When radio people talk about awful ownership, this is what they're referring to. According to several articles I've read this week, Entercom, the American radio giant that owns nearly 235 stations down south, is about to embark on the mother of all cost savings. 

There have already been mass firings at Entercom outlets across the U.S. this week, starting with country and alternative formats. (It's already hit WLKK in Buffalo.) And there are reports most of the other formats will soon follow. The L.A. Daily News cites company president David Field, in an incredible moment of doublespeak, claiming his firm is trying to save local radio by getting rid of all its local people.

Richard Wagoner, who writes for the paper, explains it this way:

"Here’s the company’s plan: National formats, national and regional talent. Centralized programming. Think SiriusXM with 15 minutes of commercials per hour instead of being commercial-free...

"Two formats per month are expected to be converted to national delivery, according to InsideMusicMedia.Com‘s Jerry Del Colliano, who has been reporting on this for weeks. Del Colliano said last week that country and alternative will be the first to go, and this was confirmed Monday by an internal email sent out to Entercom employees that was obtained and released by AllAccess.Com.

"In the email, it was announced that, among other things, Mike Kaplan, programmer of KROQ here in Los Angeles, has been named as the national alternative format program director, and will be called the “format captain.”

"It won’t be totally national, at least for now. But talent will be either regional or national, and it is expected that no more than one local personality will remain at any one station. For now, anyway. My hunch is this will devolve into 100 percent national delivery very soon." 

If this is even close to being true, it means hundreds of stations - including many in Buffalo - will have perhaps only one local personality left, with the rest of the dayparts being fed out of either New York or Los Angeles. So much for serving your community. 

(In addition to WLKK, Buffalo's Entercom stations include WWKB 1520, WBEN-AM, WTSS-FM, WWWS-AM and WKSE-FM, so there's a lot at stake just in that market alone.) 

But I like Wagoner's take: "Entercom CEO David Field, who looks to be giving up on radio, has the gall to call this change an “improved listener experience.” But hey, perhaps he’s right: I imagine things will improve once listeners leave his stations for alternatives."

I feel terrible for those involved - and this time, it looks like it will wind up with a real bloodbath, one that's just starting.
  
Programming, Sales Changes Lead To Layoffs at Entercom