Manipulated Stock Increase At Cumulus

INSIDE …

  • Jeff Marcus’ desperation move to make it look like Cumulus stock is taking off again (when it isn’t).
  • The slight of hand trick now being employed to halt the stock’s steep decline.
  • Which competing radio group just bought very cheap Cumulus stock.
  • Is this a distress sale?
  • The one thing investors fear about the future of Cumulus even more than a crummy 4th quarter.
  • What’s wrong with the fundamentals at Cumulus from an investor’s point of view.
  • How some lenders are beginning to question whether radio is more like the newspaper industry which would be devastating – how so?

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Mary Berner To Start Shaking Up Cumulus

INSIDE …

  • The fate of the Nash country format systemwide.
  • Examples of how Mary Berner is and will be getting actively involved in programming.
  • And then, how much rope that leaves interim programming chief Mike McVay.
  • The unintended consequences to former Dickey employees who Berner has discovered are working her.
  • Toxic workplace – married people having affairs with senior level Cumulus execs – next move, Mary? Broken homes, low morale. Details.
  • She will attack cronyism – McVay’s agent (yes, he has one) also reps other Cumulus talent that he pimps for.
  • Westwood One – Mary already knows what she’s going to do with Lew Dickey’s $260 million acquisition.

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Larry Wilson To Sign Alpha’s Death Warrant

INSIDE …

  • What Larry Wilson is going to be forced to sell to make this deal fly.
  • Are any Alpha stations going to have to get sold to afford the Digity purchase.
  • The interest rates on his Digity loan would choke a horse – details.
  • The one “lifeline call” that could save the Alpha stations that Wilson puts at risk by buying Digity to grow.
  • The timeline for this deal and the big question – is there a way out for Alpha before it’s too late.

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Adele’s No Streaming Decision

INSIDE …

  • Is streaming music the future or is it the past.
  • Rdio – what went wrong, why is it the canary in the coalmine.
  • Why streaming music services are so concerned about the Adele decision.
  • The next big thing for the music industry.
  • The viability of “freemium” vs. paid subscription.
  • The two things the young music buying public will definitely spend money for.
  • Why radio stations must avoid reacting to the growing consensus that steaming music will be the death of them.
  • The gutsy move music radio stations will have to make to survive.

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Mary Blinks, Rehires Westwood Full-Time Talent BUT …

INSIDE …

  • What made Mary Berner reverse Mike McVay’s decision to run Westwood formats on only local Cumulus jocks.
  • New salary and work schedule details.
  • Why the desperate rehire move is already in trouble.
  • The May Day Call to fired talent – would you take a used job from a company making this pitch?
  • Why this move is an indication of things to come at Cumulus stations after the first of the year.
  • The increasing turmoil inside Westwood One that threatens to take it down.
  • What Mike McVay’s Tampa clone hired to pump up Westwood morale was caught doing.

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Debt Holder’s Fear Could Trigger Premature Cumulus Bankruptcy

INSIDE …

  • The two things that can trigger premature Cumulus bankruptcy and I’m not talking about failure to pay debt – even worse.
  • Why Wall Street thinks Cumulus (and even iHeart) are now trying to tank their companies – here’s their strategy.
  • The feeling on the Street that Mary Berner will turn Cumulus around and avoid bankruptcy.
  • Some debt holders may salvage 30 cents on the dollar or nothing.
  • Why Cumulus can’t sell its non-essential stations – no way, no how.
  • How Mary Berner has gone underground – radio silence – ahead of her next huge strategic gamble (revealed here).

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Desperate Moves at iHeart

INSIDE …

  • Why iHeart is actually asking all sales people to fudge numbers for next year – that’s right pull them right out of thin air.
  • The one question corporate wants salespeople to answer about their projections – or else.
  • Massive employee benefit givebacks ahead – details.
  • How they want employees to pay them! Here’s how.
  • The first concrete sign that layoffs are only weeks away.
  • Why market managers – even high performers -- are an endangered species now and for the next year.
  • The pathetic new way Hartley “Hardley” Adkins has come up with for firing people, saving money and saving his job.

