• Get involved.
    We want your input!
    Apply for Membership and join the conversations about everything related to broadcasting.

    After we receive your registration, a moderator will review it. After your registration is approved, you will be permitted to post.
    If you use a disposable or false email address, your registration will be rejected.

    After your membership is approved, please take a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself.
    https://www.radiodiscussions.com/forums/introduce-yourself.1088/

    Thanks in advance and have fun!
    RadioDiscussions Administrators

Steve Gregory and more fired from KFI

Mike Stark said:
Nailed it on all counts.
Click to expand...

Please wake up. Somebody has to pay the salaries. Who would that be? Listeners? Really? The money has to come from somewhere.

But hey, you work at an LPFM. You now have the ability to make the best quality programming, and show us all how stupid we are. Let me know how it works out. Just do quality product, and the money will appear. Nailed it!
 
KFI on their own is profitable, they are making money. They are suffering because they are owned by a debt ridden corporation that needs to exit broadcasting. There are plenty of broadcasters out there that are not debt ridden, falling in and out of bankruptcy, and still have the resources to keep staff on air, in management, and behind the scenes.

This is an iHeart problem, and radio has the potential to be so much better if iHeart ceased to exist.
 
Mike Stark said:
Then just hit the off button, because there seems to be no future for radio under your wide-awake theory.
Click to expand...

Radio isn't done completely, but they can't staff like it's the 90s anymore. You budget for who is listening. That's what they're doing.

Get used to it. My sense is there will be a lot more coming, and it won't just be big broadcasters.

KilowattKat said:
This is an iHeart problem, and radio has the potential to be so much better if iHeart ceased to exist.
Click to expand...

If that's true, then why is KPCC and KCRW also laying people off? If that's true, where are all the buyers for radio stations?

Revenues for ALL stations have dropped, including KFI. Please read the revenue statements. This isn't about debt. It's about falling revenue caused by declining audiences. Meruelo isn't a debt ridden broadcaster. Yet he's cutting his staff. Please wake up.
 
TheBigA said:
Radio isn't done completely, but they can't staff like it's the 90s anymore. You budget for who is listening. That's what they're doing.

Get used to it. My sense is there will be a lot more coming, and it won't just be big broadcasters.



If that's true, then why is KPCC and KCRW also laying people off? If that's true, where are all the buyers for radio stations?

Revenues for ALL stations have dropped, including KFI. Please read the revenue statements. This isn't about debt. It's about falling revenue caused by declining audiences.
Click to expand...
Your talking about a completely different business model that relies on donations, and grants which are drying up. KFI is a commercial operation relying on advertiser revenue which apparently, according to Bob Pittman is recovering.
 
KilowattKat said:
Your talking about a completely different business model that relies on donations, and grants which are drying up. KFI is a commercial operation relying on advertiser revenue which apparently, according to Bob Pittman is recovering.
Click to expand...

So now you're quoting Bob Pittman? Really? The man who everyone hates?

It's not recovering. Advertising revenue is dropping. The 4th quarter will be worse than the 3rd. That's what we're looking at. It's not going to improve. They can't keep staffing like it's the 90s.
 
DoctorWu said:
Just confirmed here as well - Corbin Carson, Chris Little, Kris Adler, and Erin Ben-Moche are all gone.
Click to expand...

Cataclysmic. You have to know Los Angeles radio to know exactly what this means from the standpoint of KFI's importance as a news source. It didn't give an inch to the much better-equipped KNX.

My guess is that KFI's news will now come out of Total Traffic Long Beach.

Stories that now can be told:

I came back from vacation in January of 2019 to find Chris Berry and his deputy Mike Ross at KFBK. I'd worked for them before in Phoenix. They were there to pitch me on becoming Pacific Region News Director.

The plan was being implemented nationwide that spring, with iHeart/24-7 News assuming control of local newsrooms. They called it synergy. What it was was taking 43 individual newsrooms and turning it into 9 newsrooms.

What I'm guessing they hoped I didn't notice was that they hadn't updated their slide deck. The original plan was for all news for all of California to come out of Total Traffic Long Beach.

I kept quiet during the meeting and learned afterward that KFI would retain its own news department because Robin Bertolucci raised all kinds of hell and that Sacramento was not part of the plan until the San Francisco Market President, who also was Regional President, raised more kinds of hell about not having a newsroom in this half of the state.

We couldn't figure out a way for me to be Pacific Region News Director and continue co-anchoring the KFBK Afternoon News with Kitty O'Neal, so I chose continuing to work with Kitty and got a new contract, a nice raise and the severance package that saved my tail in the layoffs nine months later.

They tapped Veronica Carter for the Regional ND gig and she was (no surprise) terrific. Veronica bailed for KXL in Portland after a year and (last I checked) they're on her third or fourth replacement.

So, it took close to six years, but the idea of KFI not having its own newsroom has finally been put into play.
 
