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June 13, 2017 4:45 pm  #1


Could The Two Biggest Radio Companies In The U.S. Be Going Broke?

It’s a question that’s increasingly being asked down south, with Cumulus Radio, which owns WABC and scores of other high profile big city stations, struggling to maintain its stock price. Meanwhile, arch-rival iHeart Radio is close to bankruptcy and there are concerns it may not be able to survive, either.
 
An article on Salon.com suggests both titans are being hampered by catering too much to right wing talk radio, including big names like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, which doesn’t appeal to a younger demo.
 
From the article:
 
 “America is changing and conservative talk hosts believe they can stop it. They can’t. It is no longer the world of aging, white Baby Boomers, which I’m one,” veteran radio personality Darryl Parks wrote last year shortly before Election Day.

He continued:

“Our destiny is now in the hands of the Gen X’ers and Millennials. American society reflects their believes and desires. Conservative talk radio should be reflecting and speaking with the younger generations to survive, but have mistakenly chosen to double-down with an aging demographic providing no future for the format, that if done correctly would be viable.”

According to industry website Radio Ink, Cumulus’ Westwood One division’s revenues were down 12.3 percent in the last quarter of 2016, despite an influx of political advertising. By contrast, revenues for Salem Radio Networks, which features less inflammatory conservative programming, saw a 12 percent increase quarter over quarter.”
 
Imagine for a moment if Rogers and Bell suddenly were teetering on the edge of financial failure and you’ll get an idea of how many outlets are at risk. There’s almost nothing sure about the perilous state of these two declining radio Goliaths except perhaps this: one, both are way too big, control too many stations and have brought about the decline of local radio, which was arguably the medium’s original purpose. And two, if there are takeovers, layoffs inevitably follow. And there have been way too many of those as it is.

 

June 13, 2017 4:53 pm  #2


Re: Could The Two Biggest Radio Companies In The U.S. Be Going Broke?

Isn't it great that Bell Media attached itself to iHeartRadio? Way to predict the future.

 

June 13, 2017 5:21 pm  #3


Re: Could The Two Biggest Radio Companies In The U.S. Be Going Broke?

cGrant wrote:

Isn't it great that Bell Media attached itself to iHeartRadio? Way to predict the future.

Actually, iHeartRadio Digital is all they joined with, as has many other broadcasters across the world.  It's very doubtful iHeartRadio digital platform will die... It will be spun off to someone else if anything.  I personally feel iHeartRadio's platform is much better than RadioPlayer... I don't ever hear anyone in the public saying they use RadioPlayer... only iHeart.   That says something.  It also make the platform worth good money to sell it off to someone else to run with it.

The former Clear Channel stations are what's bringing iHeart Media down as they never have turned them around fully from the debt of Clear Channel.   I'm actually shocked they haven't looked at selling off some of them, but then again... who will buy them?

Every real expert I've read has said the digital platform will survive out of everything that may happen to iHeartMedia.   Bell I doubt will be too worried about it... nor should they be...  They will likely never feel anything from what may happen to iHeartMedia in the USA.

 

June 13, 2017 5:27 pm  #4


Re: Could The Two Biggest Radio Companies In The U.S. Be Going Broke?

radiokid wrote:

. I don't ever hear anyone in the public saying they use RadioPlayer... only iHeart.

That's interesting. All I hear and suggest is the TuneIn radio app. It has all the stations unlike iHeart and/or Radio Player.

 

June 13, 2017 5:29 pm  #5


Re: Could The Two Biggest Radio Companies In The U.S. Be Going Broke?

cGrant wrote:

Isn't it great that Bell Media attached itself to iHeartRadio? Way to predict the future.

Those clowns...specifically...can't even predict the past.  Once people stopped dialing telephones these twits began to fall back behind 'the pack'...thus losing their historic stranglehold.  Real media folks/companies who saw the future looming...found themselves some bonafide suckers with whom they could unload soon to be shrinking and disappearing 'assets'.  That the new owners knew s.f.a. about 'the business' hid these upcoming realities from sight.

And so they blunder on...stock holders should have been bailing out from the virtual get-go.  There's less to come.
 

 

June 13, 2017 11:48 pm  #6


Re: Could The Two Biggest Radio Companies In The U.S. Be Going Broke?

cGrant wrote:

That's interesting. All I hear and suggest is the TuneIn radio app. It has all the stations unlike iHeart and/or Radio Player.

I wish this were FaceBook so I could click "Like" for that comment! 

Last edited by Radiowiz (June 13, 2017 11:49 pm)


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.