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iHeartMedia planning to sell in Virginia/Carolina?

TheBigA said:
Let's look at each one of those buyers: Alpha is in debt up to its eyeballs and has no money to spend. Townsquare has been rumored to be on the block, as it's main lender is pulling out, so they have no money to spend. Saga just had a rough quarter, and they don't have access to the kind of cash this would take. Curtis just bought a few small groups, and that pretty much maxes them out. They're a small family company.
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And Summit just went through a financial restructuring when one of the investment bankers wanted to withdraw and a new stakeholder was found. It's a relatively small company, and not one likely to be able to absorb more than a market or two at a time if they were to expand.
 
TheBigA said:
Let's look at each one of those buyers: Alpha is in debt up to its eyeballs and has no money to spend. Townsquare has been rumored to be on the block, as it's main lender is pulling out, so they have no money to spend. Saga just had a rough quarter, and they don't have access to the kind of cash this would take. Curtis just bought a few small groups, and that pretty much maxes them out. They're a small family company.

But the bigger story is the rumor that the CBS/Entercom deal might be in trouble. So what happens if that deal doesn't happen as expected? Since you're pushing the rumor mill, what happens to the house of cards if CBS & Entercom doesn't happen?
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I thought of Alpha Media since they focus on owning stations in small markets, and Townsquare is in the process of acquiring stations in Pittsfield, MA. These are just fantasy buyers, so I'm not trying to get my hopes up if iHeartMedia eventually confirms a sale of their radio stations.

I'm still staying focused on the CBS Radio-Entercom merger regardless of what's going on.

Even though Jerry Del Colliano may be a excellent source of where you're getting this information, I don't have the money to subscribe to insidemusicmedia.com at this time.
 
DavidEduardo said:


And Summit just went through a financial restructuring when one of the investment bankers wanted to withdraw and a new stakeholder was found. It's a relatively small company, and not one likely to be able to absorb more than a market or two at a time if they were to expand.
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I'm ready to see if iHeartMedia is actually planning to sell some of their radio stations.
 
miketheradioguy said:
...Entercom could see this as an opportunity to trade their CBS Radio spinoffs with iHeartMedia.
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Never going to happen because CBS Radio/Entercom spinoffs are in big markets. They have no desire to trade something to end up getting Asheville NC (for example) And iHeart is not going to get rid of stations in big markets.
 
AMRocks said:
Never going to happen because CBS Radio/Entercom spinoffs are in big markets. They have no desire to trade something to end up getting Asheville NC (for example) And iHeart is not going to get rid of stations in big markets.
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I never said that iHeartMedia will sell their large market stations. Boston may be a good place for iHeartMedia to expand because they own 3 FMs and Entercom needs to spin 2 FMs in the market, and then iHeartMedia can give Entercom some of their smaller market stations.
 
miketheradioguy said:
Then Entercom may in turn trade the smaller market stations to someone else.
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You're back to cows jumping over the moon here. There are no actual facts behind any of this. It's all based on a fake idea of iHeart selling stations, which they're not doing. Entercom has enough on its plate without creating more work for itself.
 
Let's go over the layoffs that took place in the Virginia/Carolina region:

In Norfolk, DJ Fountz: APD/Afternoon Host at 103 JAMZ
In Roanoke, Jack Spade: PD/Afternoon Host at WJJS 102.7
In Asheville, Roger McCoy: APD/MD/Afternoon Host at 99.9 Kiss Country
In Harrisonburg, RJ Kelly: Afternoon Host at 104.3 KCY Country
In Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, Rich McMillan: Senior VP/Programming had his planned retirement moved up, Gary Nolan: Programming Director at 99.5 WMAG, and Matt Pencola: host on 105.7 Man Up
 
miketheradioguy said:
Let's go over the layoffs that took place in the Virginia/Carolina region:
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At the same time, the North Carolina region has job postings for 7 positions, and the Virginia region is looking to hire 3 new employees. So they're clearly not giving up on those two states.

As several posters have said in this thread, it's been very common within iHeart to replace local talent with out of market VT. You'll find lots of threads about it here.

Would you like me to list all the recent talent layoffs in other states? Because there are quite a few.

Here's a paragraph of an article in Variety from May 2017 that says layoffs have been widespread, not just in two states:

"There have also been widespread layoffs at various iHeartMedia properties in Chicago, Detroit, Tampa, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Sacramento, New Orleans, Grand Rapids, Florence, and Mobile, Alabama; Biloxi, Mississippi; and Canton, Ohio. At press time, 19 employees were known to have been let go."
 
