The nation’s number one radio group is now losing it.

Competitors have big plans.

CBS is moving with surgical precision to own the last viable radio formats without much public fanfare.

Even Cumulus has plans to grow the group next year.

Clear Channel is doing some of the most cockamamie things that make no sense.

But, it gives you an idea where they are coming from and where they are headed.

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1. How Clear Channel plans to replace its market managers.  It’s not based on performance.
    
2. Big time intimidation tactics:  They’re now doing in-station seminars for talent and salespeople on – sit down for this – how to do an endorsement.  But that’s not why they’re doing them.
    
3. How Clear Channel is now using Cumulus-type non-compete threats – with a new twist.
    
4. Why they are making deals with record labels for music that they don’t play on any of their stations. 
    
5. The payola disclaimer that some employees attach to their emails even though we all know Clear Channel doesn’t take payola for playing the same record every hour on the hour.

If you would like to see what Clear Channel is doing right now that clearly shows what they have up their sleeves next, click “read more” below. 

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The first topics have been posted for my January seminar, here’s a preview …

2013 will be the most critical year for radio, media companies and new age entrepreneurs.

Adapting radio for the digital age.

Creating new digital products and streams that advertisers are clamoring for.

Choosing the correct social media strategy because Twitter and Facebook alone will no longer do.  We don’t want to be on the wrong side of that trend.

And monetizing our digital efforts to create a growth business or an additional cash stream for existing media companies.

To get a leg up on these changes it will take mastering the new rules of traditional and digital media and acquiring enhanced skill sets to be successful.

This year, the fourth annual Media Solutions Lab at the Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale, AZ January 30-31 is devoted to “Radio & The Digital Future”. 

It’s a full day interactive learning seminar and a next day Big Ideas Strategy Session with skill sets training.

Wednesday, January 30^th is the full-day interactive learning session that includes 6 critical areas to master.

• Emerging Media Trends
• Digital Content
• Revenue Streams
• Social Media Advances
• Digital Businesses to Start
• The Growing Importance of Video

Plus, intelligence on how audiences are changing even over the past year.

Thursday, January 31 is “Big Ideas Strategy Session” where we roll up our sleeves and collaborate to customize the opportunities that will be presented in the form of “30 New Ideas” ready to take home and implement.  The most useful new media secrets for 2013.

And skills training – what we’ll have to do to be qualified and ready for a new age of radio in the digital future. 

Learn more: Go to Conference Page to Register

Reducing expenses has become a high art form for the greedy bastards at Cumulus and Clear Channel.

It’s almost November – do you know where your job is going?

These two leaders in unemployment have discovered so many more complicated and devious ways to cut expenses.

I’m going to share them with you because they are likely to happen – some time very soon.

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1. High pressure selling tactics designed more to get employees to quit rather than to motivate them to increase sales.  A case study.
    
2. How one consolidator has found a new way to double down on repeater radio.  It’s in place right now and will likely expand over the coming months.
    
3. How one radio group is actually playing hardball when their employees do more than they’ve asked them to do.
    
4. Why Clear Channel is beginning to send in a new breed of corporate trainers to win air talent and salespeople over to their way of doing things – or else.
    
5. How one group is forcing salespeople to piss off their advertisers because this one thing is even more important to them than increasing ad revenue.
    
6. Clear Channel’s next big new thing to save high priced talent salaries in one move.
    
7. The major strategic programming shift coming to Cumulus stations – it’s starting to happen already.
    
8. Forced selling in lousy time periods and new ways to steal big accounts from star salespeople – documented. 

If you would like to see the secret plans of Clear Channel and Cumulus that are expected to be rolled out soon, click “read more” below.

Learning from each other.  Not preaching to each other.  I invite you to participate in my fourth annual Media Solutions Lab “Radio & the Digital Future” January 30-31 in Scottsdale, AZ.  Here is a first look at the Learning Modules plus information on attending – learn more.

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Clear Channel is not the only major consolidator with debt so high it faces bankruptcy.

Cumulus is also in big trouble and the company is starting to panic.

CEO Lew Dickey shrewdly stole Citadel a year ago, which had just screwed its investors and banks by entering bankruptcy to emerge with very little debt.   Dickey needed Citadel’s balance sheet to keep Cumulus afloat.

