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He’s no Dan Mason and that’s exactly why Andre Fernandez was hired. What will he do first to impress his new boss?

• Unanticipated surprising first moves
• How life will change at local CBS stations
• Fernandez’ new cutback and layoff policies
• The Cumulus acquisition takes a dramatic turn

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Right now, iHeart has totally reorganized one of its major market sales forces in a way that is now totally unrecognizable – what are they up to?

You should be aware that something big is going on at one of iHeart’s largest markets.

They have literally renamed every job, physically reorganized the workspace and changed commission structures in an unprecedented way.

All this ahead of implementing programmatic buying at their stations.

You’ll read a few thoughts on …

• How the old selling structure is now gone in favor of one that emphasizes what iHeart wants the most.
• How iHeart is paying generous commissions you’ve probably never seen before to win cooperation.
• The physical and relationship changes of selling.
• How in this big test market the new system followed a cleaning out of the most expensive sales salaries. In other words, even with these large commissions, iHeart saves money from day one by shaking things up.
• You’ll pee your pants when you read what sellers are now called and what a new cheap-cheap para-sales position is named.  Classic Pittman.

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Please save the date -- April 6, 2016 for my next Media Solutions Conference in Philadelphia.

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New incentives. New titles. Faux respect.   How iHeart will pull this off without account executives catching on.

I discovered a chilling, cold-blooded plan (even for a radio consolidator) to force their sellers to dig their own graves before firing them.

iHeart thinks spending a little extra money to fool sellers into thinking they will keep their jobs is worth it even as the company goes deeper into debt.

The clock is ticking so this plan is being fast tracked.

You’ll read a few thoughts on…

• Just exactly how iHeart will win enthusiastic cooperation of unsuspecting salespeople to help them transition to programmatic buying.
• How iHeart intends to make it look like their jobs will be spared.
• Unbelievable new incentives unprecedented for radio that will be implemented. Not just getting laid off. Fooling them into thinking they are safe.
• The test market where iHeart is rolling out the first wave of career grave digging. Yes, it’s already happening and you should know about it.
• Their time frame for the expedited switch from direct to automated selling.
• The next major radio group to go next without such generous incentives to unknowingly eliminate their own jobs.   You’ll be surprised.

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About Inside Music Media: Read by more people than any other media publication of its kind. Contains no advertising. Is insightful, deadly honest, entertaining and informative. Accepts no corporate money. And is beholden only to subscribers.

But what is the ruse that is keeping them out of bankruptcy? How iHeart’s real financial situation is on life support …

Today I am going to warn of the consequences ahead for Bob Pittman’s apparent inability to make a profit.

iHeart is now robbing Peter to pay Paul.

This is a well-orchestrated attempt to bury huge losses and vanishing cash while remaining in business.

You’ll read a few thoughts on…

• How close they came to be plum out of cash after the current quarter.
• The amazing steps Pittman is about to take to drastically cut expenses in a way that is even more draconian than he has done before.
• The date for all this to happen – cuts, layoffs and efficiencies. Yes, this is another heads up warning.
• How incompetent Pittman has been since he has been running the iHeart show – if you look at the financials, and we have, it is laughable except that people are getting hurt.
• The markets that are most likely to be devastated – and devastated is the word I’m using because in these situations Pittman needs to get as close to zero employees and zero expenses as possible. Here’s a three-month range where the bomb drops.

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Please save the date -- April 6, 2016 for my next Media Solutions Conference in Philadelphia.

About Inside Music Media: Read by more people than any other media publication of its kind. Contains no advertising. Is insightful, deadly honest, entertaining and informative. Accepts no corporate money. And is beholden only to subscribers.

The urban LA ratings are in and iHeart dethrones Power 106. How to take successful stations out of harm’s way …

Ways to lock down a few vulnerable areas before iHeart launches frontal attacks on other markets.

iHeart beat Emmis’ Power 106 in LA in the March Nielsen’s by four-tenths of a point.

Are they on a roll or is there more damage ahead for Power after their longtime morning man debuted on KRRL?

Fortunately for Emmis, the iHeart non-commercial launch has to end and all those irritating commercials will be back.

Let’s focus on how to bulletproof a successful station that could be vulnerable to iHeart’s dirty tricks team or worse yet an imitator.

You’ll discover …

• How to handle a blitz of no commercials for 30 to 60 days.
• Whether it is more effective for an attacker to go commercial-free or steal a competitor’s morning show as iHeart did in LA.
• This one thing can put a stop/loss on major ratings attrition from ruthless competitors.
• How long can this new breed of attackers hurt a successful competitor before parity returns.
• The best way to identify sitting duck targets that iHeart may go after now that they’ve upended their main urban competitor in LA (and this will not be limited to the urban format now).

The answers start here.

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We’ll discuss the future of music radio at my next year’s Media Solution Conference -- April 6, 2016.   Try to reserve the date.

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About Inside Music Media: Read by more people than any other media publication of its kind. Contains no advertising. Is insightful, deadly honest, entertaining and informative. Accepts no corporate money. And is beholden only to subscribers.

CBS is so not going to be a radio company.

You don’t have to believe me about the possible and eventual Cumulus purchase to see that the die is cast.

Dan Mason formally resigned as president of CBS Radio yesterday as anticipated after eight very successful years.

But CBS CEO Les Moonves threw everybody a curveball on his successor.

Andre Fernandez, formerly President and COO of Journal Broadcasting that merged with Scripps recently. Previously he was a financial guy at GE.

