Traditional Radio Faces a Grim Future, New Study Says

[formulanone]

Broadcast radio is only good for two things:
NPR and the Dave Ramsey Show.
Other than that, you don't really need it.  Don't even really need it for civil defense since those alerts get pushed to smartphones.

Not a fan of NPR for multiple reasons.

Truth can be scary.

Fake News is to be avoided.   

It’s all spin, though some of us have figured out which one is State Run Media on this lap.

With the exception of weather radio, it can all take a final chance to be Icarus and I wouldn’t notice the difference.

[bing101]

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/122447/redding-joins-ranks-going-off-air/

Here is an update now a Redding station could go off the air.

[bing101]

https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/city-desk/blog/20989471/former-wtop-reporter-files-sexual-harassment-lawsuit-against-station


Now Washington DC's top rated radio station WTOP has been hit by Harassment allegations.

[bing101]

https://www.reuters.com/article/scripps-restructuring/scripps-to-sell-all-its-34-radio-stations-idUSL4N1PK4UC

Today Scripps sell their Radio station division. Note WTMJ-AM is one of their affected stations here.

[bing101]

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/122620/cumulus-takes-missouri-station-dark/


Also a Missouri Station went dark due to the Cumulus restructuring from Chapter 11.

[bing101]

https://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=n35125

E.W. Scripps Sells 34 radio stations

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2018/01/25/scripps-plans-sell-all-34-radio-stations-including-four-knoxville/1067925001/

http://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/scripps-to-sell-all-its-radio-stations-including-4-in-knoxville/51-511622290

E.W. Scripps Co. plans to sell its 34 radio stations – including four in Knoxville – as it pares down its operations.
The Cincinnati-based company announced the decision Thursday as part of a restructuring process "expected to yield more than $30 million in annual cost savings," according to a Scripps news release.
Scripps has retained Kalil & Co., Inc. to find a buyer for the radio stations, which include the Knoxville stations WNOX (93.1 FM), WCYQ (100.3), WWST (102.1), and WKHT (104.5).
The company took on $2.4 million in restructuring charges in the third quarter of 2017 and will take on $2 million for the fourth quarter. Scripps estimates charges of $4 million in the first quarter of this year and smaller quarterly charges into 2019, according to the release.
The cost savings "are driven by reductions in head count and operating expenses over the next 12-18 months," the release reads.

[bing101]

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/122831/iheartmedia-triggers-30-day-clock-restructuring-bankruptcy/




Here is an update on Iheart's debt issues.

[bing101]

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/122746/taylor-swift-groper-david-mueller-returns-radio-moorhead-ms/




Well Heres Radio facing a grim future and its specifically to Delta Radio Networks inc. They have to explain their recent questionable hire. Its a former Denver area radio host David Mueller. He was sued for harassment by Taylor Swift's group in Colorado. Note now a Mississippi Radio group had gotten Mueller for one of their stations. Radio Insight is saying that the move could end in investor boycotts/backlash though.

[SP Cook]

I Heart (formerly Clear Channel, which was a better name, I Heart is just stupid) over-paid for pretty much any radio station it could.  At least in my area, the other radio companies just run rings around them because they know the market better and what works and what doesn't and know how to do sales and when it is better to take what they can get and not hold a price.  I Heart uses its syndication power to boost its AM talker, but the rest of its stations trail competitors of the same format; and they just cannot do sales properly.

Since we have strayed over to newspapers in this thread a little, I am happy to report my local paper, have been sued by everyone it defrauded, which is to say about everyone, finally filed for bankruptcy and will be sold to honest people.  A great day.

[RobbieL2415]

I blame the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

[Beltway]

I Heart (formerly Clear Channel, which was a better name, I Heart is just stupid)

I too like the former name better, but the name as they use it is "iHeart".

The other small "i" leading names such as  iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad, the "i" stands for "internet".  I suppose that may be the case with those radio stations as most are accessible thru internet streaming.

[ZLoth]

The bigger they are, the longer the fall from Mount Olympus.

[hbelkins]

Since we have strayed over to newspapers in this thread a little, I am happy to report my local paper, have been sued by everyone it defrauded, which is to say about everyone, finally filed for bankruptcy and will be sold to honest people.  A great day.

Yes, and the meltdown of upset left-wingers who are afraid that (gasp) the paper might actually become a conservative paper, more in line with the way West Virginia politics seems to be trending, is a joy to watch.

Didn't the Gazette-Mail have Don Surber as a token conservative columnist and they finally axed him after he skewered one too many liberal sacred cows?

I Heart (formerly Clear Channel, which was a better name, I Heart is just stupid)

I too like the former name better, but the name as they use it is "iHeart".

