More Cuts at Clear Channel

[CW]

As far as the current budget freeze goes, word on the street is that CC corporate was asleep at the wheel (gone for the holidays) last month when budget projections started trickling in, and now they're having to make a drastic move because the buyers are looking at the numbers for early 08 and saying "WTF are you people doing?!?!?" They've been gutting the company for this sale, and if it falls through I've gotta think they'll have no choice than to start spinning off stations for pennies on the dollar. I can see Entercom being a big player if that happens.

Cumulus, Citadel and possibly Liberman would be sitting in the wings with baited breath to buy some of CC's larger clusters...
Of course in Houston LBI is maxed and would have to sell off some of their current properties and NOONE would buy them at the price they want (well maybe 700......Patrick would probably come up with the change for it)..
It would be a buyers market thats for sure...Clear Channel has noone but themselves to blame for it...wish I had sold my stock when it was at $100 a share...

Hmmmm I need to talk to my broker about my 401K there (and stock) now that I think about it.

Why would you blame Peter NOONE and why would he be buying clusters in Houston? What lack of educational institution do you claim? Your petty and poor writing doesn't change the fact that advertising is slowing down and media is in trouble. Television is rebating tens of thousands of dollars to clients because they can't make the points work due to the writers strike. My friends in TV sales are extremely unhappy and they work for ABC and CBS. What radio companies are doing well? Emmis? CBS? Citadel? No! they are all at a fraction of their value from just a year ago.

May I suggest a study in economics? We're in a recession and the companies that plan to survive will be the ones that cut now and weather the storm. Read the Starbucks story online. Open your eyes and mind.

Who the HELL is Peter NOONE you refer to?? Petty and poor writing? HA! You have a poor standard of writing and come off as a babbling idiot who uses facts you obviously pulled out of thin air. You need to go back to remedial writing and reading because you obvously missed the facts in my post and thus made totally wrong statements in your post above...try writing with more clarity if you intend to post. Otherwise, I would suggest taking up another hobby...As for a reccession, I thought all the Republicans said that happened during Clinton's terms and business never looked better now.....(oh yeah with stocks tumbling, WORKING people being laid off, etc)..However, CC did it to themselves because they were poorly managed, are top heavy and all their stations start to sound the same; dull and boring.....no matter WHICH market you are in. I was in Dayton OH with a friend from Dallas a few years back....we were listening to a local Rock station and he commented on how BAD, dull and predictable they sounded..then the TOH ID came across "A Clear Channel Communications station" was all I needed to hear...that explained it all...HE even mentioned it sounded like the Edge in Dallas......TA DA!! The crown has been laid..and that was YEARS ago...not this year...BEFORE the "recession"....sorry, CC did it to themselves...they bloated and their ego grew faster than their empire and they have squandered investor's monies. No other radio company was at $100+ and is now at 1/3 their value 3-4 years ago...most are down with the rest of the market...CC is the leader in the bottom range though....get your facts straight.

I don't know where you work...but I suspect you are a paid member of the "Empire"......Oh well, add another looney to the number of those on this board, folks.

 

[justareporter]

Tim and Easy Money both don't get it...whcih is too bad. Change is inevitable, but in the process one hopes the change is positive. I see no positive that comes out of local radio station sthat are nothing but a satellite downlink. I see nothing positive that comes out of the wholesale slaughter or radio news operations just to save a few dollars.

You may not be aweare of it but your JOB is to serve the public interest. CC forgot.

A good part of the reson why radio is in such trouble is that it no longer chases quality but chases money. You will NEVER make money if you don't spend it.

Smart managers know how to ride out the bumps in the sales storm. Dumb ones just worry about the next quarter.

Take a look at the sucessful companies and you see they took the long view.

As for your 401K....sell the CC stock...buy a good mutual fun.

 

[InTIMadate]

This is not Public Radio. This is not a socialist country. It is and should be about money, period.
If you want to make art, apply for a grant.

Before you sell your CC stock, read about what happening. You might want to keep it and cash out at $39.20 in five weeks.
On the other hand, I'll be glad to sell you my Emmis stock for what I paid just a couple of years ago when they were picked as one of the best companies in America to work for. It's now valued at less than 10% ($2.74). They forgot to focus on the money.

Commercial Radio is business. Ratings are a measurement of the public interest.
This is not Public Radio, they live off your generousity and tax dollars.

May I suggest focusing your hand-wringing on a bigger issue? How about Murdoch buying the Wall Street Journal? Imagine the job cuts that are coming for that news service!

 

[justareporter]

Timmy...Timmy...Timmy....

You miss the point....your station has a LICENSE to serve the public interest, convenience and necessity. Hopefully, if you do that well you will make LOTS of money. It is not the other way around. It is NOT if you make lots of money you will do what your LICENSE requires.

