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iHeart Restructures - Departures

We must remember that consumers voluntarily chose Wal-Mart over the downtown retailer. They liked the lower prices, not paying for downtown parking, not having to visit 10 stores to get everything they neededm, or having to have all of their shopping done before 6 (noon on Thursdays). Though Dollar General is being bashed for opening in poor areas (because I guess poor people are supposed to pay higher prices for stuff?), people choose to shop there too. Now, people are choosing Amazon and grocery delivery. That doesn't look good for local advertising.

iHeart isn't the only one cutting and consoilidating in the advertising industry. Gannett had it's own bloodbath a few months ago, leaving very little local newspaper staff. ESPN has made cuts. E.W. Scripps sold its radio stations to invest in podcasts and other video content. Eveything is changing. iHeart is going to be Spotify or SiriusXM with transmitters and towers. That's what makes it attractive to Liberty for a merger with SiriusXM.

It's not a great time to be a local personality. By and large, once a couple of days of outrage takes place, everyone will move on.





umfan said:
I think that's a pretty good analogy, although I suspect you intended the Dollar General reference to be derisive of these changes. I may well be wrong on your intent in this regard.

Dollar General has been amazingly successful in bringing more affordable goods to consumers, particularly in less populated areas that have traditionally been underserved by large retailers.

Iheart's changes won't save consumers money, per say, but it will allow the continued operation of stations in medium to smaller markets. They had to make a change like this as painful as it is for those losing their jobs.
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gr8oldies said:
Though Dollar General is being bashed for opening in poor areas (because I guess poor people are supposed to pay higher prices for stuff?), people choose to shop there too.
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There's one next door. If they are trying to gouge people, they're not succeeding. Prices are lower than any of the chain supermarkets around here; only Aldi beats them. The criticism of Dollar General I've heard most often is that most of the food they carry is not particularly good for you -- lots of processed meats, canned fish, and shelf upon shelf of crispy, salty snacks and sugary cookies, but no fresh produce at all, just veggies in cans. That can of Pringles that will set you back about $2.50 at Stop & Shop is only just north of $1 at DG, so it would seem that S&S is doing the gouging of the limited-income folks on this stretch of road.

Actually, the worst gouging in poor neighborhoods has to be by CVS. I have no idea why anyone would go grocery shopping there, but people do, mostly people who'd be doing better by going to DG, or even Stop & Shop.
 
https://news.****************/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=n38126

Also Iheart has announced management changes while the cuts are at play.

iHeartMedia Announces Leadership for Markets Group Organization iHeartMedia has announced that nine of its senior executives will be Division Presidents of the new iHeartMedia Markets Group organization, effective immediately. These executives - Shosh Abromovich, Linda Byrd, Tony Coles, Julie Donohue, Nick Gnau, Scott Hopeck, Dan Lankford, Kevin LeGrett and Tom McConnell - will report into Greg Ashlock, President of the iHeartMedia Markets Group.

Under the new organizational structure, the company will now group its markets by common needs and characteristics into three distinctly different divisions to make sharing of resources and experiences easier and more targeted. LeGrett and Hopeck will lead the Region Division; McConnell, Coles and Byrd will lead the Metro Division; Abromovich, Gnau and Lankford will lead the Community Division; and Donohue will lead the Multi-Market Partnerships Division.
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Here is the 2020 management of Iheart.
 
In our area, Walgreen has Kroger groceries, and Kroger has Walgreen drugs and personal care products a few blocks away from each other.



CTListener said:
There's one next door. If they are trying to gouge people, they're not succeeding. Prices are lower than any of the chain supermarkets around here; only Aldi beats them. The criticism of Dollar General I've heard most often is that most of the food they carry is not particularly good for you -- lots of processed meats, canned fish, and shelf upon shelf of crispy, salty snacks and sugary cookies, but no fresh produce at all, just veggies in cans. That can of Pringles that will set you back about $2.50 at Stop & Shop is only just north of $1 at DG, so it would seem that S&S is doing the gouging of the limited-income folks on this stretch of road.

Actually, the worst gouging in poor neighborhoods has to be by CVS. I have no idea why anyone would go grocery shopping there, but people do, mostly people who'd be doing better by going to DG, or even Stop & Shop.
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https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/iheartmedia-mass-layoffs-937513/

Here is more on the Iheart cuts.


