A fired Cumulus worker is providing new evidence that Cumulus corporate leaders are thinly disguising terms such as

The only nice thing about living through the ravages of radio consolidation is that you get a keen sense of when the next victim is going to be served up to investment banks.

And that

It looks like Clear Channel had a

Boston grad student Joel Tenenbaum is trying to get the damage award in his music piracy case reduced from $675,000 to $29.70.

Tenenbaum is a smart alec but you know, he has a point

There is a new spirit I am feeling lately that a movement is underway to take radio back

I

Look what the Three Stooges of radio consolidation are up to.

These are things that have happened within the past few weeks at Citadel, Clear Channel and Cumulus that will make you laugh out loud (if not shed a tear or two).

Cumulus Pays $500 If You Refer an Employee and They Stayed Employed

Stay employed?

Are they kidding?

Arguably the most employee-unfriendly company is asking the employees they have left to actually recommend new ones -- you know, maybe their cheaper replacements.

As Cumulus said in their recruitment piece:

It

It

The lobby group that carries the record labels

If you take Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey at face value, his vision of radio is kind of non-local, operated with efficiencies through central command in Atlanta and based on a selling model that only Mr. Burns could like.

I say that because evidence is leaking from Cumulus markets that even if you are a Dickey Nation true-believer you are not immune to getting screwed.

Light the coals, the Cumulus sweat lodge is in operation (and I say that with all due respect to legitimate religious sweat lodges not the ones making the headlines lately).

At the heart of the issue is turning radio into a commodity business.

Some&hellip

It always worries me when I see radio people taking a shot at Pandora, the wildly popular customizable radio that is setting its sights on a local platform.

It

The hottest thing in the music business is Lady Gaga.

The coldest thing is EMI.

EMI is now saying that it may not be able to operate as Terra Firma

After the Super Bowl on CBS Sunday night was a new show called Undercover Boss where corporate CEOs get into the trenches with their employees to find out what working for their company is really like.

It was the most-watched post Super Bowl show since 2001 according to the overnight ratings.

In episode one, Larry O

The radio industry lost another legend a few days ago when owner/politician Cecil Heftel passed away.

It seems a lot of radio legends are leaving us lately or is it just that there are too few legends-in-the-making visible in the dark ages of radio consolidation?

What made Cecil Heftel special is that he loved radio. I

I get how the major consolidators want to dilute local radio in favor of a cheaper national platform.

And how they see hundreds of their radio stations serving as cheap price point delivery vehicles for major advertisers like Home Depot and Wal-Mart.

I get it, but I don't like it.

It's shortsighted and eventually destructive to the radio industry.

But what I don't get is the mean gene that the three leading unemployers in the radio industry possess.

Take Cumulus.

Please.

So terminator Gary Pizzati arrives at a sales meeting in Fayetteville, NC Wednesday morning. You may remember Pizzati who,&hellip

Last Thursday my Media Solutions Lab was held in Scottsdale and I have never been more proud of the radio, music and new media businesses as I was that day.

An impressive mix of executives and entrepreneurs attended and for the better part of seven hours worked actively with me on tracking the digital future.

We had fun. Taught each other and worked in small groups. On issues, strategies and skill sets.

I thought you would be interested in a few of my 15 predictions about where the media industry is headed:
Advertisers will increasingly go directly to the consumer and bypass radio, television and publishing. We&hellip

Cumulus Broadcasting is scouting talent to replace local personalities in their markets. It has dispatched top executives to negotiate with big name personalities for the purpose of saving more money by pulling a Ryan Seacrest in other dayparts.

All together now

The 52nd annual Grammy music awards walloped its television network competitors Sunday night with an almost one-third increase of last year's audience.

The Nielsen numbers won't be final until later today but the Grammys attracted about 23 million viewers -- winning the day.

Of course that is a far cry from 1984 which was the year of Thriller (51 million viewers).

Some liked this year's show. Some hated it. But at least more people watched i n 2010 than in 2009. I'm linking you to a historical view of Grammy ratings here.

So,&hellip

You can learn a lot by watching human behavior.

In fact, smart marketers never take their objective eyes off of how consumers enjoy their products and services.

Over a year ago I let you know that I believed Apple was going to announce a tablet mobile device to tuck in nicely between its laptop line and handheld devices like the iPhone and iPod.

Steve Jobs took his good time doing so