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Pink Papers are about to Fly

R

rapking

Guest
Providence RI is a Citadel City, and Citadel today reported its Q4 net loss widened from $1.1 million to a stunning $848 million. Employees at Hot 106,Fun 107 , Pro , and The Score , Get ready to get kick out the door .
 
The whole Radio industry seems to be going down the tubes. Perhaps it's just a reflection of the bad economy in general. Either way... it just isn't good.
 
All Access has the story, the stock is currently at $1.10 from $10 a year ago. As the previous poster noted, they had a loss of $848 million in the quarter versus 1.1 million a year ago. Word is that Farid sent a blistering e-mail to Providence outlining dramatic slashing that will take place very shortly. The ugliness that Clear Channel has been experiencing is going to look like the good ship Lollypop compared to what's coming to the trail. There's a new Black Friday in East Providence.
 
Seekonk Sally said:
All Access has the story, the stock is currently at $1.10 from $10 a year ago. As the previous poster noted, they had a loss of $848 million in the quarter versus 1.1 million a year ago. Word is that Farid sent a blistering e-mail to Providence outlining dramatic slashing that will take place very shortly. The ugliness that Clear Channel has been experiencing is going to look like the good ship Lollypop compared to what's coming to the trail. There's a new Black Friday in East Providence.
Click to expand...

I wonder......

Given the situation Citadel is in right now, could we see a mass selloff of stations around the country much like what Clear Channel is doing?

For example, could we see 790 getting sold off anytime soon? To carry out the scenario one step further, who could some of the potential buyers be?

This Citadel thing could get v e r r r r r r y interesting.
 
If costs have to be cut & The Score is in trouble, here comes Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel.
What else is there? And let's not kid ourselves into thinking any kind of flip involving all local talent is in the works. I'd welcome Triple-A, especially since WBOS has become the alternative elevator from hell, but this is not an eclectic market. I'm the only person in RI who will listen to anything from country to oldies to symphonic gothic to Celtic. Alternative? Forget it. That's the audience that supposedly doesn't listen to the radio anymore & the ones who still do, listen to WBRU. Classic Rock? You're up against both HJY & B101 to an extent. I see oldies (which is good) but I don't see it done locally (which is bad).
 
It sounds like a ton of people are about to lose their jobs. The highest paid ones will go first. Good Luck sleeping if you work for a Citadel station. Citadel lost an insane amount of Money. This is going to end bad. Very very bad!
 
From what I hear WPRO am is the Golden boy for Citadel R.I.
How come WPRO can make money and too many of the other stations can't?
If I were Farid, I'd THINK before I SLASHED. Look at WHJJ. They slashed and cut their throats.

Doesn't this money loss stem from the ABC buy?
 
I wonder what this means for the part timers? do you think it will effect them? will you see many of the stations now voice tracked like many of the C.C. stations, or do you think that they will have an advantage because of it? or a lack of for that matter. Perhaps we will see more part timers doing full time shifts and not gettin benefits from it. like Ron over at Fun107. Im not sure what other stations have full time shifts being done part time, but I would appreciate the feedback.
 
WPRO has got to be one of the financial problems for the parent company, with their million dollar overhead and modest billing returns in this economy they have to be the fat turkey just before Thanksgiving. Look at Buddy's show, the ads have basically dried up since he went on the air. His nearly $300,000 annual salary continues on. Watch out when the hosts lucrative contracts come to their end. Lite and Pro-Fm continue to be (as the Imus show used to say) "the revenue producing part of our show".
 
I think Buddy will be first to be cut. $300,000 for a mid day show which has produced what???? I honestly don't think York and Depetro will be that far behind. Total up the salary just from those three guys alone brings you up to an estimated $750,000 a year. That's a lot of money for three guys in a market the size of Providence! I think the only winner in this mess might be Matt Allen who will probably get a full time gig because he works cheap.
 
Buddy's probably safe, locked-into a no-cut deal...

...but THIS IS BRUTAL.

"Names" are out-the-door at big ex-ABC O&O stations...WABC/NY, WLS/Chicago.
Ex-Pro-FM voice Rocky Allen out @ WPLJ/NY.

And Washington's longest-running radio act Chris Core -- on Citadel's other AM630, WMAL -- didn't even get to say goodbye after 33 years (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...29/AR2008022903546.html?referrer=emailarticle). He was a class act.

One of the FM sisters there abruptly canned its on-air staff and dumped the Smooth Jazz format for Citadel's syndicated "True Oldies" format.

There's even buzzzz that sacred cow KGO/San Francisco will be making moves. This station -- the USA's most-consistently-successful, #1 12+ in over 50 consecutive books -- was always untouchable...until now...
 
I don't see cuts at WPRO-AM and the station has to rebuild itself. Maybe De Petro could go as he hasn't established himself yet. The few times I've heard him I don't see any big loss if he's replaced even by Imus. On the other hand if Mr Danman is right and The Score is vapor that means half of St Pierre's job is gone since he's PD there. They'll save a chunk of change just by eliminating all sports jobs.

Maybe people in the building that have been there a long time might have to do more multitasking and maybe more weekday voicetracking because of it. This is all happening in the major markets at this point anyway.

And I do see either The Score AM or FM or both going syndicated oldies. I saw somewhere on this board that it's a PPM friendly format but I can't find the headline anymore.
 
Holland Cooke, please respond.

Holland, is Farid cutting those people because of low ratings or because the stations are doing poorly? Or, is he just cutting EVERYTHING?
From everything I've seen Wpro is making money, plenty of money. I just don't know if the other stations were. Were the firings that took place warranted? In your opinion. thankx
 
Megga,

Warranted ? Look at a legend like Rocky Allen !! Great ratings and I'm sure strong revenue for almost 20 years. He was a fixture in NYC radio. Then, gone in one day after a bad financial report. Who's safe?
 
Sally, if Rocky Allen was fired and the station was making money and his ratings were high , then Farid is as much of a nitwit as Clear channel.
 
Hard to believe anyone could be THAT big of a nitwit.
 
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