With iHeartMedia taking this step to further hollow out its local presence, it’s easy to imagine that other big radio chains like Cumulus, Entercom, or Townsquare Media will do the same. “This is the largest radio group,” Del Colliano notes. “When they do something, guess what? Others will say, ‘Hey, we can’t operate in this world with a program director.'”

In fact, iHeartMedia’s move gives other radio chains cover if they want to pursue the same strategy. “No matter who does it next, iHeart was the bad guy first,” the former employee says. “So it doesn’t matter who does it next — they won’t be as bad as iHeart, because it won’t be unprecedented.”

The former on-air host acknowledges that local radio was already greatly reduced from its heyday. “Program directors at almost every company barely choose the music anymore,” he says. “It’s not ’cause they don’t want to — they’re told not to. Their influence has gotten less and less. You’ve gotten to the point where there’s no such thing as a disc jockey. There’s no such thing as a music director.”
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gr8oldies said:
Have to think it would be hard for A/I to do a talk show.
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True... but isn't talk slowly aging out? On top of that, some talk shows are just monologues. And it sounds like some stations are gutting local sports talk hosts.

News could be AI'd.

I was sort of engaged in sarcasm but really, I can see the point where AI will be able to replace a lot of voicing on radio, TV, and even movies, with AI voices and computer generated versions of actual actors.

Anyway, back to the actual topic... Sad to see what's happening.
 
Premuim Choice is voicetracks into a playlist, not live.


TheBigA said:
I don't see that at all. They've already been offering the "premium choice" which is live hosted formats based at certain stations around the country. So it would be live radio, but not local. In point of fact, that's what Sirius is doing with many of its stations. Small non-group stations have been running satellite delivered formats for 30 year. There are lots of ways to do radio.
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Del Colliano is wrong as often as he's right. There is a huge difference in what's happening in iHeart vs. the other groups. IHeart has the app, a lot of content and a distribution network that reaches almost everywhere in the U.S. That's something another investor wants. Cumulus hasn't been going in that same direction, even though they own 24/7 networks.



RadioPatrol said:
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/iheartmedia-mass-layoffs-937513/

Here is more on the Iheart cuts.
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boombox4 said:
News could be AI'd.
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It depends on how you define news. For headlines, it could easily be done via AI, but it’s not possible to apply AI to investigative journalism. NPR researches some of their stories across several months (sometimes years).
 
louisparker said:
It depends on how you define news. For headlines, it could easily be done via AI, but it’s not possible to apply AI to investigative journalism. NPR researches some of their stories across several months (sometimes years).
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How many local iHeart radio stations do investigative journalism? How many iHeart investigative reporters were let go?
 
A lot of times in these type of situations the managers are the last to be fired in order to allow for smooth firings of the rank and file. I’m not sure this is going on here as I see some managers are already gone. Either way this a bloodbath and likely cements the end of radio as we know it. The medium will survive but will continue to be very different from it has been in our lifetimes. Sad.
 
seatownmedia said:
Either way this a bloodbath and likely cements the end of radio as we know it.
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Keep in mind that iHeart is only one company, and only owns a few stations in their markets. The company owns 5% of the licensed stations in the USA.

That means that 95% of the radio stations in the country are unaffected, and may even benefit from these changes.
 
It could be a golden opportunity for iHeart's competitors......or not.



TheBigA said:
Keep in mind that iHeart is only one company, and only owns a few stations in their markets. The company owns 5% of the licensed stations in the USA.

That means that 95% of the radio stations in the country are unaffected, and may even benefit from these changes.
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TheBigA said:
Keep in mind that iHeart is only one company, and only owns a few stations in their markets. The company owns 5% of the licensed stations in the USA.

That means that 95% of the radio stations in the country are unaffected, and may even benefit from these changes.
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Yet Iheart is the largest operator of radio stations today by number of stations
 
seatownmedia said:
Yet Iheart is the largest operator of radio stations today by number of stations
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They own 850 stations out of 16,000 licensed. That doesn't sound like the total death of radio to me.

I see they're cutting about 5% of a workforce of about 13,000. Only a fraction of them are on air.

And as I said, the digital division is expanding and hiring.
 
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