Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

How prophetic was Wednesday’s headline – “Cumulus Starting to Panic”?

Several hours after it was published Cumulus announced a $103.5 million sale of WPLJ-FM, New York, WYAY-FM, Atlanta, WRQX-FM, Washington, KFFG-FM, San Jose, WZAT-FM, Savannah and WXTL-FM, Syracuse – all FM stations for pennies on the dollar to the bottom feeder in radio acquisitions Educational Media Foundation (EMF).

And EMF gets towers or leases that will generate an additional $5-7 million in revenue.

Separately, Cumulus did a swap with Entercom in which Cumulus gets three Indianapolis stations in exchange for Nash-FM in New York (Newark, NJ) and two stations in Springfield, MA.

Cumulus CEO Mary Berner said “These transactions are consistent with our portfolio optimization strategy and both deals are accretive,” as her nose grew.

And Entercom CEO David Field apparently crossed his fingers and toes when he said “We are saddened to part ways with our colleagues in Indianapolis, but know that they will be in great hands.”

Huh?

Great hands?

Cumulus is so desperate it is selling off pieces for scrap to give long suffering lenders recovery value. 

How would Field like to work on the Titanic.

You don’t need to be reminded of what the decision to sell major markets means to a radio company.

And nowhere in all this is their reference to the many jobs lost, the lies told, careers ruined all by a CEO who made her employees believe that it was the previous regime that was toxic.

Cumulus in effect announcing it is weakening itself, selling majors and running from the radio business is just the beginning of the story, here are 7 key ramifications no one dares to mention. 

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