www.newstalk99.com

[gr8oldies]

Then again, if the board booted Farid out, who in his or her right mind would want the job. You'd have no control since the creditors are in charge. I guess you'd have a nice office.

 

[Tennessee Cowboy]

Then again, if the board booted Farid out, who in his or her right mind would want the job. You'd have no control since the creditors are in charge. I guess you'd have a nice office.

And the ability to offer the job to someone with the talent to see past the bean counters. The name of one of the best prospects would rhyme with "Jed Schrantley", who could move the executive offices to his home town that rhymes with "Socksville".

 

[BillBattle]

Kent, The only person, that you mentioned, that can fix the Citadel mess is Mel Karmazin. He was Faried's old boss and is now at Sirius.

 

[Kent]

Buy my Citadel stock at half what I paid for it and I'll agree with you that he's a brilliant motherf@$&#r. Until then I will reserve the use of the word 'brilliant' in this context.

That's basically what he did. Farid got the creditors to take ownership of a company that was worth well less than half of what it was when they initially lent him the money. Plus, he got to keep his high paying job and his cast of idiots that ran the company into the ground.

Right now I see him as an incompetent thief hanging by his fingernails.

You certainly won't hear me arguing he treats people well or knows radio. He does, however, know the political aspect of running a company extremely well. His political skills enabled to pull off something most of his peers couldn't, which was to escape responsibility for running his company into the ground!

 

[jmtillery]

Kent, The only person, that you mentioned, that can fix the Citadel mess is Mel Karmazin. He was Faried's old boss and is now at Sirius.

Mel Karmazin can "fix" the Citadel situation. There's no doubt about it. However, I wouldn't be so quick to say Karmazin is the only one who can turn Citadel around. There are others, besides Karmazin, who can "fix" the proverbial Citadel circus.

 

[Kent]

Mel Karmazin can "fix" the Citadel situation. There's no doubt about it. However, I wouldn't be so quick to say Karmazin is the only one who can turn Citadel around. There are others, besides Karmazin, who can "fix" the proverbial Citadel circus.

I agree. Besides, if Mel returns to terrestrial radio, it'll be Clear Channel.

 

[Big Bopper]

If I were in charge at Citadel HQ, I would hire Brantley and Pirkle to run the Knoxville cluster, for starters. They are the market's 2 most successful radio guys, and are experts in all viable formats and every department from on-air/programing to sales and management. Seeing what they have accomplished in some 2 months, from selecting a format and hiring a staff (starting with Brantley himself) to negotiating for programs, securing a new office and studio location, building/launching a new radio station, plus Facebook and the web, one must conclude that these boys have not made a single mis-step.

After they turned Citadel-Knoxville around, I would hand them Chattanooga and Tri-Cities, simultaneously. In 2-3 months, those markets would be fixed and I would turn them loose on Memphis and Dallas for a couple of months, then Atlanta. By May, 2011, I would give them the rest of the company to manage and would take personal credit for rescuing Citadel from certain disaster. It's sad that the bean-counting, suit-wearing, spread-sheet-analyzing, commodities traders in New York and Vegas can't see the solution to their problems right in front of their noses.

They are more interested in what the call sign of one station is going to be than the future of their entire company. No wonder they went bankrupt!

Yours truly,
BB