TheBigA said:
Revenues for ALL stations have dropped, including KFI. Please read the revenue statements. This isn't about debt. It's about falling revenue caused by declining audiences.
Click to expand...
I have read the revenue statements. They're quite revealing. You are correct that falling audiences cause revenues to decline. But it's crappy programming that causes listeners to leave in the first place. Saying "it's a streaming world" now isn't quite right - every radio station also has a stream, and listeners can hear them on the same phones they use to consume their podcasts. It's just that OTA has had its core hollowed out.

But here's a question: if revenues are falling so badly, how is it that iHeart has made (and continues to make) at least two-dozen "Executive Sales" promotions congruent with their slashing of air personnel over the past 10 days? There's no money to pay content creators, but plenty to give raises and titles to sales people? Hmmm...doesn't track, does it?
 
michael hagerty said:
Cataclysmic. You have to know Los Angeles radio to know exactly what this means from the standpoint of KFI's importance as a news source.
Click to expand...
Indeed. With KABC irrelevant and KNX a firm also-ran, there's no one left to provide actual investigative reporting. Unless someone savvy leaps on the opportunity to snap up some now-at-large talent and instantly increase their reputation.
 
DoctorWu said:
But it's crappy programming that causes listeners to leave in the first place.
Click to expand...

Crappy programming? So you're saying the programming decisions made by Robin and Steve were crappy?

DoctorWu said:
There's no money to pay content creators, but plenty to give raises and titles to sales people? Hmmm...doesn't track, does it?
Click to expand...

The sales people get paid by commission. Would the content people work for a commission? They get paid a share of the money they bring in. That's how the online content creators work. No salary & benefits.

DoctorWu said:
Indeed. With KABC irrelevant and KNX a firm also-ran, there's no one left to provide actual investigative reporting. Unless someone savvy leaps on the opportunity to snap up some now-at-large talent and instantly increase their reputation.
Click to expand...

KNX makes almost as much money as KFI. If you want investigative reporting, listen to public radio.
 
This is really sad !! What do you all think will happen to KFI? Do you think that I-Heart wants to sell it, so they are trying to keep the operating costs low in order to attract buyers?
I understand that they are losing revenue, but it seems quite drastic to let go of this talent. I think that L.A. stations need local news staff.
What do you all think? I think it's sad. :(
 
michael hagerty said:
Cataclysmic. You have to know Los Angeles radio to know exactly what this means from the standpoint of KFI's importance as a news source. It didn't give an inch to the much better-equipped KNX.

My guess is that KFI's news will now come out of Total Traffic Long Beach.

Stories that now can be told:

I came back from vacation in January of 2019 to find Chris Berry and his deputy Mike Ross at KFBK. I'd worked for them before in Phoenix. They were there to pitch me on becoming Pacific Region News Director.

The plan was being implemented nationwide that spring, with iHeart/24-7 News assuming control of local newsrooms. They called it synergy. What it was was taking 43 individual newsrooms and turning it into 9 newsrooms.

What I'm guessing they hoped I didn't notice was that they hadn't updated their slide deck. The original plan was for all news for all of California to come out of Total Traffic Long Beach.

I kept quiet during the meeting and learned afterward that KFI would retain its own news department because Robin Bertolucci raised all kinds of hell and that Sacramento was not part of the plan until the San Francisco Market President, who also was Regional President, raised more kinds of hell about not having a newsroom in this half of the state.

We couldn't figure out a way for me to be Pacific Region News Director and continue co-anchoring the KFBK Afternoon News with Kitty O'Neal, so I chose continuing to work with Kitty and got a new contract, a nice raise and the severance package that saved my tail in the layoffs nine months later.

They tapped Veronica Carter for the Regional ND gig and she was (no surprise) terrific. Veronica bailed for KXL in Portland after a year and (last I checked) they're on her third or fourth replacement.

So, it took close to six years, but the idea of KFI not having its own newsroom has finally been put into play.
Click to expand...
At Total Traffic will it just be news readers, or any actual on the scene reporters? When KNWN in Seattle eliminated their news dept. it was replaced with audio from KOMO-TV reporters. Which is a good replacement for on the scene reporting, with recognizable talent from local television. My hope would be a similar partnership with a TV newsroom in LA.
 
Daryl Lynn L.A. said:
This is really sad !! What do you all think will happen to KFI? Do you think that I-Heart wants to sell it, so they are trying to keep the operating costs low in order to attract buyers?
I understand that they are losing revenue, but it seems quite drastic to let go of this talent. I think that L.A. stations need local news staff.
What do you all think? I think it's sad. :(
Click to expand...
It is sad.

KFI isn't for sale. This is about reducing costs across the company. They've made the calculation that talk is their product and news is secondary. They risk losing audience to KNX for major coverage, and we'll see if that turns out to be true or not.
 
DoctorWu said:
Indeed. With KABC irrelevant and KNX a firm also-ran, there's no one left to provide actual investigative reporting. Unless someone savvy leaps on the opportunity to snap up some now-at-large talent and instantly increase their reputation.
Click to expand...

Well, if I'm Alex Silverman (the PD at KNX), I'm having lunch with Steve Gregory tomorrow and seeing how he feels about commuting to Wilshire instead of Burbank. That's just a golden opportunity for KNX to shore up a weak spot.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.


Back
Top Bottom