By “Blackmail” we mean the specific dictionary definition that closely applies – the use of threats or manipulation to get someone to do something.

That includes the fear of being left out of ratings if a station does not subscribe or the consequences of not including alternative and more affordable rating services for media buyers.

The Bain/Nielsen lock on ad agencies that forces them to use Nielsen ratings is about to come to an end.

One of the major ad agency objections to Eastlan ratings is that the numbers are not readily available in their software systems. 

Suddenly seemingly out of nowhere comes the least likely hero to rescue local radio from Nielsen’s expensive ratings monopoly.

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Radio CEOs don’t do these things – they don’t troll for stations.

Urban One needs stations and Cumulus needs to offload them.

But it’s not that simple.

Lenders are avoiding radio loans these days and when a radio group tries to acquire, the stock market punishes them (I’m thinking of Beasley here when they tried it a few years back).

It’s enough to make a casino owner like Liggins wonder what it’s going to take to get someone’s attention at Cumulus to do business with him.

Actually, he has a very creative idea.

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• Radio’s self-inflicted rate cutting exposed
• The big comeback – which radio groups NOT to follow
• The 3 things highly successful radio groups are quietly doing

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• Tampa sold first – the details of the sale
• iHeart’s other major market studio offices that are actively for sale
• What they will do with selling smaller market studio/offices
• The plan for downsizing space in rental markets

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• A warning about what they are not saying is going on behind the scenes at iHeartMedia
• Do they have enough money to last the year?
• What’s a stripped-down station look like (because they’re coming)?
• Who will iHeart employees’ new bosses be?

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The intricate iHeart plan that embarrasses their competitors and makes them question what their market managers are doing wrong – now we know.

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David Field thinks a name change will right the wrongs of Entercom since his ill-fated merger with CBS Radio (stock price down from $16 to $4 and revenue declining).

Bob Pittman thinks audio is “the” word, not “radio” even though radio specifically defines the medium and advertisers and consumers happily use the term he rejects.

This rebranding outbreak has been bubbling under for decades as stations have forsaken their call letters for slogans and positioners.

If radio is not a word that owners want to use, where is individual station identification headed – we have some early clues.

For example, there are things happening right now around the letters “K” and “W”.

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You’ve no doubt heard all the numbers from Audacy’s first quarter earnings – now how about the one that historically indicates what David “Killing” Field is about to do next?

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Wall Street loves a loser.

Cumulus first quarter results were down 23.8% but their stock closed UP last week.

iHeart was down 21% year over year and their stock went UP almost $3.

Audacy went down 19% and their stock only lost 20 cents in shareholder value.

Apparently, there is money to be made when companies claw their way to the bottom and now after sprucing up the radio sector’s worst numbers, Proud Mary Berner is predicting a big comeback in the next quarter.

Something is wrong here so I asked radio executives familiar with Cumulus operations and some competitors to weigh in on their chances to remain solvent.

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The business must generate approximately $120 million in cash operating profit JUST TO KEEP THE LIGHTS ON and not burn cash. 

But with $7.4 million EBITDA in Q1, they will fall tens of millions of dollars short of that goal as 2021 real EBITDA will likely be closer to $75 million so they’ll continue to burn cash.

One of several hidden gems we discovered buried in the 8K SEC filing after announcing a bone-jarring 24% decline in first quarter advertising revenue with overall revenue down $57 million or 19%.

Here are some tidbits you won’t find David “Killing” Field (for killing off radio for audio) talking about.

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Proud Mary keeps on burning – through cash.

Yesterday we learned that Cumulus first quarter revenue tanked but Mary Berner called it “positive momentum across all of our businesses.” 

Radio down 23.8% -- that must be a record.  Total revenue down 11.5%.  Westwood One down 5.6%.  This is a certified meltdown.

Digital up but not much driven by podcasting which she refuses to reveal other than to say it’s up by 35% -- it is up $1,000 or $35,000 because it’s sure as hell not up $3.5 million – the benefit of keeping secrets.

Usually the Berner, Field and Pittman Traveling Quarterly Salvation Show is about who can stick their heads further up their – well, their corporate financial officer’s “adjusted” figures to deny their own failures.

For Cumulus, there’s a lot more on the line now that they are facing a second bankruptcy.

The stock is down only 11 cents in trading yesterday even though only 120,000 bothered to trade it.

If you want to look into what’s really going on at Cumulus and what the future holds, don’t follow the money, follow where they are bleeding money.

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They’re at it again – a new round of management cutbacks timed with the first quarter financials that they are going to announce Friday.

Now you know, if it was a blowout, they wouldn’t be doing an analysts’ conference call on a Friday hours before a holiday weekend and the suckers in the happy talk radio trade press will probably carry their propaganda word for word as they often do.

More significant is if they can’t beat the first quarter of 2020 which included only one month or less of the pandemic lockdown, maybe they should get out of the radio business and get into audio.

Wait, they’ve already thought of that.

Unfortunately, no matter how Audacy tries to sell their first quarter financials as an out of the park homerun, we have word that there are going to be significant management cutbacks as a result and the way they are going to do it is to say the least – interesting.

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Out of ideas on how to realize deeper cost cuts at iHeart?  Nah!

Say hello to the new MciHeart, a series of financial moves that will continue to give their owners financial relief by selling more critical assets – some are secretly under way right now (although they won’t be secret for long).

Of course, they will still fire people, but the MciHeart move is scary for at least two significant reasons.

One, they will be able to realize huge savings by dismantling the radio business as we know it.

Two, once they do it, the other lemmings are sure to follow.

To borrow a McDonald’s ad slogan “you deserve a break today” instead the radio industry is about to get another screwing thanks to iHeart.

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