As for CC stock....I don't own tobacco stocks and I don't own CC. The deal MAY go through but why would Bain et.al buy something worth LESS than that which they agreed to buy it?

Here is a worse scenario....CC doesn't get bought...now they have a money losing company with depressing sales and stations with little to no morale.

As for Murdoch buys the WSJ...the reporters are great...maybe he'll get rid of the folks who write the editorials. I NEVER wish that anyone lose their job....but if someone has to go...

 

[InTIMadate]

Maybe I don't write in all caps and run-on sentences using ellipses, but I do get paid to write.

Please take into consideration the evil Bonneville. They purchased KLDE in Houston, made a tidy profit and then sold the station outright for a huge profit that cost many employees their job. Just last week, they've announced the elimination of multiple position due to "budget cuts." I guess the Church of Latter Day Saints is also concerned with the pictures of dead presidents on green paper. It's all about capitalism. Must turn a profit or die.

The same is true for Cox, Entercom, Starbucks, CBS, Blockbuster..... change or go away. Think Montgomery Wards.

As for a license, when was the last time a station lost theirs? Any guesses?

It's a permit. Hopefully you have one in your wallet. Community service went away in the 1996 deregulation. You can castrate a pig live on the radio and lose your job, but the station's license is safe. Trust me, you have no idea what is being said on some of the non-english speaking stations. Do you think those thousands of illegal aliens just showed up on the streets of LA a couple of years ago? No, it was a radio promotion! Nice use of the public airwaves, eh?

So, you're all over people losing their jobs if they don't agree with you? Editorial writers should be fired if you don't think they're right? I guess that pretty much wraps up your view of the world. Must be lonely.

 

[justareporter]

One of the true benefits of being older (or just plain old) is that of experience and also perspective. fortunately I remember when good stations made lots of money selling lots of radio time.

I agree with change or die. But take it a step further because it is evolve or die. Changing for the sake of changing gets you nothing but change. I'll go with the evolving. There is not much evolving going on in radio these days from a talent perspective. Just a lot of "bells and whistles" changing.

That a station has not lost a license in a while in no way reflects the reality that some owners should lose them. Analogy: just because you are speeding 50 miles over the limit doesn't mean you shouldn't get a ticket. You just haven't gotten one yet.You will.

As for the illegal aliens streaming over the borders, you will have to show me proof of your allegation. You speak the language? Or is it just "I heard." they call that hearsay and it doesn't meet anything close to the burden of proof and is not admissable.

And you take me way too seriously on the issue of the editorial board. I'm glad they have jobs and write what they believe. All I am saying is that if someone has to lose a job I would rather it be someone with whom I have significant editorial differences and who sits on his/her "opine" rather than an unbiased hard-working journalist.

And I've never been lonely. But thank you for thinking of me.

 

[davideduardo]

Trust me, you have no idea what is being said on some of the non-english speaking stations. Do you think those thousands of illegal aliens just showed up on the streets of LA a couple of years ago? No, it was a radio promotion! Nice use of the public airwaves, eh?

That was no more a radio promotion than the march in Selma and the sit-ins in Birmingham were.

To give some perspective, Black stations in the early 60's (keeping in mind the "industry" had only recently stopped calling them "race stations") called to their listeners to register to vote and to protest when they want change and when their civil rights were violated.

Today, many Hispanic stations are encouraging their listeners who are not citizens to become same and register to vote. They also encourage listeners to protest when they want change and to scream when their rights are being violated.

The march in LA two years ago was backed by the air personalities of ever Spanish language station in the market (16 of them) as well as most community organizations and civil rights militants. That is hardly a "radio promotion." It is a statement of the power of the 45 million Hispanics in the US today.

"Nice use of the airwaves?" Yes, it embodied everything that the Constitution of the USA represents!

P.S. Most of the marchers were not illegal.

 

[michaelshiloh]

Trust me, you have no idea what is being said on some of the non-english speaking stations. Do you think those thousands of illegal aliens just showed up on the streets of LA a couple of years ago? No, it was a radio promotion! Nice use of the public airwaves, eh?

That was no more a radio promotion than the march in Selma and the sit-ins in Birmingham were...

The march in LA two years ago was backed by the air personalities of ever Spanish language station in the market (16 of them) as well as most community organizations and civil rights militants. That is hardly a "radio promotion." It is a statement of the power of the 45 million Hispanics in the US today.

"Nice use of the airwaves?" Yes, it embodied everything that the Constitution of the USA represents!

P.S. Most of the marchers were not illegal.

David, as one of those who covered a march or two here in Houston, I gotta tell ya: You didn't see what it was like on the line. Civil rights groups, community-issue organizations and others were there because unions did much of the legwork. The speakers, the organizers, the sign-carriers all wore paper union stickers. It was about money and power to go with your idealism.

