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.