History may repeat itself.

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1. Why even the Cumulus whip and verbal abuse in the form of sales beatings is not apparently reversing the losses at their critical major market stations.
    
2. Yet, Cumulus keeps buying major market stations with more likely on the way.  What’s up with that?
    
3. The ingenious failsafe plan that actually allows Cumulus to keep expanding its holdings in major markets while not having to be responsible for programming.
    
4. Remember the “partnership” they enter into with CBS to turn over 67 of its affiliate stations to the CBS Sports Radio Network?  What if they did another deal like that?  Read on.
    
5. Something’s fishy with that WFME-FM purchase from Family Radio in New York City.
    
6. Why it’s beginning to look like the Dickey’s are going to run their radio properties like the hotel industry -- Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton.

If you would like to see how close to bankruptcy Cumulus is and the radical plans they are considering to survive, click “read more” below. 

Only 1 radio/digital media conference got a grade of 100% in meeting or exceeding expectations last year as rated by attendees.  See the full program for next 2013 Media Solutions Lab January 30-31 in Scottsdale, AZ here.

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Clear Channel is feeling the pressure of competitors who are breathing down their necks.

CBS.

Cumulus.

That’s why they are apparently sinking to tactics that not only screw minorities, advertisers and even successful employees but also are spitting in the face of what some perceive to be the law.

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1. How Clear Channel is blatantly screwing advertisers in some markets.  This is unthinkable for any buyer or advertiser who is spending money with them – that is, if they are aware of it.  They will be now.
    
2. At last, the real answer what’s in it for Clear Channel when they give favored artists unprecedented airplay every hour on the hour.  And it’s not just limited to their iHeartRadio fest.
    
3. How the company got caught playing dirty politics in several crucial swing states where they apparently were looking to suppress the vote for their Bain founder Mitt Romney.  Here’s where and their eventual mea culpa.
    
4. How success apparently doesn’t matter at Clear Chanel anymore.  Some people say the company is undermining market managers – good and successful ones.  Here is a scary case in point.
    
5. Funny business with the Jingle Bell Ball Christmas concerts. 

If you would like to see the dirty tricks Clear Channel is trying to get away with on and off the air, click “read more” below. 

A conference for industry people who want to be more skilled at radio in the digital age – attend my 2013 media conference January 30-31 at The Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale.  Here are the initial Learning Modules: 

1. 10 Emerging Trends to Watch for 2013
2. How to Maximize Radio Formats for the Digital Age
3. Digital Ideas Buyers are Clamoring For
4. Building a Revenue Stream Around Content Pods
5. The Most Effective New Social Media Strategies
6. The Growing Importance of Video
7. How to Game the People Meter
8. Music Radio’s Best Options Against Pandora
9. Brands Instead of Radio Formats
10. The Class of 2016
11. The Best New Digital Cash Streams
12. Technology Advances To Watch Like a Hawk
13. Career Insurance:  Skills You Need To Succeed in Digital Media

A full day interactive learning session and next day Big Ideas Working Strategy Session with me to help you develop an effective blueprint for your priorities.  

View details of the Learning Modules and registration information here.  Today you can also reserve a $200 per person discount. 

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Clear Channel appears to be chomping at the bit to begin what could be their most drastic downsizing yet of the company.

There is increasing evidence that Clear Channel is ready to again cut deep into the bone of its management structure.

Some significant changes occurred as recently as last week and more are planned for after Election Day so as not to be a distraction to Bain founder and presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

What’s going to emerge from this shakeup – and let’s call it that because it is going to be very disruptive – is a skeleton of a company on the brink of financial disaster.

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1. Where high profile major executives are being targeted as a run up to the firings that are coming.  Some happened as recently as last week.  Where and how.
    
2. Sources within Clear Channel say another Hogan shrink down is in the wings for after the election.
    
3. You’ll now know which position is being targeted most but you’ll also find out which job is about to get expanded – without additional compensation.
    
4. What’s really driving another expense dump at Clear Channel even as the company struggles with disappointing revenue.
    
5. The big push ahead in programming which will save huge sums of money – Here are the economies of scale, you do the math. 
    
6. What it takes to be bulletproof from this coming drastic cutback.  If you have this going for you, you are as good as gold. 

