Cumulus Radio Station Shutdowns Ahead of Speculated Audacy-Cumulus Merger

[Chrysler375Freeway]

After Cumulus recently took WLXX in Lexington silent ahead of a rumored Audacy-Cumulus Media merger, and is expected to shut down KZAC after its transmitter was turned off on Monday and is expected to shut down KOLI, with other shutdowns coming throughout the month, it makes me wonder whether it could trigger a wave of terrestrial radio shutdowns in other parts of the country (even with other owners), or even spread the recent cuts on underperforming stations to higher-performing markets and stations, such as Nashville. It should be noted that Audacy also made cuts, which further fueled the Audacy-Cumulus merger rumors. It was mentioned the shutdowns were for the time being while Cumulus evaluated the best path forward for the stations. It should also be noted that a different media company owner, Townsquare Media, recently took stations in the Quad Cities and Abilene, Texas silent, and took a station in Binghamton, New York silent at the end of December, and has also been selling off or cancelling licenses on radio stations in their portfolio that are underperforming for the past several years.

UPDATE: Audacy laid off 250-300 staffers earlier today in a cost-saving measure. No word on whether the majority of the national digital content team was affected. However, longtime personalities in 16 markets left stations, with one station seeing its entire airstaff let go ahead of a potential format switch.

[vdeane]

I hope this doesn't happen.  The only Syracuse radio station that fits my criteria for being one of my presets is owned by Cumulus, and it going away would leave a massive hole on the most boring section of Thruway.

[hbelkins]

Story from the Lexington Herald-Leader:

https://www.kentucky.com/news/business/article301550514.html#storylink=topdigest_latest

[Ted$8roadFan]

Traditional radio already sucks. I can't imagine how this merger would make it better.

[bandit957]

The FCC needs to swat this down. If the FCC won't do its job, state attorneys general must, as this is an antitrust violation.

[Ted$8roadFan]

The original sin was the 1996 Telecommunications Act that allowed this to happen.

[Chrysler375Freeway]

Traditional radio already sucks. I can't imagine how this merger would make it better.

Not to mention that another radio company, iHeart Media, made smaller cuts in November and January, which likely previews what to come.

[Chrysler375Freeway]

The FCC needs to swat this down. If the FCC won't do its job, state attorneys general must, as this is an antitrust violation.

And something else: a foreign investor owns shares in both companies, and the shares in the hands of foreign ownership had already raised the FCC's antennas last year.

[Henry]

Traditional radio already sucks. I can't imagine how this merger would make it better.

With scores of AM stations shutting down across the nation, I tend to agree with the above statement. I'm already on the SiriusXM bandwagon, and so far it has worked out perfectly for me.

[ZLoth]

Traditional radio already sucks. I can't imagine how this merger would make it better.

With scores of AM stations shutting down across the nation, I tend to agree with the above statement. I'm already on the SiriusXM bandwagon, and so far it has worked out perfectly for me.

That's partially why I created the thread How do you primarily consume media when on a long drive? (2025 Edition).

There is a "homogenization of radio stations" where the stations would rather rely on a nationally-delivered audio feed and automated local inserts. Some complain about the "same ten songs over and over". Then, there is the "super commercial" where the same commercial is played across all of the national feeds to the local radio stations at the same exact time.

I had SiriusXM for a few years, but discontinued it when I got the unlimited data and could stream music from either my Plex server. I always had to threaten cancellation in order to get the best rate.

[hotdogPi]

When I first read the thread, I thought Cumulus was shutting down the stations entirely (e.g. what was 95.7 would be dark and cease to exist in any form at that frequency) to prevent Audacy from taking them over as a form of protest.

[Chrysler375Freeway]

When I first read the thread, I thought Cumulus was shutting down the stations entirely (e.g. what was 95.7 would be dark and cease to exist in any form at that frequency) to prevent Audacy from taking them over as a form of protest.

It wasn't to prevent Audacy from taking over, but rather evaluation in the Cumulus portfolio, but the timing of the stations going silent raised eyebrows, as in the weeks leading up, there were rumors and speculation of a merger between Cumulus and Audacy.