Over/Under on Wease's Salary

[bobn]

A friend of mine who works in radio told me today that Entercom tried to KEEP Wease, but that his agent, name Bob Eaton, from california, got CCU to outbid Entercom.

He says Wease is making over $500 K per year plus clear channel pays his mortgage and stuff. I can't believe it. And this guy acts like he is Joe Six Pack. He sure isn't Joe the DJ.

Anybody think this is true??

 

[radioguybroadcasting]

A friend of mine who works in radio told me today that Entercom tried to KEEP Wease, but that his agent, name Bob Eaton, from california, got CCU to outbid Entercom.

He says Wease is making over $500 K per year plus clear channel pays his mortgage and stuff. I can't believe it. And this guy acts like he is Joe Six Pack. He sure isn't Joe the DJ.

Anybody think this is true??

jeez, if that IS true, no wonder radio stations are firing people cuse they're paying one guy so much.

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Mike Doyle of Entercom recently stated on this board that the company wanted to keep Wease but both sides couldn't reach an agreement (or something like that). I also heard, through the grapevine, that Wease hired a top-notch agent to represent him during contract talks.
As for the salary, I am a bit skeptical about the amount. If Clear Channel is willing to pay Wease 500k a year, plus stipends, then Lonsberry will be walking into management's office demanding more money because his show not only has ratings but generates revenue. There is no way, in my opinion, that Wease will generate enough revenue on FOX to justify that alleged salary he's making. My guess is that he's making closer to 250 or perhaps 300 k a year. It's also my opinion that nobody currently on Rochester radio is good enough to make even close to that amount of money.

 

[yugoidar]

Here we go again!

I heard that CBS was paying him somewhere in the neighborhood of the upper $200,000 PLUS perks (trade) that amounted to another couple of hundred thousand.

Like you VOR, I doubt, in the position he was in (out of work), that he was able to command anything approaching a half a mil a year.

In the current economy and advertising environment, it's going to be tough to pay him whatever he ended up signing for.

 

[GSmitty]

bobn,

On what planet does your friend work in radio???? Let's be rational here.

 

[SirRoxalot]

Rumor has it that Wease had the kind of deal that bobn describes with CBS, but Entercom balked when Wease demanded a raise after Entercom acquired 'CMF and and Wease's contract ran out. Entercom offered 2-large, and Wease went looking for a better deal, which he apparently got from Clear Channel.

Wease is likely north of 2-large, but less than 3-large, with a golden benefit package. The 'CMF payroll under CBS seems to have been severely out of whack for the market size, and Entercom dialed it down significantly to a much more manageable number. They lost some good people, and some good people took a sizeable pay cut.

It will be interesting to see if Clear Channel's investment in Wease ultimately pays off. The more I think about it, the more it makes sense that Wease will cash in for a couple of years, try to establish The Fox as a worthy opponent to 'CMF, then boot him in favor of a younger talent. It also remains to be seen if Clear Channel will give the morning show any support by adding more live and local content.

 

[mimic001]

The first poster was closer to the truth...

Let's just say that if everything goes as planned, CC will make back his salary after only a one month of station billing.

What remains to be seen however, will be what local/national advertisers will be willing to cough up for his show. I think the days are gone when CBS was able to get $300 for a commercial in Wease's show. But I don't think $225-$250/commercial is inappropriate either. So figure the number of commercial minutes per hour and multiply that by the number of Wease hours (4-5/day) and then multiply that by 22 days each month, you'll see what I mean.

 

[Radknowski]

I first was inclined to write about Wease's value to CC and The Fox. But after reading the amounts of money he alledgedly is to make and the advertising revenue he's expected to draw, I began to think otherwise.

What planet are we living on? The country is in a recession. Are you listening to radio? Maybe it's different in Rochester, but in Buffalo automotive advertising is down. The per vehicle alotment that dealers get for each vehicle on their lot is being used in different ways. Radio is no longer an automatic buy. Car dealers and automotive in general drive (no pun intended) a lot of advertising, especially on stations that target Men 25-54. That advertsing has dried up.

