Name: Cumulus Media
Age: 20
Occupation: broadcast giant
Last Seen: Atlanta, GA
Bee-otched For: officially proving that they've failed
Age: 20
Occupation: broadcast giant
Last Seen: Atlanta, GA
Bee-otched For: officially proving that they've failed
--
In the world of radio, it seems that failure is indeed an option. Want proof? Look at Cumulus.
The media Goliath announced this week that they've filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The company is riddled with $2.4 billion in debt and was recently demoted out of NASDAQ and onto the pink sheets because their stock price had been under a dollar for quite some time.
Today, Cumulus was trading at a whopping nine cents per share.
To add insult to injury, Cumulus apparently is in arrears with Nielsen in regard to ratings. As a result, in the trends, none of their stations in Grand Rapids were ranked.
A few years ago, I somewhat cheered when they bought out Citadel and fired Matt Hanlon. However, they did extremely little to fix his messes here in Grand Rapids. The only major change that they made here in town was when they switched Thunder 94.5 to another one of their Nash country outlets. Also, they lost the Tigers and Red Wings to iHeartMedia's cluster. All they have left are the Lions.
The only station they have in GR that's doing anything these days is WLAV. The rest are all their competitors' bitches (i.e. B93 is beating Nash, WSNX is ahead of 105.3 Hot FM and WOOD-AM/FM is WAAAAY ahead of WJRW. Lets not forget 96.1 ESPN, which would be CREAMING WBBL if they didn't move their hosts around and so on).
The truth is, Cumulus deserves to be bankrupt. The funny thing is was that 16 years ago, they ordered all their Howard Stern affiliates to drop the show, claiming it was too expensive. Look at his former Toledo station: the ratings crumbled and they ended up switching format multiple times. Both Citadel and Cumulus were/are anti-Stern companies and in the end, they got what they got.
Oh, and speaking of Toledo, Don't get us started on 1470 AM, which went dark.
I laugh at those companies that ditch Stern and in the end, they're billions in debt because they don't think like a Stern listener. A man who loves prime rib doesn't like rawhide. With so many going to the internet and satellite, it's proof that with billions in debt, corporate radio is dying a slow, painful death.
So, what's next for Cumulus? At nine cents per share, who knows? Plus, what companies are buying? Personally, I'd like to see WKLQ be reborn here in Grand Rapids, but hell will freeze over when that happens (although I heard that Free Beer and Hot Wings' contract is set to expire). Same with firing Bill Simonson. Asshole doesn't even have a two share and is a waste of money. It shows that corporate radio has a high tolerance of failure, even when the stock price is under a penny.
Cumulus, how low can you go?
--
Got a Bee-otch to nominate? E-mail us @ chuck69dotcom@gmail.com. All suggestions (except for me) are welcome!
Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
Bee-otch of the Day Archives can be seen on http://beeotchoftheday.blogspot.com
Bee-otch of the Day is a production of Chuck69.com, Grand Rapids' site for Stern, politics and more!
CHUCK69.COM IS ALWAYS ON!
No comments:
Post a Comment