• Tough non-competes are nothing new to radio – iHeart, Cumulus, Entercom and others are more than willing to dismiss people they don’t need and then prevent them from working in return for severance – often a mere pittance.
• Summit Media has gone the big consolidators one better – or worse – with the most restrictive non-compete ever and now the big radio groups are taking notice.

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• Mary Berner says revenue is up, ratings are great, expenses are being cut, podcasting is killing it and Cumulus has now become an audio company.
• But she’s hiding four important things that should have investors and employees really worried.

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• Aspen meetings, corporate pep talks -- what is going wrong and how corporate is dealing with their nagging problems.
• Where’s Weezie?She’s responsible for revenue at Entercom – what’s up?
• The Entercom exec who could be the next Weezie.
• Is an Entercom shakeup – a reboot – in the works?

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• What’s going on here? A venture capital group buys a media company and keeps it so together than nothing changes. Or does it?
• No one is being fired, just a change of ownership – is Apollo a rare venture firm that doesn’t produce cost synergy cuts? Can Cox employees be sure of this?
• Is Apollo like Bain or a “forever” owner?
• And just to be sure, what is the doomsday scenario for Cox Media Group’s new owners. 

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• How market managers are being instructed to run their local markets.
• Why corporate is going to double down on squeezing market managers.
• How Cumulus is taking a page out of iHeart’s post-bankruptcy book.
• What changes can be expected as Cumulus heads for liquidation.

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• On the surface, Townsquare looks like the little engine that could compared to iHeart, Entercom and Cumulus especially in digital, but are they turning it around?
• How they are withholding revenue figures that show a revealing picture.
• Why the big push to make it appear Townsquare is outperforming the larger radio groups.
• Can they manage their debt while iHeart, Entercom and Cumulus can’t manage theirs?
• How selling the company fits in to their new CEO’s plans.

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• iHeart is the best large radio group in the industry, so what does its CEO’s plan to stop being a radio company really mean?
• The biggest reason advertisers won’t buy iHeart ads spurring a decline in revenue.
• How iHeart plans to change the way it sells radio advertising while holding on to predatory pricing tactics.
• Why iHeart’s blueprint is a stop gap – here is when new owners are likely to take over. 

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• Entercom is laying off employees at a faster pace than any other radio group.
• Why David Field is so desperate to cut expenses and accelerate rolling layoffs.
• The 6 targeted areas where Entercom is paving the way for mass cutbacks.
• Entercom’s war on morning personalities.

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INSIDE …

• Everyone knows Cumulus doctors their revenue figures to make them look better, but savvy analysts have unmasked the real numbers.
• For example, the actual reason why they sold WPLJ-FM, New York and other major market stations is not what you think it is.
• What’s the real EBITDA – they say it’s $230 million, here’s the real number.
• How Cumulus is capitalizing commissions for new local revenue contracts which would have the impact of decreasing operating expenses.
• Why did Cumulus just recently sell a telling $500 million bond at 6.75% -- if you said to raise more money, you’ve only got half of it (and not the main reason).

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INSIDE …

• Here’s what Entercom is covering up when they try to assuage a really bad second quarter, and another quarterly letdown.
• What Entercom intends to do about David Field’s $110 million cost cutting merger synergies problem.
• How specifically Entercom is hiding its poor performance.
• Why it’s hard to believe their quarter revenue projections now – here are the real figures without lipstick on them.
• Remember David’s promise of $500 million EBITDA, then $400 million, $300 million – here’s where it is right now and what’s their leverage.

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• I know, you don’t believe it – and I didn’t either until it was reconfirmed.
• What’s up with the future of iHeart when they are reportedly firing in the name of a so-far unidentified new owner. Did they know something and say something?
• Which two divisions were hardest hit in the latest firings that have not been made public in the radio trades?
• What about age discrimination suspicions – did iHeart even go there? What we know at this point.
• The shameless line that was reportedly being used to make it seem like iHeart’s new owners wanted them fired.

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• Things are going from bad to worse with each revenue miss – how David Field is now starting to outsource to India to cut expenses.
• What outsourcing to India means for Entercom employees.
• But wait – at the beginning of this week iHeart started outsourcing, too – here’s where and what is expected to spread throughout the company.
• Is David Field looking to acquire more stations.
• What Field is saying about revised plans for cutbacks going forward.

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• Entercom did not become a $4 stock yesterday as expected, it became a low $3 stock (for a while $2) – what spooked investors and why they are bailing on Entercom.
• No, David didn’t just do that! How David Field did the exact worse thing that he could do to reassure investors.
• More bad news on the declining CBS all-news franchise.
• Where’s Weezie?She’s supposed to be driving revenue, does such a big miss mean her head will roll?
• If you insist on owning a radio stock, here’s the one to buy.
• What’s next for Entercom Communications.

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• The 6 fatal errors that drove Entercom’s top revenue producer from first to 7^thplace for the first time in decades under David Field’s management.
• Founder and now former owner Jerry Lee gave the one secret to staying number one to Entercom – here’s the advice they rejected.
• Shareholder alert -- How decisions are being made about big revenue producers like WBEB that are beginning to erode Entercom ratings and revenue.
• The hilarious rumor about how and why Field changed WBEB’s name from “More FM” back to “B-101.1” that could illustrate capricious decision-making and lack of strategic thinking.

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INSIDE …

• This dramatic plan to stay alive while burdening too much debt.
• How iHeart showed its hand last week on what it plans to do going forward.
• Even without a new buyer, circumstances have now changed for iHeart forcing some painful decisions.
• What hopeful buyers need to know before they take the bait.
• The chances of iHeart keeping all or most of its 850+ stations.

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• David Field, the same person who is pushing $110 million in CBS Radio cost synergies appears to have a secret spending problem.
• Examples of what Field thinks is worth spending on for the future of Entercom.
• What stakeholders don’t know – they are looking at debt, losses, revenue and not secret expenditures of the type explained here.
• How one Entercom major market station continues its demise because they can’t spend the money they need to turn it around.
• Meanwhile the list of CBS employees leaving is getting longer – here’s a major CBS employee who is leaving soon but few know it.

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