Name: iHeartMedia
Age: 45
Occupation: radio giant from hell
Last Seen: San Antonio, TX
Bee-otched For: becoming radio's Sears
Age: 45
Occupation: radio giant from hell
Last Seen: San Antonio, TX
Bee-otched For: becoming radio's Sears
Earlier this year, Sears announced that they might not make it to next year due to financial issues. They're closing stores at an alarming rate because of competition from the internet and other brick-and-mortars, plus the idiotic stupidity of CEO Eddie Lampert.
Now, another business is crying that they too, might not make it to 2018 and it's no shocker: iHeartMedia, aka Clear Channel.
The media giant announced last week that they're having problems staying afloat. They current are still struggling with a massive $20 billion debtload and creditors have been telling them that time's up. Currently, the company's stock is just over $2 per share, about $8 less than Pandora and $3 less than SiriusXM. However, if there's a bright spot, they're doing much better than Cumulus, which is at 28 cents a share.
Currently, iHeart owns more than 850 stations and syndicates radio hosts Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, George Noory and Ryan Seacrest. These hosts are paid millions while in recent years, some of their jocks have been shown the door. Recently here in Grand Rapids, Ken Evans was fired from the morning spot at popular CHR WSNX 104.5 to make way for Mojo in the Morning, based out of sister station WKQI/Channel 955 in Detroit. The station's other dayparts are voicetracked from WKQI sans middays, which is local.
Of course, I'm smiling inside that both Clear Channel and Cumulus are in the shit because of what they did to Howard Stern years ago. Hell, look at what Cumulus did to his Toledo affiliate! Even that company is failing, and failing horridly.
Methinks that CC will have to spin off their stations to help pay off their immense debt. Bear in mind that they bought their stations when radio was still a hot commodity. But then, digital media from services like Pandora, Spotify and SiriusXM - the home of Howard Stern - took over the radio biz and yes, traditional radio is taking a huge hit. Many criticize local radio stations for repetitive music, loser personalities and simply not listening to the listener. Meanwhile, if you have Pandora, you can skip songs you simply hate.
If iHM goes under, good riddance. I think most people who love radio hate iHM because it's corporate radio at it's worst. I think other radio stations need to learn from their mistakes and not repeat them. After all, you can't make $20 billion back from paying a bloated asshole $400 million to trash intelligent women on the air.
Don't let the door hit you on the ass.
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