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Cumulus Atlanta Layoffs

R

RoddyFreeman

Walk of Fame Participant
I heard from a well-placed source (sic) that several people were laid off at Cumulus today. Among them were Jackie Howard, News Director of 106.7, and Christian Lee, traffic reporter for Q and Kicks.
 
RoddyFreeman said:
I heard from a well-placed source (sic) that several people were laid off at Cumulus today. Among them were Jackie Howard, News Director of 106.7, and Christian Lee, traffic reporter for Q and Kicks.
Click to expand...

I noticed that Rock100.5 didn't have Chris-Tian-Lee doing traffic this AM. Instead, they had a poorly intelligible Matt Doerr who was rattling off a way-too-fast report with a patter that sounded like he was slingin' hot vinyl on Quixie or something.
 
Bert Weiss‏Verified account
@BertShowBert

I'll try and handle after show. Thanks. This was all news to me, too.

MyeWhitten @myegarwhit
The guy who reports traffic sounds like an auctioneer ������I miss christian ������ @TheBertShow @BertShowBert @KrisKling @MootePoints

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Bert Weiss‏Verified account @BertShowBert · May 10

A lot of emails yesterday. But no face to face with management. That joy is today.

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Bert Weiss‏Verified account @BertShowBert · May 10

Apparently @KLeeVoice is now a part time employee. This was all done without my knowledge. More meetings about it today.

Angrily went in to talk to the new traffic guy to make some adjustments. The bad news is he's SOOOOO nice. Dang it.
 
The Trump economic recovery has yet to reach Atlanta. Remember make America great again?
Coke has laid off 1800 employees.
HH Gregg has closed all its stores. Wonder how much bad debt they left the broadcast industry. They primarily advertised on TV.
Best Bank has been taken over by the Feds. Guess it wasn't so "best" after all.
And, WGST is STILL loaded up with PSA's. Listening to all those PSA's hurts my ears. Avails going down the drain.
 
The Tally Squirrel said:
Bert Weiss‏Verified account
@BertShowBert

I'll try and handle after show. Thanks. This was all news to me, too.

MyeWhitten @myegarwhit
The guy who reports traffic sounds like an auctioneer ������I miss christian ������ @TheBertShow @BertShowBert @KrisKling @MootePoints

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Bert Weiss‏Verified account @BertShowBert · May 10

A lot of emails yesterday. But no face to face with management. That joy is today.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Bert Weiss‏Verified account @BertShowBert · May 10

Apparently @KLeeVoice is now a part time employee. This was all done without my knowledge. More meetings about it today.

Angrily went in to talk to the new traffic guy to make some adjustments. The bad news is he's SOOOOO nice. Dang it.
Click to expand...

it is Wednesday May 17th any word on the Monday meeting?
 
This may deserve its own thread...John Dickey just started a new company with enough cash to buy Cumulus outright. I wonder if he's waiting for a bankruptcy fire sale or prepack...radio is becoming a #2 to commercial aviation as the top destroyer of capital.
 
jabba17 said:
John Dickey just started a new company with enough cash to buy Cumulus outright.
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Excluding the $2 billion of debt. Which he himself created.

I cant imagine he'd want to spend new money on a company that still has so much of his own money still tied up. I mean, he is still one of the biggest stockholders in Cumulus, and among those who have a lot to lose if the company in fact goes bankrupt. How much money does he really want to lose?
 
jabba17 said:
This may deserve its own thread...John Dickey just started a new company with enough cash to buy Cumulus outright. I wonder if he's waiting for a bankruptcy fire sale or prepack...radio is becoming a #2 to commercial aviation as the top destroyer of capital.
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I read that Lew Dickey is the one who started the new company and is looking to buy stations. (Maybe John is starting one, also.)
 
RoddyFreeman said:
I read that Lew Dickey is the one who started the new company and is looking to buy stations. (Maybe John is starting one, also.)
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Thanks. I don't know where the name "John" came from. :)
 
TheBigA said:
Excluding the $2 billion of debt. Which he himself created.

I cant imagine he'd want to spend new money on a company that still has so much of his own money still tied up. I mean, he is still one of the biggest stockholders in Cumulus, and among those who have a lot to lose if the company in fact goes bankrupt. How much money does he really want to lose?
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Unless Lew has personally guaranteed that $2B of debt, Lew should not and probably doesn't care about it (his lenders are another story). Business is business. And, at this point, I don't think Lew has anything to do at this point with whether or not CMLS goes BK.

Whether or not CMLS goes BK also has nothing to do with whether or not Lew would want to buy any or all of Cumulus's assets, either out of the bankruptcy, or during a pre-BK CMLS fire sale for CMLS to raise capital. Whether a bunch of debt-unencumbered assets are worth what the asking price might be is another story.

The market cap of CMLS is only about $18MM, but that does include all of the debt. You are right in the respect that Lew probably doesn't want to buy CMLS as is as a going concern, and the value of the assets without the debt is likely higher than the $18MM. But he would get to cherry-pick the assets he wants.
 
jabba17 said:
Unless Lew has personally guaranteed that $2B of debt, Lew should not and probably doesn't care about it (his lenders are another story). Business is business. And, at this point, I don't think Lew has anything to do at this point with whether or not CMLS goes BK.
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Other than the fact that he owns a big chunk of stock, which would be wiped out if the company went bankrupt.

He is likely to be a creditor for the assets of Cumulus after a bankruptcy, but he's a bit low on the list, behind Blackstone and a couple others.

Keep in mind that the person who will have the biggest equity in the company after bankruptcy is the guy who fired Lew two years ago.
 
TheBigA said:
Other than the fact that he owns a big chunk of stock, which would be wiped out if the company went bankrupt.

He is likely to be a creditor for the assets of Cumulus after a bankruptcy, but he's a bit low on the list, behind Blackstone and a couple others.

Keep in mind that the person who will have the biggest equity in the company after bankruptcy is the guy who fired Lew two years ago.
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If there's $2B of debt, then he and the rest of the common stockholders are going to be too low to get anything since I don't think CMLS's assets are going to be worth that much. According to their financials, CMLS's assets are about $2.4B against almost that much in debt https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/CMLS/balance-sheet?p=CMLS . Most of the assets (to the tune of almost $1.8B) are intangibles like goodwill and brand equity. A lot of that value will likely evaporate in any sale and was probably accumulated in acquisitions, and may not have been properly impaired or adjusted over time (GAAP gets weird with stuff like that). Hard assets like cash and PP&E are about $300MM.

From where Lew sits, there's not really anything he can do to stave off a bankruptcy. But his own haircut doesn't mean a thing to what he could do going forward, as long as he's got somebody's money to do it. Sunk costs and all that.

I'm more surprised that he was able to find lenders to fund his latest folly.
 
jabba17 said:
If there's $2B of debt, then he and the rest of the common stockholders are going to be too low to get anything since I don't think CMLS's assets are going to be worth that much.
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I have no reason to believe the creditors would sell the assets. The cash flow is better than interest on the loan.

But I also have no reason to believe they will bankrupt the entire company over $2 billion debt. Especially when they have no problem at all meeting the payments. There is no pressure coming from the lenders, and there seems to be lots of confidence in the current CEO. They just have to keep control on expenses.
 
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