Corporate radio downsizing continues

With the current economic downturn, more corporate broadcasters are making a variety of cuts attempting to survive the diminishing ad revenues supporting their operations.  Townsquare Media has made a total of 65 layoffs; 25 of those were corporate. Ten of the layoffs were full-time on-air talent. Over 30 executives have volunteered to take a temporary pay reduction and more are volunteering to do so, taking a 10% temporary pay reduction.

Today’s Radio Insight is reporting that iHeart Media CEO Bob Pittman and CFO Rich Bressler announced a number of 90 day furloughs of some employees that we have learned include part-time on-air talent, members of promotions and marketing departments and sales assistants. Those furloughed will continue to receive health benefits and can file for state unemployment. Pittman will also voluntarily take no salary for the remainder of the year and has given up his annual incentive bonus, while Bressler and other members of iHeart’s senior management will take between 30% and 70% reductions in pay.

Meanwhile, other companies have made similar moves in the past couple of weeks. Beasley and Adams cut salaries across the board by 10%. Entercom has furloughed and then laid-off many part-timers. Alpha Media made cuts in multiple markets, while Saga has cut two staffers in each cluster. Smaller groups such as Meruelo Media, Mid-West Family Broadcasting and Neuhoff Media have made cuts and/or furloughs of employees.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

If your Comment is held in Moderation queue, you will be sent email confirmation once your Comment has been approved and posts on the site.

COMMENT GUIDELINES | "What Happened To My Comment?" | post an OFF-TOPIC COMMENT

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.