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iHeart, Entercom & Cumulus Panic Over 2016 Revenue

INSIDE …

  • How these 3 radio groups are headed for the shitter in the Q4 and Q1 of next year and ready to take the rest of the industry down with them.
  • What iHeart is going to force their account execs to do within the next week – details.
  • How iHeart is preparing to punish even its super-achieving market managers who are outpacing the losses of the group’s laggards.
  • What Entercom has the unmitigated gall to ask its best advertising clients to do – laughable to their old pros left shaking their heads.
  • With just about 6 weeks left until the end of the year, how new Cumulus CEO Mary Berner is tying the hands of her salespeople at the absolute worst time.

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Bankruptcy of Rdio Precedes Cumulus

INSIDE …

  • Does this hasten a Cumulus bankruptcy?
  • Little known details on the court managed Rdio bankruptcy – you may want to take notes on this because it could happen this way for Cumulus.
  • The startling amount of money this failed investment is going to come out of Cumulus revenue.
  • Why is iHeart competitor Bob Pittman having an orgasm.
  • How badly does Cumulus get dinged now that Rdio is in bankruptcy.
  • Oh no – how the Rdio bankruptcy is waking up the much needed buyers of Cumulus tower site real estate in LA and DC that is absolutely critical to Cumulus staying afloat.
  • How does the Rdio bankruptcy impact the sale of Westwood One or the $2 billion acquisition of Citadel/ABC legacy stations now.
  • What’s worse than Cumulus not being able to repay its loans or refinance them – this is what everyone should be afraid of.

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Sales Spy App Coming To iHeart By June

INSIDE …

  • How the spy app will be force-installed on all account executives’ phones.
  • What info and data corporate will now instantly have access to – both business and private. The NSA would be envious.
  • 9 specific base spy categories – but that’s just the beginning, they can go even deeper than these (described here).
  • Can the app know where each salesperson is and whether they are making a proposal – details.
  • The reason why a cash-starved radio company would make it more difficult for sellers to sell at this critical point.
  • Where the spy app is being tested right now.
  • How some account execs are refusing to comply – and the consequences.

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Cumulus Considers Taking Company Private

INSIDE …

  • This juicy benefit would be created for a company now hopelessly headed for bankruptcy – details.
  • Ramifications for current employees – there are many so be alert.
  • What it would take to get remaining shareholders to say yes.
  • How taking Cumulus private could be financed.
  • Effect on the rest of the radio industry.
  • What’s in it for chief shareholder Crestview Partners (28%) and the Dickey family (25%).

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Scary S@#t iHeart & Cumulus Are Planning

INSIDE …

  • What’s up with iHeart’s Total Traffic & Weather Network?
  • How Cumulus is rethinking non-essential businesses (wait until you hear what is considered non-essential).
  • Clear Channel hired a company that did a radio bankruptcy to sell some outdoor markets and they want to keep it quiet – full details.
  • The amount of cash Wall Street financial people predict iHeart will burn through by the end of this year – and then what?
  • The real reason Lee & Bain keep Bob Pittman in a job he is clearly not up for.
  • How iHeart owners Lee & Bain are selling off their stakes in other companies ahead of a bankruptcy play.
  • Cumulus is reportedly targeting programmers with 10 or more year’s experience that have done this one thing to can them.
  • Mary Berner’s accelerated layoff timetable.

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iHeart In Worse Shape Than Cumulus

INSIDE …

  • How bankruptcy could come to iHeart even BEFORE they default on loans – the scenario financial people fear the most.
  • What happens to employees before and after a bankruptcy filing.
  • How iHeart can stop burning through cash – over $300 million so far this year alone.
  • Why they don’t sell radio stations to raise much needed cash – qualified buyers are in the wings so why not.
  • How long can iHeart last before filing for Chapter 11 – Wall Street’s updated estimate.

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Cumulus-like Ending Coming to iHeart — Fast

INSIDE …

  • The very serious problems that employees, vendors and investors will want to know about.
  • What iHeart said when they revealed third quarter earnings that caused their stock to tank 40% -- in one day.
  • How iHeart is apparently cooking the books on the last day of each revenue quarter – and now Wall Street is on to it.
  • Employees with this type of compensation package should be worried – details.
  • The drop-dead date for iHeart to actually run out of money.
  • What investment firms are telling investors about iHeart.
  • How iHeart employees should protect themselves for the worse possible outcome – what to do.