The Service Employees International Union was hard at work on those marches on a national level, with the goal of representing all workers, "legal or undocumented." They worked on organizing the radio stations to promote it. You couldn't miss it if you were there, but most reporters got caught up in the "Si, se puede" (Yes, We Can or more literally It Can) of it all. And it was highly political: There was plenty of anti-Bush administration material floating around. If anything, it was also a statement of the power of organized labor. To be frank, it was a brilliant PR coup.

By the way guys, whether or not Clear Channel is serving its communities of license while it makes money, isn't it interesting that the FCC is suddenly interested again in such service? Have you been reading about this? You can say that the 1996 act "deregulated" broadcasting, but the FCC's power to reregulate remains undiminished, and the NAB is none too happy about the Commission's toying with reinstating serving the community again.

"It is and should be about money, period."

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

By the way guys, whether or not Clear Channel is serving its communities of license while it makes money, isn't it interesting that the FCC is suddenly interested again in such service? Have you been reading about this? You can say that the 1996 act "deregulated" broadcasting, but the FCC's power to reregulate remains undiminished, and the NAB is none too happy about the Commission's toying with reinstating serving the community again.

"It is and should be about money, period."

Yep, got this from Taylor On Radio-Info:

“The NAB’s got to pay more attention to what the FCC’s going to do about ‘Localism.’”


I was just looking over the bare-bones “Actions of the NAB Board of Directors” release from this week’s meeting when the phone rang, and a group head said “don’t the NAB and the Commission realize what could happen if they pass these proposed new things requiring a studio in your city of license, and 24/7 manned operation?” He says that would force current consolidated clusters to be broken up and the resulting satellite offices to hire fulltime staff: “That’s crazy, and the FCC doesn’t seem to understand it. They’re listening to the activists who came to their public hearings, and who think that having studios in all these little communities is going to make things more local, somehow. Where’s the NAB on this?”

Wow. Somebody needs a big bowl of frosty, delicious Reality Chex.

 

[Mediafrog+]

“don’t the NAB and the Commission realize what could happen if they pass these proposed new things requiring a studio in your city of license, and 24/7 manned operation?” He says that would force current consolidated clusters to be broken up and the resulting satellite offices to hire fulltime staff: “That’s crazy, and the FCC doesn’t seem to understand it.

Here in Houston, such rules would hammer the following local clusters:

Univision (would need studios in Houston, Missouri City, Port Arthur, Galveston, and Rosenberg)
Liberman (would need studios in Houston, Conroe, Tomball, Port Arthur, Freeport, and Beaumont; as well as Bay City)
Cox (Pasadena, Lake Jackson, Conroe, Cleveland)
Cumulus (Houston, Beaumont, La Porte)

Yes, the proposal is nuts. Totally out of touch with market reality.

They’re listening to the activists who came to their public hearings, and who think that having studios in all these little communities is going to make things more local, somehow. Where’s the NAB on this?”

Unfortunately, politicians and government hacks tend to listen to the loudest people, not the smartest or most sensible. And some of the activists are perennial malcontents with particular axes to grind. Many still think it's the 1930's, with small town folk still listening in rapt attention to one single radio station. The reality hasn't been that way for decades.

I am not against paying attention to the local community, but much of what is being advocated simply goes against sound business practice, especially in the modern media marketplace. If you program politicians blowing hot air all day, the audience is going to flee even faster to satellite radio, the Internet, or MP3 players.

 

[justareporter]

I LOVE this...it is NUTS suggest some to require businesses to follow the rules..to do what they were supposed to do all along...serve their communities of license.

It is "nuts " to have a studio in their city of license.
It is "nuts" to be manned 24/7

I fail to see the harm except to the owners who would have to give up their bloated list of VP's, cars and planes and would have to go bck to what radio is supposed to be: a local medium.

Sounds like a lot of people don't want to work for their money...they want some syndicated program to do it all for them.

Some stations will go dark. Those that serve the public interest, convenience and necessity will do well.

Radio may yet survive ...once we get all of the hacks and bean counters out of it.

 

[purpledevil]

If this DOES come to fruition, KNUZ's Bellville "studio" is gonna need more than just some paint. ;D
If anything can break up the monopolous clusters in Houston, this would do it. Mentioned above was some stations going dark, which worries me since those that went ape gobbling up translator applications 5 years ago may be able to get high powered signals for pennies on the dollar. Imagine what our dial would look like then.

 

[stan]

This is good news, because it breaks up the clusters, and restores service to the city of license.

Too bad the free ride is over for CC and others. Maybe that's why the stock price is plummeting.

 

[CW]

“don’t the NAB and the Commission realize what could happen if they pass these proposed new things requiring a studio in your city of license, and 24/7 manned operation?” He says that would force current consolidated clusters to be broken up and the resulting satellite offices to hire fulltime staff: “That’s crazy, and the FCC doesn’t seem to understand it.