So where's the so-called flood of revenue for Wease's show, especially at $250 a unit, going to come from? I'm speculating based on market conditions, but I don't see Wease's (base) salary being any greater than $250k. Perks? OK, whatever you say. But where's the revenue going to come from? Strip joints? Pizza parlors? Bars? Home Depot? Wegmans? Wal-Mart?

I have no truck with Wease. He's a great self-promoter... occasionally a world-class assnugget. But worse has been said of me, so I wish him well.

Still, I've done the math based on 12 units an hour at $200 per unit at four hours per day and 22 days per month. It's a killing. But really, it looks like Wall Street voodoo economics and we all know what that's lead us to. Maybe CC signed advertisers up at an annual rate and the money'salready "in the bank" for the first year... until advertisers cancel because they have to pay rent and their staff before they can pay their advertising bills.

Take a good hard look at this deal under the light of current economic conditions and you can't help but ask where the money's coming from and how long it's going to last. The way layoffs are piling up in this business, would it surprise anybody here if CC laid off a body or two at The Fox just to help compensate for Wease's large salary.

 

[bobn]

My guy says entercom offered 400 large, and his agent, bob Eatmann (I got the name wrong) - here is his website http://www.roberteatman.com/ is also Opie and Anthony's agent. This guy says Clear Channel outbid by over 100 large and that entercom walked away at that point.

The agent thing makes sense, and this guy got o&a millions...so it might be possible....

 

[Bob1370]

$250 per commercial unit really isn't that exorbitant for a show that's likely to grow quickly to dominance in a key demo like 25-54 men in a key daypart like mornings. There are still plenty of retail and service businesses out there, even in a recessionary economy, that will spend it to keep their customer traffic flowing, and they'll get a return on their investment in air time. I'm sure Wease will make plenty of money for his advertisers and for Clear Channel, and be a cash cow just as reliable as Chet and Beth. Signing him was a good business decision.

More power to him. If he does well, it sets the stage for others to do well too...

 

[Element9]

"$250 per commercial unit really isn't that exorbitant for a show that's likely to grow quickly to dominance in a key demo like 25-54 men in a key daypart like mornings. There are still plenty of retail and service businesses out there, even in a recessionary economy, that will spend it to keep their customer traffic flowing, and they'll get a return on their investment in air time."

Frequency is critical to the success of most advertising campaigns. Clients don't buy one commercial. Depending on the required reach and desired gross ratings points and all that technical sales mumbo-jumbo, clients buy dozens of commercials. So while $250 sounds affordable, $25 hundred or $5 thousand might be a bigger pill to swallow, especially for smaller, direct advertisers.

"I'm sure Wease will make plenty of money for his advertisers and for Clear Channel, and be a cash cow just as reliable as Chet and Beth. Signing him was a good business decision. More power to him. If he does well, it sets the stage for others to do well too..."

Cash cow, eh? Well, living in Rochester, you probably know better than I, but only time will tell and I'd be willing to bet there's plenty of white water ahead.

 

[JohnGault]

All pretty interesting, especially given what was said by all a year ago. I have never mentioned dollars, and I will not start. I'm more interested in the new show and how it sounds!

CC is a private company now, and Radio is still a good cash flow business, even as it inevitably declines. CC is also very big on regionalizing talent, though I suspect Wease might be too local for that play.

Going forward expect less money spent on everything except top talent. We can all argue over what exactly that is, and whether it is fair.

That said, this recession is very real. Ask anyone who works at Kodak. Nobody in or out of radio will make budget in '09, but the top shows will remain... until the next contract comes up.

 

[SirRoxalot]

The math is simple.

The more that CC pays Wease, the less that they'll put into other dayparts. This is a play to make The Fox competitive with a fading 'CMF, which has its own challenges. I also like the idea that Wease will be introducing his eventual replacement, so this is an attempt to take down the competition, and a last chance for a fat paycheck for Wease.

It will be interesting. 'CMF has a deeper bench, but The Fox has the star quarterback who throws big interceptions. For every Wease loyalist, there's a Wease hater. The current 'CMF morning show had time to establish itself. Does it offer enough to withstand a challenge from Wease? If Wease succeeds, does his audience stay with a syndicated VT'd Fox for the rest of the day?