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Bubba To Delist Nielsen

INSIDE …

  • How Nielsen’s $1 million lawsuit against Todd Clem will backfire and leave them vulnerable to fraud charges instead.
  • The real story of what went down – not Nielsen’s version that Clem sought to cheat the system.
  • What’s behind Nielsen’s rough treatment of Beasley – they’re not cheaters.
  • Can Clem turn this lawsuit into a countersuit to expose Voltair – the game plan.
  • How Nielsen apparently suckered Clem to win his admission and then sued him once they got it.
  • Can you say Bain? How they’re all over this bully tactic.

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Cumulus Closer To Bankruptcy

INSIDE …

  • The new CEO finally reveals how Cumulus programming will operate.
  • The verdict on more local autonomy – this may surprise you.
  • ENGAGE, the hated sales software that wastes up to 2 hours a day is going nowhere – details.
  • 48% of Cumulus staff turned over in the past year – you’ll never guess the number one reason.
  • Sale of the LA and DC tower sites is critical but there is a new wrinkle developing.
  • How much the Cumulus board paid the Dickeys to leave – and what they wasted on stock compensation.
  • Cumulus on the prospect of selling assets.

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iHeart Hiding Revenue Trouble

INSIDE …

  • Investors can’t tell where iHeart moved their liabilities.
  • How they are making revenue appear and expenses disappear – and getting away with it.
  • We out them – details here.
  • Subtract the tower sales from their revenue and you get this scary figure to run the entire company on right now.
  • Insiders are selling iHeart stock in droves – why now?
  • Evidence that iHeart needs to start selling more assets – but what’s next? And what can they get for them?

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Cumulus Programming Becoming More Centralized Under New CEO

INSIDE …

  • Examples of how Cumulus programming is just as centralized as it was under John Dickey – maybe even more.
  • Details on the mandates that are starting to go out to Cumulus program directors.
  • Who will be doing the local music playlists going forward.
  • The new ban on program director hiring at some stations – where, for how long.
  • An uprising in one market that threatens to spread to others over having to do local shows and bail out Westwood One in real time.
  • Meanwhile another Mike McVay video surfaces – this time not topless like the last one lecturing programmers while doing sits-ups. See it here.
  • Okay, okay – here’s the topless McVay video he took down about Disneyland. See why he closed his Vimeo account.

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Westwood One To Replace Local Cumulus Shows

INSIDE …

  • This is their convoluted plan to use Westwood to whack local talent – details.
  • The hidden new mission of Westwood One.
  • Why Jerry King was brought in at this point – and it’s not to raise morale as they have been saying.
  • Cutbacks in benefits to any new Westwood One format affiliates.
  • One giant reason why Cumulus had better think twice about selling Westwood One – in addition to the fact that nobody wants a used radio network.
  • What bad decisions are now saddling Westwood One putting its future in doubt.

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CBS Radio Having a Hard Time Finding Buyers

INSIDE …

  • Current status of the CBS stations buyer pool.
  • Which potential buyers are now in the “dead pool”.
  • Townsquare, Beasley, Entercom, Alpha and Hubbard – buyers?
  • CBS is down 5% in Q3 – how this impacts the sale or trade of stations.
  • How iHeart – yes, iHeart – is affecting the future of CBS Radio.

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What Mary Berner Is Not Telling Cumulus Employees

INSIDE …

  • About how bad things really are and how she’s going to mislead Wall Street analysts this week about the company’s future.
  • That she has finally decided the fate of Interim programming chief Mike McVay.
  • And the fate of much-despised market manager Gary Pizzati.
  • What she is going to have to do to save Westwood One at this point after John Dickey and McVay fired all the format talent.
  • The one radio group that could be the likely recipient of some Cumulus stations – this could be your future employer.
  • Why Berner is handing out motivational sweaters for some employees rather than firing them (believe it or not)– details on this baffling tactic.
  • That these stations will likely have to be sold for pennies on the dollar.
  • A heads up: Her last ditch bankruptcy timetable.

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McVay’s Cumulus Programming Shakeup Revealed

INSIDE …

  • New examples of how programming people see Mike McVay as a cluster f@#k ruining the one chance to recover from John Dickey.
  • Big bad mistakes ahead in the major markets.
  • The effect McVay’s cronies will have on existing programming people.
  • Promoting the wrong people – details.
  • How McVay blew the format switch in DC while channeling his inner Randy Michaels.
  • The dubious plan to turn Nash country around.
  • Two Cumulus program directors at one major market station – why?
  • McVay’s futile attempt to hire a friend to turn Westwood One morale around – oh, for a staff of only 6 employees.

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