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TheBigA said:
At the same time, the North Carolina region has job postings for 7 positions, and the Virginia region is looking to hire 3 new employees. So they're clearly not giving up on those two states.

As several posters have said in this thread, it's been very common within iHeart to replace local talent with out of market VT. You'll find lots of threads about it here.

Would you like me to list all the recent talent layoffs in other states? Because there are quite a few.

Here's a paragraph of an article in Variety from May 2017 that says layoffs have been widespread, not just in two states:

"There have also been widespread layoffs at various iHeartMedia properties in Chicago, Detroit, Tampa, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Jacksonville, Sacramento, New Orleans, Grand Rapids, Florence, and Mobile, Alabama; Biloxi, Mississippi; and Canton, Ohio. At press time, 19 employees were known to have been let go."
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I already read the list of iHeartMedia layoffs that took place in May 2017 and like any rounds of talent cuts at iHeartMedia, I consider that "business as usual". However, the Virginia/Carolina region layoffs could lead to something significant at iHeartMedia.

Here are some good layoff predictions that should happen in the Virginia/Carolina region:

Eddie Foxx at 99.9 Kiss Country Asheville
Chris and Rosie at Q102 Winchester
Paul and Meg at 96.9 The Kat Charlotte

Since these people are morning show hosts at their respective country stations, their morning shows should replaced with Bobby Bones.
 
miketheradioguy said:
However, the Virginia/Carolina region layoffs could lead to something significant at iHeartMedia.
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What makes you say that? And why do they still have job postings for those two areas if they plan to sell them?

miketheradioguy said:
Since these people are morning show hosts at their respective country stations, their morning shows should replaced with Bobby Bones.
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Not necessarily. If their shows are profitable, there is no need to replace with syndication. Consider WPOC Baltimore. No Bobby Bones there.

Also iHeart has been using Bones in other dayparts at stations where the morning show is already successful.

And if they replace local talent with in-house syndication (Bones), and then sell the stations, what will the new owners use for talent? They're selling them stations that have been pillaged, and have no product for the new owners to sell. It's like selling someone a car after you've destroyed the engine.
 
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TheBigA said:
What makes you say that? And why do they still have job postings for those two areas if they plan to sell them?



Not necessarily. If their shows are profitable, there is no need to replace with syndication. Consider WPOC Baltimore. No Bobby Bones there.

Also iHeart has been using Bones in other dayparts at stations where the morning show is already successful.

And if they replace local talent with in-house syndication (Bones), what will the new owners use for talent? They're selling them stations that have been pillaged, and have no product for the new owners to sell.
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I'm simply reading what's posted on Radio Insight, as there's no way I'm making things up regarding Virginia/Carolina.

I know about Laurie DeYoung, the morning show host at WPOC since it's one of my local radio stations. I also have WMZQ in my area, and it runs Bobby Bones in mornings. Although I never knew Bobby Bones is also heard in other dayparts.

I know on 104.1 The Edge in Albuquerque, two of the three morning show co-hosts, Orio and Janae were laid off while Baxter was moved up to afternoons in favor for The Woody Show, which is being expanded into syndication.
 
miketheradioguy said:
I'm simply reading what's posted on Radio Insight, as there's no way I'm making things up regarding Virginia/Carolina.
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What you're doing is jumping to conclusions based on very typical layoffs coming from a company that does these things all the time.

So yes, people are being laid off in a region. They're also being laid off elsewhere. So why not jump to those same conclusions in another region? Why aren't they about to sell Albuquerque?
 
TheBigA said:
What you're doing is jumping to conclusions based on very typical layoffs coming from a company that does these things all the time.

So yes, people are being laid off in a region. They're also being laid off elsewhere. So why not jump to those same conclusions in another region? Why aren't they about to sell Albuquerque?
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I understand iHeartMedia lays off people anywhere, and not only in a single region.

There's a sale going on right now in Albuquerque where Univision is selling their cluster to American General Media while spinning off 4 stations to 4 different owners. iHeartMedia has one station sitting in the Aloha Station trust, and I could see that station being sold to EMF who would then flip the station to either K-Love or Air 1 if they decide to sell their Albuquerque cluster anytime soon. However, I would rather focus on what's going on in Virginia/Carolina.
 
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