2017.

www.sentinelsource.com

It was posted here at the time. I agreed with it then.

 

[MarkW]

That Keene Sentinel article, which is a republished Bloomberg article, is spot on.

 

[Mark Roberts]

No disrespect to Mr. Ross,

... and in the next post, depicts him as a craven sycophant...

He's kissing up to someone who paid him - or whose subordinates paid him - a lot of money.

Kinda like how politicians say nice things about the companies or industries who give campaign contributions or whose lobbyists pay for nice retreats.

To be clear, I am sure Mr. Ross' consulting fees were well earned. Someone whose living is largely derived from consulting contracts awarded by radio executives or senior managers is likely going to be predisposed to say nice things about those individuals.

Hoh-kay.

Ross, quite properly, disclosed his interest and also acknowledged that some would disagree with him, vigorously in some cases. But he's not positioning himself as the sole source of truth either. There can be multiple perspectives here and just because someone disagrees with yours doesn't mean they're being dishonest.

 

[MarkW]

I very much respect the fact he had the integrity to disclose his prior business relationship with the company.

All I'm saying is that prior relationship, which was presumably quite profitable for him, could lead to unconscious bias and a predisposition to vouch for Mr. Field.

One point of interest in his column is that, on occasion, he met directly with Field. This should dispel the notion that the CEO is always completely disengaged from macro programming decisions, as some here have tried to suggest in the past.

 

[TheBigA]

All I'm saying is that prior relationship, which was presumably quite profitable for him, could lead to unconscious bias and a predisposition to vouch for Mr. Field.

Sean seems like the kind of person who's always positive, and if he was going to say anything at all about anyone, it would be from a positive view.

 

[radiofan2023]

There were many other options Field could have taken to retain his ownership position. This way was easiest, but he lost his equity. He could have taken the EMF road and fired all local staffs and run the stations from a central hub. At one point in 2021, that was the route I thought he was taking. He chickened out, and hired back local staffs.

He didn’t chicken out, the ratings for the stations didn’t go up, so running jocks from KROQ, etc. on Alt 96.5 and other stations, changed as a result.

 

[TheBigA]

He didn’t chicken out, the ratings for the stations didn’t go up, so running jocks from KROQ, etc. on Alt 96.5 and other stations, changed as a result.

In fact the ratings went down, in some cases by a lot. Ultimately Mike Kaplan got replaced by John Allers, and now things seem to be better.

I really expected them to create a national news service using the resources of their all-news stations. But that never materialized. At least not for broadcast radio.

 

[davideduardo]

I did not say he did. He wrote that he did research work for Audacy (I assume as an outside consultant). That means management would have approved whatever contract(s) existed between Audacy/Entercom and his firm.

The very first sentence of his column is:

Analyzing data does not disqualify him from having an opinion on the company as a whole.

 

[davideduardo]

I really expected them to create a national news service using the resources of their all-news stations. But that never materialized. At least not for broadcast radio.

I do not se any synergy between the various ious news stations that makes them the base for a news service. But beyond that, who would buy or subscribe to to such a service?

 

[TheBigA]

I do not se any synergy between the various ious news stations that makes them the base for a news service. But beyond that, who would buy or subscribe to to such a service?

If they have writers, then they can do a news service. That's really all you need. If you look at iHeart's Total Traffic & News, it's really about having writers who just rewrite whatever they see online. They don't have to be serious journalists. Just have the ability to create click bait. How would Audacy use it? For more aggressive local websites. To me, their entire digital strategy is like something from the 90s. Compare them to Townsquare, iHeart, or even Cumulus. Audacy is far behind. Money left on the table.

But they need to spread some of the audio at those news stations around to the smaller markets. No need for KRLD to use a barter news network when most of what they need is already in house. They're really not set up for that. All Field knew how to do was local radio and local sales. He didn't understand the concept of synergy.

 

[MarkW]

Analyzing data does not disqualify him from having an opinion on the company as a whole.

True, but his personal interactions with company leadership may or may not at all be representative of how senior leadership treated rank & file employees.

He seems to be sticking up for a guy he likes a lot. That is certainly his right, but I think context is important. His income, at least in part, comes from consulting contracts that presumably are awarded by broadcasting company leadership. Going on the record to publicly defend an oft-criticized CEO will likely be received favorably by folks who may award him business.

 

[TheBigA]

Going on the record to publicly defend an oft-criticized CEO will likely be received favorably by folks who may award him business.

All he was doing was giving his personal experience. He's oft-criticized by people who don't know him and have no experience with him or his company.

He provides all relevant context. You don't agree.

 

[Mediafrog+]

Another Audacy departure: Audacy CFO Rich Schmaeling Resigns