Here in Houston, such rules would hammer the following local clusters:

Univision (would need studios in Houston, Missouri City, Port Arthur, Galveston, and Rosenberg)
Liberman (would need studios in Houston, Conroe, Tomball, Port Arthur, Freeport, and Beaumont; as well as Bay City)
Cox (Pasadena, Lake Jackson, Conroe, Cleveland)
Cumulus (Houston, Beaumont, La Porte)

Yes, the proposal is nuts. Totally out of touch with market reality.

They’re listening to the activists who came to their public hearings, and who think that having studios in all these little communities is going to make things more local, somehow. Where’s the NAB on this?”

Unfortunately, politicians and government hacks tend to listen to the loudest people, not the smartest or most sensible. And some of the activists are perennial malcontents with particular axes to grind. Many still think it's the 1930's, with small town folk still listening in rapt attention to one single radio station. The reality hasn't been that way for decades.

I am not against paying attention to the local community, but much of what is being advocated simply goes against sound business practice, especially in the modern media marketplace. If you program politicians blowing hot air all day, the audience is going to flee even faster to satellite radio, the Internet, or MP3 players.

Univision ACTUALLY has a local office in Beaumont and a backup for 93.3 on a building in downtown BMT.....Cumulus already has an office in Beaumont....HOWEVER, how many companies are breaking the current Main Studio rules?? Did you know they are REQUIRED by Part 73 to have a local telephone number available to the COL OR a toll free (1-8xx) number available for those in the COL to be able to call?? I KNOW of at least THREE groups that DONT....if the FCC found out, thats a violation and a fine.....give me a break...they dont want to serve the COL...they want to serve the metro area next door and could care less about Conroe, Bay City, etc...Heck one broadcaster doesnt even have ANYONE at the main studios....the mail gets thrown through the mail slot in the front door and is lying on the floor for weeks at end....funny, the FCC busted Citadel in OKC for this a while back....yet this jerkwad gets away with it month after month and NOTHING is done and NO local programming is on the station (sat fed)....Hell, it could go off the air and noone would notice...what a waste of a good freq...(A Class B too!)

 

[kendro]

The FCC's ruling on "localism" is designed to force broadcasters to obey the terms of their license.
Violating those terms has became the industry standard and the mere concept of having to comply is beyond comprehension.
The days of anyone caring about a megaconglomerate's business needs are gone.
The NAB is finding more deaf ears lately. Expect that trend to increase.

 

[InTIMadate]

Emmis lays off 46 and nothing but crickets here on the "More Cuts at Clear Channel" board?

Told you that the belt tightening was due to the economy and others would soon to follow. Did you see the story about Macy's laying off around 2,500 managers?

If you think the FCC will be able to push their agenda while the industry is in decline, you are confused. Congress will do nothing but block them. The FCC is under greater scurtiny that in decades and vulnerable to their own budget cuts.

Expect more layoffs at major radio companies and industries. By summer, the ecomomist will confirm that, oops, we did slip into a recession in first quarter and the Nov. election will be about who can stimulate the economy.

You really should read more that just the boards now and then.

 

[aunti-terrestrial]

Actually, the Emmis layoffs are being discussed to death in markets where Emmis has a presence.

The word "recession" doesn't figure into the explanations offered on either Radioandrecords.com or here on the Radio-info home page. Most seem to fault poor ratings, a pending television division spinoff, and the need to save money in other markets in order to prop up their properties in New York.

http://www.radio-info.com/smf/index.php/topic,91945.0.html

 

[justareporter]

Timmy...Timmy...Timmy...

there you go again comparing Macy's to broadcasting.

The FCC isn't pushing an agenda...they are just requiring broadcasters to live up to the terms of their license.

You really need to get out more.

 

[DickNixon]

Back to the original post on this never ending thread. CBS is making cuts to their expenses as well. Sit tight, Cumulus, Cox, Univision are about to announce their cuts as well. Looks like CC was just the first. Any truth to the rumors of personnel cuts as well at the CBS Houston cluster?

 

[InTIMadate]

Front page story: Wave of cuts for CBS management including WXRT General Manager Michael Damsky after 24 years at the station. More to come!

So you're saying that there's no similarity with Macy's? Aren't they a large, international conglomerate that bought up a bunch of local favorite brands (Marshal Fields, Rich's, etc.), paid too much, stripped out brands and products and replace them with their own. Sound familiar at all?

I take it you've never personally met anyone or worked through anything with the FCC. You're right, they aren't pushing an agenda. They're pushing dozens.

Unemployement is now at a four year high. Consumer spending is dissipating faster than consumer confidence. All we need is one more quarterly report of shrinking GDP and it will be official. Maybe you should read more than the radio boards and Radio & Records. Try this: http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2008...orecasting-recession-grow/?mod=googlenews_wsj