So, let’s get this right.

Bob Pittman has started a Black Lives Matters radio network as a front to cut jobs initially from 15 stations with more to come.

Hiding these firings behind a movement that aims to attack systemic racism only emphasizes it more.

This is an example of pandering that only a white dominated media company like iHeart  could try to get away with.

Their new Black Information Network’s flaws are already exposed and what’s worse, you can almost smell how iHeart and the lemmings who follow them are going to jump on the BLM movement to advance their own goals.

Details on iHeart’s plan for BIN are downright embarrassing and may draw the kind of ire against the entire radio industry as an unintended consequence.

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Stations have been floating their best advertisers during COVID.

When they return as paid sponsors, it will all be different in at least two important ways.

Some of radio’s misguided practices from the past will unfortunately resurface but there is one radio group that has been using the downtime to build campaigns that advertisers need and will pay for in a timely manner.

There are collection problems ahead making the full-fledged return of radio ads moot to the bottom line.

And Black Lives Matter – I guarantee you 100% of the nation’s radio stations don’t see the destabilizing effect of a potential BLM boycott and there is no industry that is more vulnerable to it than radio.

iHeart is also hoping to flip formats on 15 stations to a black “our voices will be heard” format – firing more people and creating a radio syndication under the cover of commercializing the issue of racial injustice – but will advertisers support a gratuitous effort that will seem like pandering from a group of white execs and a predominantly white board of directors?

Radio believes the new normal is to reopen and advertisers in radio and in social media are hitting pause – which is it?

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Now, would be a good time.

But it looks like David Field is slow to wake up and take note of the reality as clear as the Nielsen’s under his nose.

A pandemic, racial strife we haven’t seen since the 1960’s, and a divisive election year. It’s an ongoing news cycle that should be drawing new ears to the Entercom all-news stations.

If, listeners could find them.

He’s got the FM stations to make the switch and simulcast AM news, but why is Field so reluctant when news accounts for a great deal of revenue from Entercom’s CBS Radio merger.

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When did you ever see David Field give money back to employees? 

He’s not known to be the radio industry’s “Discover Card” giving cash back to surviving employees.  He’s got plans to pay for yesterday’s grand salary cut restoration with more firings as we reported yesterday. More developments on firing all live air talent with very few exceptions.  It’s not if but when and there’s more on the timetable now.  And what Field did not say yesterday when he suddenly announced the end of the 20% pay cut that is just as important.  What happens with big talent contracts many of which expire at the end of the year.  Any chance that Field will change his mind?

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Very few exceptions.

This is even worse than iHeart’s 1,000 plus “dislocation” firings early this year.

And even though Entercom has been mimicking iHeart’s many cutbacks, they are about to take the lead in firing.

Once iHeart, Cumulus and Beasley see Entercom take this drastic step, they may want the savings that Entercom is having.

Entercom will eliminate a massive number of jobs, consolidate operations and run like a virtual satellite network.

Entercom’s plans are in the final stages according to sources close to the situation.

The details are ugly and sad.

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As one former CBS employee tells it, David Field was jonesing to cut programming expenses even before Entercom officially completed the merger.

What’s public is that even back then when the economy was still booming, Field reportedly wanted to know if certain people employed by CBS were really necessary and could they be eliminated.

Field reportedly felt that CBS paid their people too much and that many were expendable and the ones that weren’t could work for a lot less.

Now evidence is mounting that Entercom’s aggressive cost-cutting is killing the company’s ratings and negatively affecting their declining revenue.

Number one stations have lost over half of their ratings with huge revenue declines.

College stations are ranking higher than their biggest brands in two of their top markets.

And then COVID handed Entercom all-news stations a gift and they gave it right back as their cost cuts are now documented to hurt more than help.

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• Enough already! Getting furloughed is not better than getting fired and you’re about to find out why (beyond the obvious).
• This pox is on iHeart’s house as the lesser but troubled radio groups are following their furlough strategy to the T – a plague on all their houses.
• Furloughed employees are about to get screwed (again) and here’s why radio groups are abandoning flat out firing for the slow torture of furloughing.
• Entercom deviated from the iHeart plan at first and here’s why they won’t make that mistake again.
• The ingenious iHeart “no fire strategy” that actually hides the furloughed – keep in mind that the other radio groups follow iHeart’s lead so this is notable.

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A few years back when we first informed you that Cumulus was seriously considering filing Chapter 11, Mary Berner went out of her way to publicly deny it – shortly after Cumulus filed for bankruptcy reorganization.

Same with iHeart – the word was out about their financial difficulties but their denial was followed by, you guessed it, bankruptcy.

Now in an industry facing the tough task of selling advertising in a recession COVID is acting as an accelerant to several years of previous revenue decline.

Some radio groups are burning through operating cash, others are also finding it hard to pay down debt from earnings and all have panicked into widespread furloughs, firings and layoffs.

Wall Street money people are not accepting radio CEOs happy talk about getting through these troubles and moving on.

They are baking in more bankruptcies – six to be exact – they know the radio groups, the timeline and the real reasons they will be forced into reorganizing.

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It took iHeart a long time to come up with furloughs.

They have been prolific firers over the years but since necessity is the mother of invention, they had to come up with a way to stop personnel costs in their tracks without having to pay benefits or severance – thus the furlough was born.

Then Entercom, Beasley, Cumulus and the other radio groups followed.