It will be interesting. From a Buffalo perspective, it just shows how lucky we are to have 97-Rock, a MUCH better radio station than either 'CMF or The Fox, with a great, established line-up of talent. Let's hope that Citadel is smart enough to keep it together as that company faces challenging times.

 

[Bob1370]

If Wease succeeds, but the audience flees at 11 AM every day, you can expect Fox 95.1 to go after at very least a strong afternoon show to plug into the schedule--there are some talented people on the beach right now, and I'm sure others will listen to any offer CC makes whenever their contract renewal time comes up.

 

[bobn]

By the way, the current WCMF morning show, all market vets and pros, is #1 in Men and #2 in Adults 25-54 in the Summer Book. Does anyone really think that those people who love Wease and Hate Entercom wrote down "WCMF" in the Summer Book?

I don't think so. The WCMF AM show dropped in the Spring and rebounded in the Summer, especially with younger men. I think the Wease lovers have left, and that WCMF is growing a new,younger male audience in AM drive. It's possible both stations will succeed,and WHAM will get hurt as Wease fans tend to be older, and WHAM went up when Wease went off.

Also, do the math: 10 spots per hour at $250 per x 5 days, x 50 weeks (Vacation time) adds up to about what they are paying their morning show. They need to DOUBLE THAT to make the new Wease show work and make the kind of profit these radio conglomerates want today.

Car sales off 40% ---not sure I'd want to have that kind of monkey on my back this coming year.

Finally, if Wease is worth half a million or more, what are Chet and Beth and Lonsbery worth? Look what happened to WHAM when Lonsberry left. If I were them, I'd be bangin on someones door for a raise.....Maybe they already have....

 

[The Voice of Reason]

Clear Channel is bringing WEASE on board during the start of holiday shopping with the hope that he can generate more revenue for them. The only problem is that because of the current shape of the economy, people are not going to be spending that much this year; nor are they going to be going out for dinner and movies.
Beth and Chet and Lonsberry probably have already knocked on management's door asking for more money and I bet that CC has already presented the trio with a "bonus" just to keep them happy.
Let's face it boys and girls; the day is coming when current on-air personalities are going to leave the airwaves for good. So who is going to replace them? Name me some up and coming local talent that can replace Beth, Chet, Wease, Spezzano, and a host of others?

 

[SirRoxalot]

Let's face it boys and girls; the day is coming when current on-air personalities are going to leave the airwaves for good. So who is going to replace them? Name me some up and coming local talent that can replace Beth, Chet, Wease, Spezzano, and a host of others?

[sarcasm] Ryan Seacrest [/sarcasm].

 

[OttoM]

Let's face it boys and girls; the day is coming when current on-air personalities are going to leave the airwaves for good. So who is going to replace them? Name me some up and coming local talent that can replace Beth, Chet, Wease, Spezzano, and a host of others?

[sarcasm] Ryan Seacrest [/sarcasm].

True that. And by the time the above named personalities retire, some computer geek will perfect synthesized speech and it will sound EXACTLY like a real human talking, so there's no need for even live voices anymore. The technology is very close already!

 

[SirRoxalot]

Future Shock

True that. And by the time the above named personalities retire, some computer geek will perfect synthesized speech and it will sound EXACTLY like a real human talking, so there's no need for even live voices anymore. The technology is very close already!

Great. Beancounters team with computer nerds to "reinvent" radio. They'll expect us to tune in for the wit and wisdom of Bill Gates...

 

[cee]

True that. And by the time the above named personalities retire, some computer geek will perfect synthesized speech and it will sound EXACTLY like a real human talking, so there's no need for even live voices anymore. The technology is very close already!

Perhaps some of you also stumbled upon this.....there was(maybe still is) a banner ad for a website that offers you unlimited synthesized speech(I think it was a year or two ago I found it). IIRC, the banner ad allowed you to type in words and hear them repeated back. Kinda choppy sounding(much like those automated voice mails that repeat numbers that you punch into your phone) - but that will of course all change soon. I'm sure when it's perfected voice tracking will be taken over by these machines. They'll try them on overnights and then on some weekend shifts and then it'll slowly start to take over much of the rest of the dayparts. Of course, a few stations with actual live personalities will be the ones to win over more listeners.