If you would like to take a look at what promises to be the biggest and most painful shrink down of Clear Channel – who gets fired, who gets more work with no additional pay and who is safe, click “read more” below.

Just added to my Radio & The Digital Future Conference in January: 

“How to Maximize Radio Formats for the Digital Age”
Reliable new information on how mobile and digital devices are changing the way audiences use traditional media.  Things that turn today’s audiences on and off.  Elements listeners could become addicted to if they were added.  What to do about personalities.  Commercials that digital audiences would love (no station does them, so you can be first).  Programming music in the age of Pandora.  Operating cost effectively in tough times.  What changing audiences want from your website, mobile devices and social media.

See conference registration information here.

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You will not believe who is turning out to be a major bidder for the six Cox Radio spinoff markets. 

I fell off my chair when I heard.

And it’s not Lew Dickey!

I’ve got names, info and a prediction of who will emerge the winner.

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1. The bidder from hell with what looks to be a very substantial offer.
    
2. Five others bidders – and I’m going to identify all of them – and what they are after.
    
3. What’s really telling is which companies did not even try to bid – and I’ve got their names for you as well.
    
4. The unusual litmus test that Cox is said to be using to determine which buyer will emerge with their six spinoff markets.
    
5. I’ll handicap each bidder and arrive at who I think will win the six Cox spinoff markets by year’s end.

If you would like to see who is bidding on the Cox spinoffs, what we know about their offers and what the likely outcome will be, click “read more” below. 

New! Detailed Learning Modules for my “Radio & The Digital Future” Conference in January.  Register for that seminar as well as the next day working strategy session with me here. 

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Things are not going well for one of radio’s most important formats.

The numbers are old – too old to be attractive much longer and advertisers are spooked.

And there are no reinforcements in sight.

But that’s not all.

For the first time the radio groups that have been propping up talk radio are beginning to show signs that their attitudes are changing now as well.

Some problems are self-inflicted.  

The good news is that they can be fixed.  The bad news is venture capital radio companies are not in the mood to fix them.

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1. Rush Limbaugh has new problems bigger than the Sandra Fluke controversy.  That’s bad for talk radio.
    
2. How Cumulus signing Michael Savage is a predictor of things to come for talk radio and it’s not very pretty.
    
3. How PPM is killing talk ratings and what can be done about it.
    
4. Why Glenn Beck has the same problems but he’s in a better place.
    
5. And why Sean Hannity is immune from the decline of talk radio. 
    
6. The 5 biggest talk radio problems and how to attack them now.

If you would like to see specifically what’s panicking group owners about talk radio and learn what it takes to fix the problems, click “read more” below. 

Save $204 on my Next Day Strategy Session at January’s Radio & The Digital Future Conference.  See the new Learning Modules and registration information here.  

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Cumulus is ready to go on a tear acquiring more big radio stations.

Lew Dickey started yesterday with New York – buying an FM.

But that’s only the beginning.

Wait until you hear what he’s going to do with that FM station and where he’s looking to expand the company that can’t make a profit.

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1. Why Dickey bought WFME-FM, New York and what he’s likely to program on the station.
    
2. Mind-blowing options between Dickey and CBS potentially involving more than carrying CBS sports network. 
    
3. While Clear Channel is selling snake oil in the form of a simple-minded app, Dickey and CBS CEO Les Moonves are busy making bigger plans together.  What we know.
    
4. CBS has one more move to make in New York City and it could be a whopper.
    
5. Next likely large acquisition for Cumulus.
    
6. A serious Cumulus shake-up could come in the former Citadel markets as soon as the next two months.

If you would like to see what Cumulus and CBS are up to together – and what it means for both companies, click “read more” below. 

Today is the final day to save $300 on my “Radio & The Digital Future” Conference in January.  See the learning modules and claim your discount here. 

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The Wall Street Journal just slobbered all over itself yesterday when it did a puff piece about Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman and failed to mention the firings, Bain and the real $16 billion debt problem that threatens to throw the company into bankruptcy.

They left out Pittman’s end game for Clear Channel and what he’s planning to do between now and then to get what he wants.

Here’s Bob Pittman’s secret plan that is never discussed publicly.

