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Cumulus Media 'on the brink of total collapse' as hostile takeover fears mount

Started by bateman, June 11, 2017, 03:53:56 PM



Who goes belly up first Iheart or Cumulus.

I blame lack of local programming, awful syndicated radio host, and songs that get repeated 5 times an hour.

CozyRozie

Quote from: nooryisawesomeâ,,¢ on June 21, 2017, 10:51:55 AM
Who goes belly up first Iheart or Cumulus.

I blame lack of local programming, awful syndicated radio host, and songs that get repeated 5 times an hour.
I hope Noory will

WOTR

Quote from: nooryisawesomeâ,,¢ on June 21, 2017, 10:51:55 AM
I blame lack of local programming, awful syndicated radio host, and songs that get repeated 5 times an hour.
I tend to agree with you.  When they think they are saving money by paying one "personality" to air on dozens of stations, I think most people want something more local.  No doubt there was a time (think Wolfman Jack) when it was "cool" or "novel" to have somebody sitting in NYC on your local station.  But the internet changed all of that.  If I want to listen to "drive time" from NYC, I will tune in to one of their stations.

No doubt radio, in general is hard to make work in 2017. The cost for local hosts adds up, not as many people listening, radio often being seen as the bottom for entertainment- something to listen to while travelling in a car, or cleaning the house- no shows that people schedule their lives around like television (or podcasts like MITD with Art Bell...)

That said, there are a couple of "not for profit" radio stations that I feel do a good job.  Interesting on air personalities and a wide mixture of music (for me, it is CKUA http://www.ckua.com/ ) but if you like the older music then you have radio Caroline (the original pirate radio station) where most of their DJ's date from the 70's and do it because they enjoy it (think Art Bell, if he didn't quit every few years.) http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#profiles.html (a page with their profiles.)

Oh well... If Iheart and Cumulus go, I will not cry (too much.)

Juan

The elimination of local talent also meant the stations were no longer creating and developing new talent. I knew many guys who started in high school working at the local 250-watt AM station and worked their way up to larger stations in larger cities. These were the innovative guys who found and helped launch local bands, who developed new formats, who made up new jokes and stunts. We have very little of that now.

albrecht

Quote from: WOTR on June 24, 2017, 01:45:38 PM
I tend to agree with you.  When they think they are saving money by paying one "personality" to air on dozens of stations, I think most people want something more local.  No doubt there was a time (think Wolfman Jack) when it was "cool" or "novel" to have somebody sitting in NYC on your local station.  But the internet changed all of that.  If I want to listen to "drive time" from NYC, I will tune in to one of their stations.

No doubt radio, in general is hard to make work in 2017. The cost for local hosts adds up, not as many people listening, radio often being seen as the bottom for entertainment- something to listen to while travelling in a car, or cleaning the house- no shows that people schedule their lives around like television (or podcasts like MITD with Art Bell...)

That said, there are a couple of "not for profit" radio stations that I feel do a good job.  Interesting on air personalities and a wide mixture of music (for me, it is CKUA http://www.ckua.com/ ) but if you like the older music then you have radio Caroline (the original pirate radio station) where most of their DJ's date from the 70's and do it because they enjoy it (think Art Bell, if he didn't quit every few years.) http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#profiles.html (a page with their profiles.)

Oh well... If Iheart and Cumulus go, I will not cry (too much.)
Even television is losing this with Tivo/DVR, pirating, online watching, Netflix, and (editorial comment) crappy shows that exist simply to push social norms and advance certain politics. Basically, the only good tv (or radio,) aside from my local AM guys, is for live sports. Or the "free" tv and movie channels over antenna that shows the good, old shows.

And even there now people often Tivo/DVRlice sports to avoid commercials and for many, as you say, who listen to the game on the radio is because they are driving, working in the garage, etc. Not as primary venue. Personally I like listening to stuff or reading to watching but most people want HD and picture is more important. The younger generation is not even watching sports so tv/radio is loosing that future demographic.


bateman

Quote from: nooryisawesome on June 21, 2017, 10:51:55 AM
Who goes belly up first Iheart or Cumulus.

I blame lack of local programming, awful syndicated radio host, and songs that get repeated 5 times an hour.

Appears to be Cumulus.

Yes to the above, but also that these companies bought up more radio stations than they could manage and financed it all with debt.

Swishypants

Average people build a thing. Businesses grow a thing. Corporations harvest a thing. Conglomerates destroy a thing. Terrestrial radio has been dying for 25 years. The suits in the big ivory towers wrung radio out because they operate on the assumption that "the little people" will always find a way to create something significant for them to exploit. Not so. They do it for a long-long time, but eventually they just sit down and do nothing.





So what if Cumulus or whatever the ultimate parent company is goes bust. 

The company assets won't disappear, they'll just be under new management.  Perhaps parts will be sold off, and/or divisions, departments, or programming scaled back or canceled.  Perhaps the company will be split up.  Investors will lose value, people will lose jobs, but most of it will slouch onward.

