How does the economy/housing market affect Radio jobs?

[SirRoxalot]

Radio Jobbed

What happened to radio jobs?

$1-million dollars will pay the salary and benefits for about 13 full-time employees making $50K per year.

Farid Suleman of Citadel made $17-million last year. Citadel is currently trading for less than 30-cents a share.

Lew Dickey from Cumulus took home over $10-million last year. Cumulus is at least above water - at $2.15 per share.

How many millions did the Mays family (Lowry & Sons) and CEO John Hogan pocket?

Pick your favorite group, check the executive compensation, then total up the number of jobs cut to pay outrageous salaries to top execs. Then tell me who's "committed to content".

 

[amfmxm]

Re: Radio Jobbed

What happened to radio jobs?

$1-million dollars will pay the salary and benefits for about 13 full-time employees making $50K per year.

Farid Suleman of Citadel made $17-million last year. Citadel is currently trading for less than 30-cents a share.

Lew Dickey from Cumulus took home over $10-million last year. Cumulus is at least above water - at $2.15 per share.

How many millions did the Mays family (Lowry & Sons) and CEO John Hogan pocket?

Pick your favorite group, check the executive compensation, then total up the number of jobs cut to pay outrageous salaries to top execs. Then tell me who's "committed to content".

Bingo.

And yet these guys all have the gall to wring their hands in public and worry about the state of the industry and, worse yet, chop off hundreds (collectively, thousands) of employees to protect their dwindling cash flow. They are raping radio on a daily basis.

It is truly a disgrace.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: Radio Jobbed

Bingo.

And yet these guys all have the gall to wring their hands in public and worry about the state of the industry and, worse yet, chop off hundreds (collectively, thousands) of employees to protect their dwindling cash flow. They are raping radio on a daily basis.

It is truly a disgrace.

What to me is a disgrace... and one that goes way beyond radio... is that Americans know so little of buisiness and economics.

The idea that the orchestra can exist without the conductor is absurd.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Re: Radio Jobbed

What to me is a disgrace... and one that goes way beyond radio... is that Americans know so little of buisiness and economics.

The idea that the orchestra can exist without the conductor is absurd.

Greetings, David.

I presume you are saying that to purchase, to acquire a conductor requires more outlay of cash than does the purchase of a cello player or one who bangs on drums.

Are proposing that it is just and equitable for CEOs in any line of business to eat caviar in the back seat of their Rolls-Royce while his/her underlings go hungry while putting cardboard in their shoes to cover the holes in the soles?

That description may be a bit more drastic than is reality.... but it demonstrates the slippery slope that we in the 21st Century find ourselves grasping to make sense of.

Whether the difference in executive pay versus pay for the journeymen of the industry are out of line with one another will be discussed for a long time. The PERCEPTION that it may be true has the ability to capsize the broadcast industry.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Disgrace? You Betcha.

It's hard for me to believe that you can justify $17-million in compensation for a "leader" who took a company's stock from $20.00 to 20 cents over the last five years.

The could have let local managers be responsible for their own markets and not done that badly. Poor "top-down" decisions, and overcompensation of upper management to the detriment of the product, are responsible for the decline. How that rates a "bonus" is beyond me.

Shame on the boards of directors who approve such packages, along with the platinum parachutes that make firing a failed manager so expensive that they're allowed to remain in place.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: Disgrace? You Betcha.

It's hard for me to believe that you can justify $17-million in compensation for a "leader" who took a company's stock from $20.00 to 20 cents over the last five years.

I was not speaking of Citadel specifically, but, rather, of the overall failure to recognize the scarcity and uniqueness of leaders in any field and to reward them appropriately. We pay athletes tens of millions a year, yet those who drive our economy are for some reason thought less worthy.

 

[TheBigA]

Just want to point out that there's a difference between "compensation" and "salary."

Farid's salary, according to the company's annual report, is $1.25 million. Not $17 million.

But he owns a ton of Citadel stock. That's mainly where his additional money comes from.

