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Entercom cuts coming?

C

carolinaradio

According to the main page, Entercom may be the latest company to start cutting costs by way of layoffs and some other means. A longer article is on Radio&Records.com - according to that site, 15 have been let go in Kansas City and maybe more to come in other markets.

One would wonder how this will affect Greenville. I would think the cluster is safe, for the most part, but CBS just let all but two of the on-air DJs at AC WKQC/Charlotte go, which was a pretty good performing station, even beating CC's older AC WLYT. That's a different company....but you never know. What do you all think?
 
Interesting question, CR. IMHO, things are gonna start coming fast and furious as the financial "bailout"/"buyout" asserts itself and the various and sundry financial issues start reacting to the infusion of governmental financial assistance insofar as it pertains to broadcasting. I wish I had more to contribute, but right now, who the f*ck knows? Are there any preliminary clues out there that any of you can share with us?
 
carolinaradio said:
One would wonder how this will affect Greenville. I would think the cluster is safe
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I seriously doubt that any cluster is safe. I'm pretty sure Greenville will see it's share. We'll see soon enough.
 
Wow...they're making cuts all across the board. Milwaukee, Boston, Denver, and Sacramento are the latest victims, the article is on R&R. More to come they say. Mostly on-air jocks/producers/co-hosts being let go and PDs taking on more duty. I wouldn't be surprised if we see some changes...with 'TPT, WFBC and Magic being the victims (probably in that order). The others, I don't know about. Wouldn't surprise me if 'FBC added Ryan Seacrest's show.

Hi chickontheradio. Good to see you back around. Let us know what happens if you can, since you always have the scoop at Entercom and usually call it right.

Nothing Entercom does surprises me anymore...
 
carolinaradio said:
Hi chickontheradio. Good to see you back around. Let us know what happens if you can, since you always have the scoop at Entercom and usually call it right. Nothing Entercom does surprises me anymore...
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I used to have the scoop but I'm not as much in the loop as I used to be. An outside source with her own inside source told me today that the bloodletting at Entercom will be deep. It's not an Entercom thing. It's an everywhere thing.
 
It makes me wonder with the economy the way that it is right now if this might be the death of huge corporate radio as we know it and maybe this will be the beginning of locally owned and operated radio again.
 
Lhsh said:
It makes me wonder with the economy the way that it is right now if this might be the death of huge corporate radio as we know it and maybe this will be the beginning of locally owned and operated radio again.
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One can only hope.
 
chickontheradio said:
I used to have the scoop but I'm not as much in the loop as I used to be. An outside source with her own inside source told me today that the bloodletting at Entercom will be deep. It's not an Entercom thing. It's an everywhere thing.
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Oh, no doubt it will be deep probably. They have quite a bit of talent at 25 Garlington that could easily be trimmed. CC, Citadel, and CBS have all made their cuts...it's Entercom's turn now. They're letting talent go from high-rated stations, not just low-rated ones...no station is safe.
 
carolinaradio said:
CC, Citadel, and CBS have all made their cuts...it's Entercom's turn now. They're letting talent go from high-rated stations, not just low-rated ones...no station is safe.
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And its not even Christmas yet...wait till that go round of cuts for the new fiscal year comes...in this economy.

Syndicated, VT and Ipod/Laptop radio in 2009. scary to think..

Sombody fire up the W.O.P.R. :eek:
 
hamNcheese said:
carolinaradio said:
CC, Citadel, and CBS have all made their cuts...it's Entercom's turn now. They're letting talent go from high-rated stations, not just low-rated ones...no station is safe.
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These boards are full of posters bashing CC for voice tracking and out of market talent keeping their stations on the air. Welcome to reality Entercom. Hope you are able to keep the people who maintain your streams and HD-2 stations. It's not my preference in our biz, but it's happening.
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They will all do like CC eventually. CC was just first to start cutting back a couple years ago, then the others followed. Entercom/Greenville will be like CC before long; stations running on auto or just 2 or 3 jocks per station. I know that sounds bad, but that's just the state of the business today. Entercom already has some stations doing that. I see 93.3 next in line for house cleaning.

Wonder if 'Monnie' can carry the morning show on 98.9 by herself. Or if a replacement will be appointed.
 
I dont mind VTing and syndicated programming. It suits a purpose. The thing that weirds me out is what you mentioned, HD stations. 3 years later I dont know anybody, not a single person, that owns one of these radios (listens to it or even know what it is...even with ads running for YEARS) and I see and station owners investing all this money into it. I dont see the demand for it from a listener point of view. It seems like station owners got all hyped and sold on it (then invested good cash money that could go to better use) on sumting that the listeners could care less about. I think station owners got burned by better salespeople then they are. 'we got this new thing, HD radio..gonna be bigger then the clapper. you gotta get in on it now. the way it works is...you see this pyramid, now you get two more friends...they get two friends and BOOM!!! everybody is listening to HD radio and your rolling in the dough...I cant take a check, I need cash. cash only. thats how you wanna get paid right? cash.'