It's doubtful the Snorch and his awfullness will be ended.  It will almost certainly continue on with little if any changes - maybe they'll lose a junior accountant or a marketing intern.   

Quote from: WOTR on June 24, 2017, 01:45:38 PM

That said, there are a couple of "not for profit" radio stations that I feel do a good job.  Interesting on air personalities and a wide mixture of music (for me, it is CKUA http://www.ckua.com/ ) but if you like the older music then you have radio Caroline (the original pirate radio station) where most of their DJ's date from the 70's and do it because they enjoy it (think Art Bell, if he didn't quit every few years.) http://www.radiocaroline.co.uk/#profiles.html (a page with their profiles.)



Thanks for the link. I'll have to check it out. Radio is atrocious.

Swishypants

Quote from: PB the Deplorable on November 11, 2017, 07:00:12 PM
So what if Cumulus or whatever the ultimate parent company is goes bust. 

The company assets won't disappear, they'll just be under new management.  Perhaps parts will be sold off, and/or divisions, departments, or programming scaled back or canceled.  Perhaps the company will be split up.  Investors will lose value, people will lose jobs, but most of it will slouch onward.

It's doubtful the Snorch and his awfullness will be ended.  It will almost certainly continue on with little if any changes - maybe they'll lose a junior accountant or a marketing intern.

Not so sure about the assets. The entire terrestrial radio industry is fading away. Unless it can be repurposed, radio is going the way of the copperline telephone industry. Even the workers are mostly very old now. New replacements are not being forged.   

Quote from: Swishypants on November 11, 2017, 07:24:10 PM
Not so sure about the assets. The entire terrestrial radio industry is fading away. Unless it can be repurposed, radio is going the way of the copperline telephone industry. Even the workers are mostly very old now. New replacements are not being forged.

Well, point being if we're waiting for George Noory to be a causalty in their bankruptsy, he probably won't be

Swishypants

That's true. C2C is mostly kept alive by this forum as an object of ire. I doubt it has more than 100K listeners (maybe half that some nights), down from 15 Million at it's peak with Art.

People wonder why BellGab isn't more positive nowadays. Well, the show is long dead and Art is fully retired and will die any minute. The radio industry is a thing of the past, living out it's very last days right now. All of this is just a junkyard a few old codgers like to hang out in, and talk shit to one another in.

Swishypants

Nothing NEW is happening, and hasn't for almost 20 years now. Everything is just a recycle of a recycle of a recycle of a recycle. No wonder the industry is dead. Only the faint echos of brain activity still exist, and they will be gone soon too. No one should expect a healthy industry or community under such conditions.

Dr. MD MD

Quote from: Swishypants on November 11, 2017, 08:10:19 PM
That's true. C2C is mostly kept alive by this forum as an object of ire. I doubt it has more than 100K listeners (maybe half that some nights), down from 15 Million at it's peak with Art.

People wonder why BellGab isn't more positive nowadays. Well, the show is long dead and Art is fully retired and will die any minute. The radio industry is a thing of the past, living out it's very last days right now. All of this is just a junkyard a few old codgers like to hang out in, and talk shit to one another in.

No, it's because faggot trolls like you are on a mission to bring it down. So powerful. So useless.  ;D

Swishypants

Quote from: Dr. MD MD on November 11, 2017, 08:17:50 PM
No, it's because faggot trolls like you are on a mission to bring it down. So powerful. So useless.  ;D

Just lashing out isn't Trolling Dr. Mexican. Trolling is an art. Go play with your micro-penis and leave God's work to the Men.

Dr. MD MD

Quote from: Swishypants on November 11, 2017, 08:19:26 PM
Just lashing out isn't Trolling Dr. Mexican. Trolling is an art. Go play with your micro-penis and leave God's work to the Men.

What men?  :D



MV/Liberace!

Quote from: Swishypants on November 11, 2017, 02:58:59 PM
Art Bell and Coast to Coast A.M. was "THE LAST" Radio Show.

for me, terrestrial talk radio died in june 2006 when phil hendrie quit his show, nationally syndicated from KFI, in a failed bid to become an actor.

albrecht

Quote from: mv on November 12, 2017, 01:14:38 AM
for me, terrestrial talk radio died in june 2006 when phil hendrie quit his show, nationally syndicated from KFI, in a failed bid to become an actor.
And then doubled-down on alienating fans by DCMA take-downs and threats against fans who had fan pages, taped archives, and shared over the interwebs and torrents. Instead of appreciating his fans for archiving what, he often failed to do, his golden years of radio and using that to maintain a fan base and remain creative.

damon

Quote from: mv on November 12, 2017, 01:14:38 AM
for me, terrestrial talk radio died in june 2006 when phil hendrie quit his show, nationally syndicated from KFI, in a failed bid to become an actor.
Am radio has way to many ads. For example, a 4 hour show like c2c without the news breaks and ads are just about 2.5 hours long.


Dr. MD MD

Quote from: username on November 12, 2017, 04:10:52 PM
Radio is never going away.



You're a faggot but you're god damn right it's not! Trump's going to make it great again too!  ;D

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