Since the stock is now 20 cents, I wonder how many employees have bought any.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: Radio Jobbed

I presume you are saying that to purchase, to acquire a conductor requires more outlay of cash than does the purchase of a cello player or one who bangs on drums.

Talent in any field is rewarded in proportion to its scarcity.

Are proposing that it is just and equitable for CEOs in any line of business to eat caviar in the back seat of their Rolls-Royce while his/her underlings go hungry while putting cardboard in their shoes to cover the holes in the soles?

I don't think there are that many of those guys eating fish eggs in their car. But there are a lot of companies that depend on the management and leadership skills of their executives to maintain jobs . A badly managed company not only may cost the jobs of the workers and staff, but also "release" the company's market share to others who may be less a part of the American economy. Witness the decline of US brands in white goods... where I would have seen Maytags and Whirlpools when shopping... a few weeks ago I had to select between a Samsung and an LG.

Whether the difference in executive pay versus pay for the journeymen of the industry are out of line with one another will be discussed for a long time. The PERCEPTION that it may be true has the ability to capsize the broadcast industry.

This extends beyond radio to all areas of business. The multiple of the pay of the workforce that is executive pay has increased astronomically. This may be the recognition that good managers are very scarce or it just may be the tendency of what is today's ruling class to take care of itself.

 

[TheBigA]

I forgot to mention that the $17 was his compensation LAST year. That was the year he negotiated the purchase of ABC Radio.

I expect that THIS year's compensation will be substantially LESS. Not that anyone is going to be starving. But since we're viewing this in the context of THIS year's stock price, and most of his compensation is in stock dividends, he won't be getting any this year.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Just One Example

I forgot to mention that the $17 was his compensation LAST year. That was the year he negotiated the purchase of ABC Radio.

I expect that THIS year's compensation will be substantially LESS. Not that anyone is going to be starving. But since we're viewing this in the context of THIS year's stock price, and most of his compensation is in stock dividends, he won't be getting any this year.

Yes, Farid was handsomely compensated for overpaying for ABC radio, which many outside observers attribute to EGO, not as a good business decision. No matter how you slice it, many good people were - are are being - terminated to pay for that compensation. Not to mention how much stockholders have lost on their investment.

Executive compensation is off the charts. Our current financial meltdown indicates the llevel of financial "talent" involved, so I'll defer to Mr. Eduardo's evaluation that "it just may be the tendency of what is today's ruling class to take care of itself".

Mr. Suleman is the current whipping boy, but he's far from the only example.

 

[gr8oldies]

By the way about 10 years before Blair Gardner there was Night Time America

 

[TheBigA]

Re: Just One Example

Yes, Farid was handsomely compensated for overpaying for ABC radio, which many outside observers attribute to EGO, not as a good business decision.

That may be. Lots of others felt that ABC Radio was one of the few radio companies left that paid employees a good salary, was run well, and was more live & local than its corporate competitors like Clear Channel and Cumulus. It could equally be said that hiring an experienced person to be live & local between 7PM and 6AM is overpaying. It's a matter of opinion, and hindsight is always 20-20, as they say.

Farid discovered, in a very brutal way, what many new owners are discovering, and that's that you can't run radio stations the way they were run 20 years ago. The lesson of ABC Radio is that perhaps Clear Channel and Cumulus aren't as stupid as everyone thinks.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Re: Just One Example

Farid discovered, in a very brutal way, what many new owners are discovering, and that's that you can't run radio stations the way they were run 20 years ago. The lesson of ABC Radio is that perhaps Clear Channel and Cumulus aren't as stupid as everyone thinks.

I submit that Farid is finding out that the Clear Channel and Cumulus model of borrowing big, then cutting programming and staff big to pay off the financing, is what's not working. Ratings are tanking, as are revenues. The stations were doing much better when local managers made decisions instead of having mandates dictated from the top down.

 

[TheBigA]

Re: Just One Example

The stations were doing much better when local managers made decisions instead of having mandates dictated from the top down.

Do you really think ABC allowed local managers more freedom than Citadel? You have obviously never worked for ABC.