The other small "i" leading names such as  iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPhone, iPad, the "i" stands for "internet".  I suppose that may be the case with those radio stations as most are accessible thru internet streaming.

I found it odd that the company renamed itself after its streaming app.

[Beltway]

Since we have strayed over to newspapers in this thread a little, I am happy to report my local paper, have been sued by everyone it defrauded, which is to say about everyone, finally filed for bankruptcy and will be sold to honest people.  A great day.

Yes, and the meltdown of upset left-wingers who are afraid that (gasp) the paper might actually become a conservative paper, more in line with the way West Virginia politics seems to be trending, is a joy to watch.
Didn't the Gazette-Mail have Don Surber as a token conservative columnist and they finally axed him after he skewered one too many liberal sacred cows?

I notice how on some conservative blogs posters have analyzed and defined writers such as George Will and David Brooks as "decorative conservatives".  As in "Ooohh lookie here we have a conservative writer on our staff!"

The Richmond Slimes-Dispatch used to be a conservative newspaper, but that changed starting about 2005.

[bandit957]

The Cincinnati Enquirer is still very, very, very conservative.

[SP Cook]

Yes, and the meltdown of upset left-wingers who are afraid that (gasp) the paper might actually become a conservative paper, more in line with the way West Virginia politics seems to be trending, is a joy to watch.

Didn't the Gazette-Mail have Don Surber as a token conservative columnist and they finally axed him after he skewered one too many liberal sacred cows?

Yes.  The buyer is Ogden Newspapers, which is the Nutting family, publishers of 40-odd newspapers around the country, mostly smaller towns (Charleston will be their second largest market, after Fort Wayne) and owners of the Pittsburgh baseball team.  Along with the publishers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal (the best big city newspaper in the country, IMHO), they are about the only fair and balanced company in that generally leftist business. 

The previous owners did indeed fire Surber.  That was what the whole scam was really about.    The ultra rich far-left Chilton family borrowed themselves into bankruptcy to buy the town's other newspaper just so they could shut it down, not as a business decision.  They were forced by court order to keep a few people, including Surber, around until they could find a subtrafuge to fire them.  They could not accept that someone else might have an opinion different from their own. 

Don't worry about the Chiltons though, the deal include nearly a half million dollar golden parachute for them.  Their workers, however, have already lost 75% of the pensions, as they did not pay their pension deposits for years.  You and me taxpayer will cover the 25% they do get. 

[bing101]

https://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=b15351


Here is an update on Cumulus

[bing101]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-01/iheart-is-said-to-prepare-for-bankruptcy-as-soon-as-this-weekend

Here is an update on Iheart

[bing101]

https://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=b15371


https://news.radio-online.com/cgi-bin/rol.exe/headline_id=b15369


Here are two updates on how Iheart and Cumulus are handling their debt issues.

[abefroman329]

WLUP went away on Saturday morning, replaced with a Christian contemporary station.  It's probably apocryphal but the story goes that the last song they played was Highway to Hell.

[inkyatari]

WLUP went away on Saturday morning, replaced with a Christian contemporary station.  It's probably apocryphal but the story goes that the last song they played was Highway to Hell.

I didn't hear that, but I heard it suggested by people on facebook.

I hope they did.
I was never a huge fan of WLUP, but I recognize the mark they made on the Chicago radio landscape. 

[abefroman329]

I was never a huge fan of WLUP, but I recognize the mark they made on the Chicago radio landscape.

That's about how I felt.

This is the closest I've gotten to getting satellite radio.  Unfortunately, our car is not satellite radio ready, and I'm not interested in having a separate receiver/tuner installed in the car.

[thenetwork]

My only real experience with The Loop was back in the late 80's when you could hear Kevin Matthews doing the night show on WLUP-AM 1000 and their 50,000-watt blowtorch station throughout the midwest.  I was a Kev-Head.

[US71]

WLUP went away on Saturday morning, replaced with a Christian contemporary station.  It's probably apocryphal but the story goes that the last song they played was Highway to Hell.

the last three songs played before the station nicknamed "the Loop" signed off were Motley Crue's "Shout at the Devil," Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast" and AC/DC's "Highway to Hell."

Source: http://ultimateclassicrock.com/wlup-last-songs-devil/

[hbelkins]

I was never a huge fan of WLUP, but I recognize the mark they made on the Chicago radio landscape.

That's about how I felt.

This is the closest I've gotten to getting satellite radio.  Unfortunately, our car is not satellite radio ready, and I'm not interested in having a separate receiver/tuner installed in the car.

Don't they still make little docking stations that allow you to use a portable head unit that can be used in a car and in a building?