Get it – financial guy, not primarily a radio guy.

To be sure, Fernandez is a good man.

He has excellent credentials especially his financial abilities that will be needed as CBS morphs into a TV company. CBS has had their eyes on Fernandez for the last few years so while the general public didn’t know who would succeed Mason, it appears Moonves did.

All bets are now officially off.

Things will be changing rapidly now at CBS Radio.

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1. Why a TV guy. Why now. How long CBS tracked him for this job.
2. What about CBS radio programming that Mason safeguarded for the past eight years.
3. What about Scott Herman, the heir apparent if a radio person is what they were looking for.
4. Herman’s current and future status with CBS Radio in light of Mason’s departure.
5. Finally – is this out of the company, non-exclusive radio hire an indication of the sale of CBS Radio.

The answers begin here.

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Something major will trigger a housecleaning within 60 days or less …

• Lew Dickey gave this hint of what he is about to do next according to Dickey watchers.
• What is a Cumulus “designer hire”?
• The Cumulus dirty secret that could foul up future layoffs.
• Don’t like “Big Brother” watching or hours of forced computer time on time management programs like Engage? This tighter scrutiny is coming.
• The unthinkable employee some people think Lew is getting ready to throw under the bus if necessary to deflect blame that should go to him.
• For the first time, the scenario under which Lew Dickey could lose his job according to Wall Street money people.

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Programmatic buying is now here in a big way thanks to Bob Pittman and iHeartMedia.

It’s an online bidding system that radio used to use for selling remnant advertising and digital uses almost exclusively to sell banner ads.

Programmatic buying will cuts costs for operators but it will also change the landscape for good operators who are caught between a rock and a hard place.

This story goes on to cover …

• Should other stations become early adopters of programmatic buying.
• The expected impact on competitive ad rates going forward.
• The future of the direct local salesperson as buyers and big radio groups embrace programmatic buying.
• Is Bob Pittman finally leading his competitors to the next gold rush this time or a dead end.
• What the most admired major independent radio groups are likely to do about programmatic buying.

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Changes at the top.

A new mission.

Heavy pressure from corporate.

All this will filter down to their local stations.

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1. Dan Mason’s contract as president is up this month – the latest on his replacement and what it means.
2. The two future paths for CBS Radio – neither one of them any good for the reasons you’ll see here.
3. What about their iconic all-news format – safe or over?
4. Could Mason wind up competing against his former employer?
5. First glimpse at what the new CBS Radio will look like.

The answers start here.

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Which of these new services will soon be available to all radio stations once the NAB’s announced new Washington headquarters opens in the fall of 2018?

1. A workable replacement for AM stations currently off the modern radio spectrum.
2. Regional sales experts to help drive up local radio revenue.
3. No or low interest loans to radio stations that want to hire more people to do local broadcasting.
4. Low interest loans to help local stations finally compete in the digital space.
5. Three national studio complexes available to radio stations who want to start a separate revenue stream the next big revenue monster radio is going to miss.

The answers start here.

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Most Wall Street money people believe bankruptcy is a real possibility for iHeartMedia and under one set of circumstances an instant trip to bankruptcy court.

There are ways to a postpone bankruptcy but few lenders believe it can be avoided.

Here’s what my sources on Wall Street – the people who propped Clear Channel and iHeart up in the first place – think will be the progression to eventual bankruptcy and beyond.

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1. iHeart can manage the timing of their road to bankruptcy UNLESS this one thing happens – and then they’re done. That’s not me saying it. It’s the lenders.
2. The biggest fear lenders have about iHeart – nothing worries them like this – not even high interest rates.
3. How long iHeart can last before they hit the wall – months, years?
4. They’re selling off all their assets right now, but where do the proceeds go?
5. What really foiled the sale of their European outdoor division – dead or alive?
6. The bankruptcy timeline: when it starts, how it progresses, what emerges in the end.
7. Sit down for this one – who Wall Street lenders say could wind up running the new iHeartMedia after bankruptcy.
8. The end game for Lee & Bain – how they come out of this unscathed.

The answers start here.

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The upping of Mike McVay is not just a cosmetic move. It is a prelude to some serious changes ahead at Cumulus, a company that is near its all-time low stock price and that can’t get ratings even if every other station signed off the air to help them.

Here are some circumstances that are going to change with the promotion of McVay within 90 days.

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1. What his new role as right hand man to John Dickey means.
2. What happened to Jan Jeffries – he is no longer McVay’s titular boss.
3. The new programming initiative on the way – not just from Westwood One, worse.
4. The on-air talent at greatest risk throughout the group who have been befriended by McVay and can’t see that they are next.
5. What McVay’s ascension means to Cumulus’ troubled talk radio format.
6. John Dickey’s reimagined grand programming plan.

The answers start here.

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iHeartMedia’s cash on hand is the lowest ever.

Debt is highest.

This is why they are selling everything to keep the wolf away from the door.

Now, Wall Street sources reveal what Bob Pittman is not saying publicly about the bleak future of his company.

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1. One way iHeart is staying afloat is to suck the cash out of other companies – I was shocked when I saw these figures.
2. iHeart’s nut – what they have to come up with every year just to remain in business.
3. The $400 million proceeds from selling tower land is already spent – here’s where.
4. Big losses expected for 2015 after capital expenditures, interest and working capital. And projections for 2016.
5. Wall Street is buying Pittman’s rhetoric that radio will come back and is simply undervalued BUT it’s game over if he crosses them on this one thing.

The answers begin here.

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