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1. The Journal says Pittman wants to reinvent radio.  He has no intention of doing that.  He’s going to do this instead.
    
2. Pittman is not just taking every speaking gig he can because he needs time off from the arduous task of reinventing – here’s what he wants from Clear Channel personally.
    
3. How Pittman is trying to make radio “cool again” – for his buddies, not listeners. 
    
4. The genius plan – you know what CBS and Cumulus are going to do but Pittman has thus far been secretive.  Picture Clear Channel local clusters running like this because it’s on its way.  Specifics.
    
5. Pittman’s plan is so off the wall, look how he intends to actually ask listeners to tune out.  That’s right – so cool – he’s asking them to tune out.
    
6. Evidence that the transformation of Clear Channel due to start after the election is already under way.  Look at this station for starters.

If you would like to see Bob Pittman’s secret plan that is immune from $16 billion in debt and fits into the Clear Channel end game, click on “read more” below.

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Keep CBS employees in all but major markets away from windows and sharp objects.

I’m hearing that Cumulus is considering buying what could be a significant number of CBS clusters.

CBS and Cumulus are already in bed with the CBS Radio Sports Network and now it appears CBS is considering unloading some markets to Cumulus.

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1. I’ve heard these 5 markets are being discussed in a potential deal.
    
2. One market will blow your mind because, like me, you’ll be surprised that CBS might exit this large city.  But that’s what sources tell me.
    
3. There may be a sports radio network component to these deals.  Here are the details.
    
4. Cumulus is also said to be looking at other major markets to cherry pick unwanted stations – all this even as they can’t seem to stop losing money in the Citadel markets they already own.  What’s up with that?  The answers.
    
5. There appears to be a major strategic radio change going on at CBS that will differentiate it from other consolidators and may be a model for radio groups – if it works.  This is worth understanding.

If you would like to see the multi-market deal that appears to be brewing between CBS and Cumulus and the strategic radio ownership changes CBS is starting to implement, click “read more” below.

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CBS is getting ready to launch a national sports radio network January 3^rd and needs as many affiliates as possible before then.

But the real thing making some CBS FM stations jittery is that the company has a ratings and sales hit with its local FM sports format when it is ported over to FM.

Now, it is likely CBS is looking to FM outlets they own that can be sacrificed for the FM sports franchise.

CBS is doing what you’ll see other companies do more of next year – protect its brands and put them on FM.

But what about those FM stations that have to be sacrificed?  Some of them are doing well.

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1. Two FM stations in Los Angeles are candidates for CBS local sports (not the network product).  I’ll handicap which ones have the biggest chance of seeing a format change.
    
2. Other CBS markets where FM migration could kill an existing music station.
    
3. What about the beloved classic hits WCBS-FM in New York?  Safe or not safe?
    
4. The CBS strategy is to protect its branded formats so why is Cumulus in business with them on the sports network?  In other words, what’s in it for Cumulus?
    
5. Which format is a goner more than classic hits as next year unfolds not only at CBS but at other radio groups taking notice of the CBS winning brand strategy.

If you would like to see which CBS FM stations may be in jeopardy and the shrewd changes that CBS plans for the year ahead, click “read more” below.

Now group members can join the conversation and add to the story you just read by clicking “comment” below. 

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I just finished listening to Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey lay into his San Francisco cluster sales management and staff in a way that is so demeaning that I’m shaking my head in disbelief.

The ass kicking happened late last week – I’ll tell you all about it – along with the reaction of his employees.  (Wait until you hear what they did when he ended).

What Dickey said on tape was revealing about the company, his attitude toward people, his future plans, what he thinks of competitor Entercom and how things are going to change at Cumulus.

This dog and pony show may be on its way to other Citadel markets.

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1. Direct quotes from the meeting – Lew Dickey’s threats, his lecture about selling bananas, the demand to become a world-class sales organization and what happens to his audience if they don’t deliver – in his own words.
    
2. Dickey’s shot at Entercom – unfiltered.  Tell us how you really feel about Entercom, Lew.
    
3. The contract he is offering his salespeople – would you take it?  And how he wants to pay them.
    
4. Dickey revealing his plans for Cumulus expansion.  Warning:  if you work for another group, you’ll want to read this.
    
5. Dickey’s strategy to sell the 0.1 rating 6am to 7pm on the totally shipwrecked KGO. 

If you would like to see Lew Dickey’s plans for Cumulus -- unfiltered -- and the repercussions they may have, click “read more” below. 

