The takeaway from this week’s events
August 20, 2022Based on the comments I’ve seen about the terminations at Audacy this week, I feel the following things need to be said. For the record, this post is really for the average listener, most of whom likely do NOT read this website. Also, this is not an official statement and is based exclusively on similar situations in the past.
- Those who have been let go from Audacy stations across the country were let go by orders from corporate. This is likely due to the company’s stock market price being below $1.00 per share since early July. Audacy is in danger of being delisted from Wall St.
- There is no rhyme or reason as to how those were were terminated were chosen. Tenure, salary, etc. did not seem to be any factor in the decision.
- In the case of Kevin Battle’s departure from KDKA Radio, it had little if anything to do with his politics nor that of the station; for that matter the corporation. I promise you this is not about a person’s political leanings.
- As for Kristen Buccigrossi’s departure… I just consider that completely unfair. Of course, that is the case for every victim in this situation. Kristen had over ten years with the cluster (when CBS was still the owner). She was behind the scenes before the on-air opportunity opened up in 2018.
- If you think these are the worst terminations out of this situation, read about Roberta Jasina from WWJ in Detroit.
Again, average listeners. You may not like what or whom you are hearing on the air. But your complaints will be waisted by going to Audacy Pittsburgh.
Not so much for WDSY, but with KDKA the realignment of the on air crew is a lot like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. There are only so many players left on the team and one can assume if people have been terminated due to a financial crisis, they aren’t going to be in a hiring trend right now. So if you are among those who think Larry Richert and Marty Griffin won’t sound good together, or Paul Zeise isn’t the right fit for the middays, I suggest you wait it out and give it a chance. The results can sometimes be surprising and you may have a newfound respect for those whom you didn’t appreciate previously. Same thing for the country listeners – Give Cadillac Jack a chance… he just got to town under the wire.
Finally, if you feel the strong need to vent your frustration over these departures, save your breath. It’s not that your comments will fall on deaf ears so much as there is likely little chance that things will return to the way they were. Out of the many situations like this that occurred in the past, this is perhaps the best example as to why radio stations need to be out of the hands of corporations and return to the “small business” ownerships. Guaranteed they will be better able to serve in the public interest of the community that way.
Your opinion may vary. You are invited to share, but we ask you please support it with solid reasons.
This comment reflects Audacy, Iheart and Cumulus….
No personnel live and local to relate with listeners and community.
This disaster in major markets continues from the boardroom while
punishing audiences. The end result is a loss of devoted radio
people and declining revenue. Wake up and see your vision
destroying the future of broadcasting.
You’re not wrong, Neil. But there is something about this particular occurrence that seems way different. I can’t place my finger on it though.
It’s always a shame when people lose their job. It’s worse when the company firing the people using headcount reduction to lower expenses instead of trying anything to improve income and revenue.
“radio stations need to be out of the hands of corporations and return to the “small business” ownerships. Guaranteed they will be better able to serve in the public interest of the community that way.”
That pretty much sums it up from someone who was downsized several times (escaped one) -and sees the writing on the wall for Audacy. They decided to merge (take over) CBS Radio and in both cases budgets were slashed. In the Pittsburgh situation specifically, KDKA was once the bastion of radio stations and is slowly being taken apart. Larry Richert is still a great host, always will be and the loss of a co-host may not be felt for awhile. It’s just a shame that a station like “KD” is treated like an also-ran. I recall one corporate exec who had removed a nighttime personality from one of his stations (in another PA market) saying “Well, no one listens”. That station is also a shadow of its former self.
Local owners, competitive owners and aggressive promotion of the medium could be one of the answers to this problem. Putting 80% to the bottom line, consolidation and high priced (and high flying) executives, driving Wall Street shares to $.59 (decimal point in the right place) isn’t.
How can the “public interest” of a local community be served if few people in the local community even turn their radios on? I’m 70 years old, and I cannot remember any radio station ever that would “serve in the public interest of the community”. Just what does that high-sounding phrase even mean?
That depends on what your definition of service to the community is, George. The format a station chooses to offer is not how they serve in the public interest… nor necessarily is it the air talent. It’s how much effort is given to “public affairs”. What is the station doing for the people and non-profits within the community? Admittedly the FCC requires a lot less of that in this day and age, but it is still a huge part of licensing. I’ve written about WJEJ, the AM station in Hagerstown, MD which is a prime example of your small-town, family-owned station. The sponsors have their commercials and the station is often broadcasting from events within its listening area – or at the very least promoting the event well in advance. Not sure how much they charge for appearances or mentions, but it seems to still work for them. The principal owner of Hagerstown Broadcasting recently passed, but there seems to be a commitment from his descendants and employees to keep the station going with its full-power AM, FM translator, and webstream. While the programming isn’t to everyone’s liking, I’m sure, they’re about quality of the product over quantity of stations owned. THAT is also serving within the public interest.
Couldn’t agree more, these decisions were financially based, nothing more. When you are in a mature (i.e. declining) industry one of the few levers of control management has left is to cut payroll. It’s why Kmart was down to one cashier in its final days. When somebody loses their job due to politics it’s pretty obvious and you will know it (it is possible that some of these were cut due to INTERNAL politics to which we’re not privy). I agree that to me Larry Richert and Marty Griffin are the oddest of odd couples, but such things have worked out in the past (Jim Quinn and Banana Don weren’t exactly Burns and Allen). Paul Zeise has always struck me as an intriguing, intelligent guy and I am rather curious to see what he can do with this opportunity. If you go to Audacy’s website to complain their only reaction is likely to be “Oh yes, thank God, someone is actually listening!” They are after all a corporate entity that chose to rebrand with a phonetically ambiguous new name. Not the sharpest crayons in the box.
Carson=genius reply.
I thought Audacy could mean audacity or audacious, maybe odyssey, close to the sound of the word oddity too. It’s probably something that the young pups understand better, in these days of cheeky website and drug names.
From a marketing standpoint that ambiguity is the kiss of death. You tell your listeners to download the Audacy app and they go to the app store and search for the Odyssey app. Tell them to go to Audacy.com and they’re on their way to Odyssey.com. People will read Audacy and pronounce it in a bunch of different ways that don’t sound like Odyssey. It’s astounding to me anyone could make such a big blunder, let alone people in radio.
One can guess that “Audacy” is a hybrid of “Audio” and “Odyssey”, an attempt to display a new way of obtaining “Audio”. Of course their departure from “radio-dot-com” shows that they don’t want us to think they’re radio. Instead they’ve come up with a word that has multiple spellings, various meanings and usually gets people asking “huh?”. Funny thing is that word is so unusual I don’t even know if I’m right.
I think you hit the nail on the head, Dave. I kind of remember reading something like that. Still though, it is kind of
auder… odd… to people who aren’t familiar.Yeah- -audible media (radio, internet, etc.) -is pretty much a utility in the minds of the general public. There’s a reason “Netflix” is the #1 streamer. You see the name and you know. It’s movies over the net. Audacy? Its meaning is not quite so evident.
The word Audacy is not in the dictionary (I double checked to be sure) so it’s a construct. They’re fighting a word everyone knows with one that doesn’t exist. The whole thing reminds me of the movie That Thing You Do. “I wonder what happened to the Oneders?”
It’s really not much different from Verizon, Xfinity, or from many years ago, Kodak. The only difference is that it’s a name that causes problems and has no benefit to the company.