iHeart Albany Departures

[NJnerd19]

Levack and Goz have disappeared from the WOFX website, the later is (was?) PD of WGY and WOFX.

Jaime Roberts scrubbed from the WTRY website.

Doug Goudie gone from WGY mornings.

 

[MHVRadiofan]

It is sad to say but the new incarnation of radio, has taken root firmly. It is not just I-Heart but most of the large media companies are letting many local people go. What are they going to replace the local shows with? It is obvious , that it will be nationwide syndicated , satellite fed or VT programmed stations. As it is now some of the smaller clusters have nobody working there at all. Sales , programing etc. are handled remotely . Only maintenance and repair that requires someone be physically present is handled by a regional contract engineer .
This has been coming on for years as companies such as I-Heart squeeze every last dollar out of local stations, in part due to the need to service their huge debt. I-Heart in particular is still heavily over leveraged even after their bankruptcy. They are currently working with creditors to restructure their debt , again. Of course don't forget big investors insatiable greed. I have nothing against them making a reasonable profit. That is the way capitalism is supposed to work. We will be left with a homogenized ,not focused on any local issues and interests across the country.

 

[luperm]

It is sad to say but the new incarnation of radio, has taken root firmly. It is not just I-Heart but most of the large media companies are letting many local people go. What are they going to replace the local shows with? It is obvious , that it will be nationwide syndicated , satellite fed or VT programmed stations. As it is now some of the smaller clusters have nobody working there at all. Sales , programing etc. are handled remotely . Only maintenance and repair that requires someone be physically present is handled by a regional contract engineer .
This has been coming on for years as companies such as I-Heart squeeze every last dollar out of local stations, in part due to the need to service their huge debt. I-Heart in particular is still heavily over leveraged even after their bankruptcy. They are currently working with creditors to restructure their debt , again. Of course don't forget big investors insatiable greed. I have nothing against them making a reasonable profit. That is the way capitalism is supposed to work. We will be left with a homogenized ,not focused on any local issues and interests across the country.

So I guess you’ll just ignore the significant revenue decline over many years along with the changing entertainment landscape. Much easier to blame “suits” than to thoughtfully analyze the situation, right?

 

[NJnerd19]

The only llocal talent remaining in Albany is the morning show on WPYX and John Cooper who runs the cluster and tracks middays. Joe Gallagher also appears to be hanging on to his one hour show on WGY. Very sad.

Not surprising about Levack and Goz. I bet the show actually made some money though, just not enough for the bean counters. Likely not enough to cover their salaries and meet their margin.

You are right, some clusters have nobody at all. iHeart became mostly remote after Covid. They've downsized their offices a few times over the years and most recently moved studios around to cut more space off of the lease.

It is sad to say but the new incarnation of radio, has taken root firmly. It is not just I-Heart but most of the large media companies are letting many local people go. What are they going to replace the local shows with? It is obvious , that it will be nationwide syndicated , satellite fed or VT programmed stations. As it is now some of the smaller clusters have nobody working there at all. Sales , programing etc. are handled remotely . Only maintenance and repair that requires someone be physically present is handled by a regional contract engineer .
This has been coming on for years as companies such as I-Heart squeeze every last dollar out of local stations, in part due to the need to service their huge debt. I-Heart in particular is still heavily over leveraged even after their bankruptcy. They are currently working with creditors to restructure their debt , again. Of course don't forget big investors insatiable greed. I have nothing against them making a reasonable profit. That is the way capitalism is supposed to work. We will be left with a homogenized ,not focused on any local issues and interests across the country.

 

[NJnerd19]

So I guess you’ll just ignore the significant revenue decline over many years along with the changing entertainment landscape. Much easier to blame “suits” than to thoughtfully analyze the situation, right?

How come Albany Broadcasting is live and local? They have live, local jocks in almost every daypart on WFLY, WYJB, WAJZ. They seem to be paying the bills and keeping the lights on just fine but iHeart can only afford one morning show?

They have quadruple the staff with half the amount of stations.

 

[radiofan2023]

How come Albany Broadcasting is live and local? They have live, local jocks in almost every daypart on WFLY, WYJB, WAJZ. They seem to be paying the bills and keeping the lights on just fine but iHeart can only afford one morning show?

They have quadruple the staff with half the amount of stations.

Iheart has a lot more debt

 

[MHVRadiofan]

So I guess you’ll just ignore the significant revenue decline over many years along with the changing entertainment landscape. Much easier to blame “suits” than to thoughtfully analyze the situation, right?

I was speaking from a listener point of view. Of course I understand radio is a business who's purpose is to make money. If it isn't you need to increase income or cut costs . In today's media environment it is difficult to increase revenue. This is something that plages all of broadcasting. I Heart has an additional problem even with their inevitable bankruptcy a few years ago , they are still overleveraged. They are once again attempting to restructure their debt. Apparently the debit they shed isn't enough. They accumulated much of the debit when the went on a buying spree they could not afford when ownership regulations were relaxed in the nineties.
Perhaps it is time to break up the behemoth by selling clusters of stations to someone willing to invest in running them properly. I realize station values have plummeted and numerous stations appearing on the market will make that worse. They will take a big financial hit , but this isn't working either. How long will the lenders allow this to continue before they decide to cut their losses, and not renegotiate loan terms.

 

[luperm]

I was speaking from a listener point of view. Of course I understand radio is a business who's purpose is to make money. If it isn't you need to increase income or cut costs . In today's media environment it is difficult to increase revenue. This is something that plages all of broadcasting. I Heart has an additional problem even with their inevitable bankruptcy a few years ago , they are still overleveraged. They are once again attempting to restructure their debt. Apparently the debit they shed isn't enough. They accumulated much of the debit when the went on a buying spree they could not afford when ownership regulations were relaxed in the nineties.
Perhaps it is time to break up the behemoth by selling clusters of stations to someone willing to invest in running them properly. I realize station values have plummeted and numerous stations appearing on the market will make that worse. They will take a big financial hit , but this isn't working either. How long will the lenders allow this to continue before they decide to cut their losses, and not renegotiate loan terms.

I understand what you are saying, however I don't see how that improves the financial situation.
Revenues are declining and costs are rising. That needs to be addressed in the business operations.
The debt is another issue (albeit a significant one).

At least iHeart has significant national resources to provide programming to its stations. From the listeners perspective, do you actually think they care if the DJ is across town or in a different city? Do you really believe that putting these stations in the hands of other owners will solve the economic issues facing radio?

 

[TheBigA]

Perhaps it is time to break up the behemoth by selling clusters of stations to someone willing to invest in running them properly. ]

I've been hearing this for 20 years. iHeart has been trying to do that. Nobody wants them. That includes local groups. There's a big FM station for sale right now in NYC and no buyers. Nobody is going to invest in radio stations that lose money. Spending even more money on them won't fix the real problem.

Plus who would break them up? The FCC? Did you see who won the election? They are the party of deregulation. The last time they ran the FCC, they wanted to increase ownership limits. That's in their proposal for the new administration. So nobody is going to break up iHeart.