So much for all that podcasting revenue, Entercom is desperate for cash.

That’s why it practically gave away a Boston FM station to EMF yesterday and why in spite of what David Field tells analysts, Entercom has deep financial problems.

But the headlines don’t tell the full story.

The desperation sale of WAAF-FM may seem like a one-off but the company reportedly has plans to sell more stations as the failed CBS merger and the decline of radio in a boom economy have finally caught up to Entercom.

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Newstips  

Firing over 1,000 people most of whom were talent and programmers responsible for their on-air product was a gutsy move on the part of iHeart management.

Now, bolstered by the fact that their stations are still on the air with few problems and seemingly doing fine, iHeart prepares for another assault on employees.

Keep in mind that the January firings were not limited to programming and talent, they sneaked in over 50 engineering and IT RIFs as well as non-air related firings as part of the massive layoff.

“Dislocation” helps iHeart make up for declines in revenue that are expected all through 2020.

iHeart has apparently isolated the next victims of “dislocation” based on how virtually seamless the January firings went and it now appears iHeart has decided where to cut next. 

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Newstips  

It’s only been about a month since iHeart ejected more than 1,000 employees, mostly programming and air talent.

Under the shock of the most massive single firing in the history of radio, iHeart also slipped in more than 50 “dislocations” of engineers/IT people, put the ball in motion on a plan to downsize 150 studios and offices in their clusters over the next three years to cookie-cutter suites that are the same in every market making it easier to plug people in anywhere with no virtual learning curve.

And they’re not done.

Katz is their massive rep firm, a virtually monopoly.

Premiere is their syndication arm.

Total Traffic grinds out traffic reports to an audience that has no trouble downloading Waze.

All this as Liberty times its takeover of iHeart and “dislocations” for these businesses that were unthinkable even a month ago are coming soon.

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Newstips  

Larry Wilson is really pissed for unceremoniously getting kicked to the curb.

There is one investor who seriously wants to get out.

And one who wants to do just about anything to take over the company.

And we know exactly how this will play out because that one person is planning to win Alpha for himself using the same strategy he employed in the takeover of another radio company he rescued.

Based on that, you can see the future of Alpha Media more clearly now especially the extreme measures some are willing to employ to get control.

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Newstips  

Sooner or later this had to happen.

But sooner?  Really?

With over 1,000 “dislocations” accomplished, iHeart has a plan to eat away at other jobs and make it harder for those who survived the first cut to do theirs. 

Some of the second wave of “cost efficiencies” even go beyond the so-called “excellence centers” (regional hubs) and fitting out new offices and studios in virtually all of their 150 clusters – actually, they’ve already started that.

This is worse because it’s going to happen sooner.

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Newstips