Sorry to go off topic...but when you hear about stations making cuts and letting people go (and Im not saying entercom specifically) but then investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in technology that 99.9% of the listeners dont even know about, much less care about, and its been around for YEARS now, seems moronic at best. Its not even a ten year plan. (maybe 20...but by then Im sure there will be options for radio listeners that go way beyond HD that we arent even aware of yet.) To me, money invested in HD radio set ups for local station owners would be better spent shoring up your current product all around, then having an Ipod plugged into a HD feed for the next 10+ years because you will not have any listeners to HD radio for a long time to come....if ever?
 
hamNcheese said:
I dont mind VTing and syndicated programming. It suits a purpose. The thing that weirds me out is what you mentioned, HD stations. 3 years later I dont know anybody, not a single person, that owns one of these radios (listens to it or even know what it is...even with ads running for YEARS) and I see and station owners investing all this money into it. I dont see the demand for it from a listener point of view. It seems like station owners got all hyped and sold on it (then invested good cash money that could go to better use) on sumting that the listeners could care less about. I think station owners got burned by better salespeople then they are. 'we got this new thing, HD radio..gonna be bigger then the clapper. you gotta get in on it now. the way it works is...you see this pyramid, now you get two more friends...they get two friends and BOOM!!! everybody is listening to HD radio and your rolling in the dough...I cant take a check, I need cash. cash only. thats how you wanna get paid right? cash.'

Sorry to go off topic...but when you hear about stations making cuts and letting people go (and Im not saying entercom specifically) but then investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in technology that 99.9% of the listeners dont even know about, much less care about, and its been around for YEARS now, seems moronic at best. Its not even a ten year plan. (maybe 20...but by then Im sure there will be options for radio listeners that go way beyond HD that we arent even aware of yet.) To me, money invested in HD radio set ups for local station owners would be better spent shoring up your current product all around, then having an Ipod plugged into a HD feed for the next 10+ years because you will not have any listeners to HD radio for a long time to come....if ever?
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Hey, it might be a skosh off topic, but it's a valid point, nonetheless(and I gotta say, you do do a fine job of tying it all together...lol). What you describe regarding HD radio and the apparent lack of urgency(for lack of a better term) on everyone's part is eerily similar (to me, at least)to the response of everyone regarding AM Stereo back in the day when it was supposed to be the next big "thing". I know I'm not the only one that remembers. Back then, just like now, the stations were getting AM stereo transmitters and getting all dressed up for the party....a party that the listeners never attended. People weren't buying the technology. Hell, to my knowledge, they didn't even put AM Stereo in cars...at all.
 
Ssummers said:
Hell, to my knowledge, they didn't even put AM Stereo in cars...at all.
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I had a 1987 Toyota Van with a factory AM Stereo radio. At the time, I believe there were 2 AM's in the upstate that transmitted in stereo. One of them was WESC 660. I can't even remember the other one. The first time I tuned in I thought, what is all of the hullaballoo about? While I could hear the stereo separation, I guess I was disappointed that the sound quality wasn't any better than mono AM. I already had FM Stereo so why would I want to go back to listening to AM if it sounded much the same as before. The end result didn't live up to all the hype.

I remember how excited I was when years before, about 1972, I got my first FM converter for 10 bucks from JC Whitney. You just plugged it in between your antenna and your AM car radio, hooked up the power wire to the fusebox, and voila, instant FM. No, I didn't care if the sound quality was really no better than AM. The converter had opened up a new world of stations I couldn't even hear in my car before. You would think the possibility of a whole bunch of new "stations" would intrigue everyone to get HD.

Compared to 1972 dollars, the cost of putting HD in your car is fairly reasonable with one of the HD receivers with a RF modulator. But in today's world of iPods and the like, HD radio just isn't catching on like FM did back in the day.
 
So does anyone know if there are any more Entercom casualties besides 'TK?' Surprised they didn't show anyone else the door.

But then again, they may just be getting started?
 
Business Managers like people to be fired at the end of a pay period so they don't have to pro rate pay and benefits. I suspect the next round of firings will come on Halloween. Boo!!!
 
Looking closer at the Magic website, Monnie is the only one that is doing remotes for the next month or so. Wonder if that means anything.
Hope Lee Alexander isn't shown the door. He has been in the upstate radio scene for a LONG time.
 
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