Last few days to save $300 on my 2013 Media Solutions Lab.

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Everybody knew CBS was looking for an FM station in New York to simulcast sports radio WFAN, but paying $75 million for a stick!

That’s real sticker shock.

Even WOR in the same city with an audience and billing to go along couldn’t get more than $30 million a month earlier.

But that’s not the big story.

CBS is up to something bigger.

They are leaving Clear Channel in the dust with a consistent new strategy that will continue to unfold in the months ahead which is going to force major group operators to reconsider their radio strategy going forward.

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1. I’ll tell you CBS’ next major move – it’s going to happen in just two weeks. You can count on it.
    
2. Whether CBS is still shopping for yet another new station for Philadelphia where number one all-news KYW is still doing it alone on AM.  Here’s how CBS is planning to solve that problem.
    
3. There is one major thing that can make $75 million seem like chump change even to CBS.  Here’s what it is.
    
4. How CBS is actually forcing Clear Channel to see them and raise them in pure play radio.  The problem is, Clear Channel doesn’t get it – yet.
    
5. Randy Michaels is telling his employees that Merlin no longer needs to sell the remaining stations now that they pried $75 million from CBS.  Can they finally rest easy?

If you would like to see how CBS is starting to double down on radio and daring the other major groups to put up or shut up, click “read more” below. 

I think you’ll love my upcoming media solutions seminar on “Radio & The Digital Future”.  

• We’ll open with the “10 Emerging Trends For the Year Ahead” with solid solutions on how to take advantage of them for your business. 
   
• Then, “How to Maximize On-Air Radio in the Digital Age”.  Ways to go on the offensive in a digital era. 
   
• “How to Build a Revenue Stream Around New Content Stations”.  This is the opposite of how radio now adds on new media but it pays off within a year.  I’ll show you how. 
   
• Onto “The Most Effective New Social Media Strategies”.  Beyond Twitter and Facebook so you can get there before your competitor whose learning is limited to bsing in the hallway at the NAB Radio Show. 
   
• “Best New Digital Options for 2013”.  Want new ideas to develop and sell, you’ll return home with them. 
   
• “Radio’s Video Future” – a blueprint on how to start a video presence in your market that will rival your on-air station when it comes to revenue.  

All this and more in an interactive classroom setting at the beautiful Phoenician Resort in Scottsdale January 30-31.  Not available on tape or online.

Less than a week to save $300 – register for “Radio & The Digital Future” here.

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Finally, a guy screwed and tattooed by a radio consolidator who came back bigger and richer in less than a year!

How he overcame adversity – a family member with cancer and a firing all at once.

Big money, big opportunity, big break.

One of the most important stories I have ever written because if radio people follow what you are about to read here, hostile employers are going to see their best remaining people quit them.

This is the story of a guy screwed over by a radio consolidator who got even.

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1. How this radio manager left for dead in his career turned down an offer from another radio company to form his own venture that now includes radio stations and other entrepreneurial growth businesses. 
    
2. How he even hired back some fired Cumulus workers and helped another person with cancer get a second chance at just the right time.
    
3. The way he made tons of money in less than one year from the time he was fired.
    
4. You’ll read his own words and learn his name because he wants this story to be public so others might live to fight another day in radio.  How he did it.  What he read to get maximum motivation.
    
5. His two-line mantra that every radio person should save or print and read every day.

If you would like to know how to return to radio and become even more successful after becoming the victim of consolidation, click “read more” below. 

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Last chance to save $300 on an “early-bird” registration to my January conference -2013 Media Solutions Lab.  If the $300 discount matters to you, now is the time to lock it in.

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How does CBS do so well gaming the ratings?

Why do boring music stations with hardly any talk beat out great stations?

I’m going to give you the most important, proven ratings tactic that will work immediately if you’ll start using it now.  (You can buy me a Philly cheesesteak later when your ratings go up).

Plus, a big helping hand of other effective tactics to increase radio audiences based on what is working now in markets across the country.