Business is still bad – revenue down as much as 50% year over year.  More expenses need to be cut so major broadcasting groups are revisiting the concept of furloughing employees.

They are also considering ways to enhance previous furloughs, expand their use and develop a way to scare employees who manage to escape being benched.

Here are the groups most likely to double down on furloughs for action expected very soon.

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Late last week, one of their biggest shareholders dumped all their Urban One stock.

Then yesterday, the Urban One stock went through the roof.  Go figure.

The company is choking on debt.

They’re the only black-owned radio company with the word “urban” that even the Grammys and iHeart are rebuking as racist and outdated euphemism for genres such as hip-hop and R&B.

Someone knows something that is making the public markets this optimistic about a black-owned urban radio and TV company.

One speculated buyer has been identified and if this is to be the new owner, all the Urban One optimism could be worth it.

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Turns out the People Meter is a God-awful way to measure radio listening while audiences self-isolate – now we have the evidence.

Along with just about everything else living outside the norm these days, so it is with the Nielsen’s– but not necessarily the way programmers and their bosses/owners had expected.

PPM has many disadvantages that have been exposed over the years – now as the post COVID ratings are being analyzed, there are more. 

Carrying a People Meter is an issue itself along with drive-by listening attributing audience to phantom people – add to that new placement issues, compensation and sticking to a PPM routine while lockdowns have eviscerated routines and is having a major impact.

Now we’re seeing “reported” audience changes that are substantial – the question is – are they to be believed?

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Their new bean counters revealed $108 million in restatements for 2017 through 2019.

In other words, the past three years were financial fiction.

Among the changes:  huge write downs of sticks and goodwill and they overpaid for a live events company and got burned.

Investor lawsuits are being pursued already – only one day after the restatement.

But Townsquare stock rebounded in trading yesterday while the Dow was down and it has been well up from a couple of weeks ago.

For the first time, the industry gets a real honest look at Townsquare and its future.

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Now we know what Pittman and Bressler are going to do and when.

Just as important, other groups like Entercom and Cumulus that almost always follow iHeart’s lead will likely adopt the same strategy.

It’s critical because every radio company is in short pants right now looking for ways to reduce expenses and cut their workforces.

There are benefits to furloughing people from an accounting standpoint and there are disadvantages as well.

Bad quarterly revenue reports are expected from all radio groups with losses for the year between 40-50% due to coronavirus and the recession that we have learned started in February ahead of COVID impacting radio.

We get a good look at the iHeart furlough and firing situation for the rest of 2020 again keeping in mind that iHeart dictates the strategy for most major groups.

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What a screwed-up business we’re in.

Back when radio groups were reeling in the free cash flow, few of them were rolled up into bigger or separate companies.

Now when they are undervalued and susceptible to takeover, interest intensifies.

iHeart looks like it has another buyer at the ready.

But this time instead of fighting it, iHeart appears to be changing the rules that protect their most important assets – Bob Pittman and Rich Bressler.

This indicates the situation is now changing because iHeart is running out of operating cash at a time when revenue for the year could be down 30-40% and now their future is in flux.

Why is a company so burdened with problems attracting so much interest – especially now.

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Like it or not iHeart and its previous company Clear Channel have eliminated an estimated 20,000 employees since consolidation began in 1996.

They are the leader in firings, layoffs and furloughs but their competitors quietly mimic their tactics and let iHeart take the heat.

More RIFs are coming and they will be substantial after all we’re halfway through 2020 and a record number of employees have been fired but not rehired due to COVID and the uncertain economy.

What’s next?

Givebacks. 

And not to be underestimated, your industry leader in employment disruption has a plan that will be almost as painful for those workers who survive RIFs as for those whose positions are to be eliminated.

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The big day is coming – June 30^th – the date iHeart told its numerous furloughed employees 3 months ago that their fate will be reconsidered.

Corporate has been tight-lipped about what their decision will be. 

With 3 weeks to go, Bob Pitman and Rich Bressler know what they are going to do and it’s fair to say when it comes to drama, you won’t be disappointed.

There is confusion about whether furloughed workers have any hope as promised or whether other iHeart employees have something to be concerned about and why they can’t get any answers from the company.

We now know the reason market managers and even HR won’t address the topic with them.

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Joe Field built the legacy small market radio group known as Entercom.

His son, an S.O.B., (Son of the Boss) took over the company, mortgaged the future by overpaying for CBS Radio and then tried to “un-CBS” the merged company.

Today, the Entercom that Joe Field built is worth less than $2 on the stock market but has close to $2 billion in debt.

The Fields stand a reasonable chance of losing control of the company if they have to go back to lenders.

Reenter Joe Field who whether you are aware of it or not, is back but in a very different way and it if it doesn’t work, there will be a lot of misery for Entercom employees.

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Months before COVID, iHeart dumped over 1,000 employees.

Then COVID handed iHeart’s beleaguered owners a “gift” and they used it to substantially eliminate more jobs as advertising took a hit.

This pattern of firing, layoffs, furloughs, “dislocations” and “excellence hubs” (as they called them) morphed into employees taking off a few weeks from the company with no pay.

iHeart billing is off as much as 50% as they continue to burn through what cash they have left to keep operating.

All this as Liberty Media awaits the DOJs ruling on whether they will be allowed to make a takeover bid even as iHeart searches for foreign money to prop them up.

Now they’re going to get serious about cost cutting in some vulnerable markets (over 80%) and it’s going to look and feel desperate and not unnoticed by other radio groups.

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