If you are a subscriber, thank you for joining our group.  Just click through and unlock the content.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing (you really ought to try it unlocked) and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

1. The one thing that always works to increase today’s ratings – always – based on several years of proven results.  And I’ll show you what happens if you double down on this major tactic – you’ll double up your ratings.
    
2. How to compete better when ethnic weighting is severe in your market short of switching to an ethnic format.  There is a way but most people don’t know it yet. 
    
3. The best way to handle jock chatter and talk formats – Arbitron ratings don’t like either, but this is about gaming their faulty methodology.  So there!
    
4. How to get people to play their radios in public – the better for your station’s encoded signal to be picked up by an unsuspecting drive-by meter wearer.
    
5. Ways to stop taking inferior ratings sitting down when you know your station is more popular than that!  A handful of additional helpful new ways to stand up and be counted – literally.

If you want to know the one thing that works better than anything else for increasing audience ratings as of 30 days ago, plus a heap of other proven tactics, click “read more” below. 

My January Media Solutions Lab is going to be major this year: 1) Re-launching on-air stations for more listeners and increased revenue; 2) Building a strong new revenue stream around a new kind of “content” station; 3) Social media strategies that leave competitors in the dust; 4) Digital options that are licenses to print money; 5) Video products that you can create to monopolize and monetize.  Plus, the emerging 10 newest trends to watch like a hawk for 2013.  Don’t miss this year.  Register here. 

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No, no, no – I’m not talking about the measly sale of four Merlin stations.  Everybody knows that.  Anyway, that’s small potatoes.

I’m talking about a blockbuster deal and I’m saying it’s coming soon. 

Some of the acquisition partners will not surprise you.  But one will absolutely knock you off your feet.

Things are too quiet lately and it’s the calm before the storm.

The kind of money that is lurking out there for a big media acquisition involving radio is ready to pounce.

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1. Why now?  I thought there was no investment money out there for big, blockbuster deals.  What is happening?
    
2. How much investment money will come available for radio acquisitions – I’ll crunch the numbers.
    
3. Two kinds of big mega media deals can happen – both involve radio. 
    
4. Which two companies could strike first – but, there are even more suitors behind them as you’ll see.  I’ll name them.
    
5. Four of the best acquisition targets – and one of them will absolutely shock you.
    
6. Now it will all make sense.  You’re wondering why big radio groups are adamant about doing repeater radio.  Here’s what big money is shopping for in a radio group.

If you would like to know who these radio merger companies are and why a big deal is coming, click “read more” below. 

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In an industry that is being ravaged by mismanagement and the strategic screw-ups of investment banks, is it possible to work in radio and have a future?

Is it possible to be happy?

Is there a place where you could work and also buy a car or house at the same time?

I converse with thousands of radio people every year.  Here’s my sense for what’s a happy place for them – and why.

My list has 15 radio groups on it.

If you are a subscriber, thank you for joining our group.  Just click through and unlock the content.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

1. What the top four happiest radio groups to work for have in common.  This says it all.
    
2. There is a red-inked, failed radio group that, believe it or not, is starting to turn it around.  This will floor you as it did me when I talked to employees of what used to be a “joke”.
    
3. Shocker!  The majority of this list is composed of great radio companies to work for.  The snakes in the grass that you may or may not know about are the critical ones to avoid.
    
4. Which previously good “happy place” for radio employees is beginning to turn.  Don’t panic, but keep your eyes wide open.
    
5. Discover the company that always makes a profit and has no debt.  The one with virtually no employee complaints.  The most tolerable of the “bad guys” operated by investment banks.  The most useful career tool I have offered to date.

If you would like to know the radio groups with the happiest employees and why, click “read more” below. 

How to build a digital strategy that makes money within a year at my upcoming January Media Conference. 

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The Market Manager for Cumulus San Francisco got it Boardwalk Empire style Sunday night.  CEO Lew Dickey is sending a message.

• Why Bungeroth, an original founder of Cumulus, was fired in cold blood.
   
• How he got it and who flew in to fire him will be sweet revenge for former employees Bungeroth let go.  All the details.
   
• What’s the game plan – because you may see the same strategy employed in other former Citadel markets?
   
• Why Dickey is on a mission – what could Bungeroth possibly have done to make Dickey this angry?
   
• Who should be looking over their shoulders next.