Reply With Quote
I know someone who got laid off from CC.
Source: http://www.mysanantonio.com/business...f_workers.html
San Antonio-based broadcasting company Clear Channel Communications Inc. on Tuesday cut 1,850 jobs, or about 9 percent of its total work force, according to a memo Chief Executive Officer Mark Mays sent to employees.
The company is making a “significant portion” of the cuts in its ad-sales department as it reacts to the current recession, Mays said. However, he added that the pullback spans all departments in its corporate, radio and outdoor advertising divisions.
“As I've mentioned previously, we are facing an unprecedented time of distress in the general economy — and the ripple effects have hit some of our largest customers hard,” Mays said in the memo. “Today, we had the unpleasant task of bringing our Outdoor and Radio business' staffing in line with these challenging economic conditions.”
Company spokeswoman Michele Clark wouldn't elaborate on the restructuring effort or disclose how many San Antonio workers were laid off.
But sources familiar with the situation said Clear Channel laid off at least 12 people at its San Antonio stations, including WOAI sports director Walter Pasacrita. Most of the job cuts were sales positions.
Locally, Clear Channel has its corporate offices and seven radio stations it operates. The stations are KAJA-FM, KQXT-FM, KRPT-FM, KTKR-AM, KXXM-FM, KZEP-FM and WOAI-AM, according to its Web site.
Last week, both the Wall Street Journal and New York Post reported that the company planned to lay off workers as it looked to trim $400 million in expenses. Both papers citied unnamed people familiar with the situation.
Clear Channel's owners Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners spent more than $18 billion to take over the company in July. Like others in the media industry, the company has struggled with diminished ad revenues as the economy flounders.
“There have been a lot of layoffs in the radio and TV industry,” said David Joyce, analyst for Miller Tabak & Co. in New York. “This wouldn't just be specific to Clear Channel. It's really an industrywide event.”
Although Mays' memo makes no mention of it, the Journal reported that Clear Channel plans to replace locally produced content with more syndicated content as part of the restructuring.
The company already beams former “American Idol” Ryan Seacrest's morning show to several of its markets. And on Tuesday, it launched a syndicated Spanish-language morning show hosted by Hispanic radio icon Humberto Luna.
Publication Radio Online reported 16 terminations of Clear Channel radio station managers and on-air personalities around the country. Among them, Gabe Hobbs, a senior vice president of programming for the company's news, talk and sports stations.
Sharing content between Clear Channel stations makes sense for the company as it looks to trim expenses, Miller Tabak's Joyce said. However, he said listeners — and therefore advertisers — could defect if stations lose too much of their individual flavor.
“They obviously have to be careful they don't lose the localism of the media,” Joyce said.
Even before the recession, Clear Channel and other radio groups fought to keep their audiences as music lovers increasingly turned to satellite and Internet radio and devices such as iPods. The company also has taken heat from community groups and music fans for moving away from local programming.
Faced with falling ad revenues, the company may have an easier time using syndicated programs at its music stations than at its talk- and news-oriented properties, said William Christ, a Trinity University media studies professor.
“In Clear Channel's case, most of their stations aren't news, they're music,” Christ said. “Music can be centralized a lot easier than news.”
Sorry to read about anyone losing their job. I've always been a fan of Walter and his sports talk shows. Sad ending to a long career for the New Yorker transplanted to SA.
But that bring up a question......why does Peter Burns & Mike Taylor still have their jobs???
The second part I bolded I found interesting. So CC is going to make radio stations more syndicated. How is that going to improve a product by making it less local and more bland?
I know someone who got laid off from CC.
maybe because they actually have shows?
what the heck does a radio station's sport director do anyway? It sounds like there were people that loved Walter enough to give him a job within even if they had to kick his voice off of the airwaves.
Yeah, but if Walter was going to go down, he might as well chased a CC management person down the street with his shoe!
Make my day and tell me Mombear got laid off too!!!!!
That sucks.
Man poor Walter
time to re-open that sub shop waltra!
LOL
They rent a sign location from me (one of those mega signs)
My contract that I negotiated with them calls for X amount of dollars a month or Y percentage of gross revenue which ever is greater.
I got a call from a very nice lady about 6 weeks ago that worked for Clear Channel she told me that "her boss" wanted her to cal me and "notify" me that they were about to cut my rent because of the "difficult economic times"
I was like uhhhhh...I don't think so...we have a contract and I'm just a little guy and y'all are a multi-bazillion dollar company...
She was like...uhhhh...yeah, I know you have a contract but he told me to ask anyway...
LOL....I was like...uhhh tell him, no, I like my rent where it is thank you very much hehehe
my hopes for the topic wheel coming back are officially abolished
Oh no. My friend's son got hired there about 2 months ago as a statistician. I hope he's safe.
Tony Bruno and Ben Maller are two more of the casualties from these cuts.
Don't really miss Ben, though.
On the positive side, they now have an opening in the sports department, and the lovely and talented Dawn Murphy is still available...
I'm just sayin'...
A LOT of companies are using these economic times as an excuse to clean house. It's a very convenient way of dumping employees you wanted to fire anyway.
Shes honestly freaked out by you.
Chill it.
Exactly, its a great excuse to finally get rid of the workers that are worthless and had no basis to in the past.
Its why companies rebound so well, get rid of the useless and drag me downs, and run more efficiently.
The new Sports Director will be Peter Burns.
ASF, i haven't seen an obsession like yours since tpark's last 1st date...
Wow. I had no idea you were her personal assistant.
Tell her I will comply with the above request immediately if not sooner.
Thanx.
For you to poop on?
Hopefully Joe Pags is next. That guy is a ing tool. He does shows on specific issues and does absolutely NO research on the topic before he starts running his mouth...drives me nuts...I just want to climb through the radio and slap him. Nine times out of ten I know more about the topic than he does and he PICKS the damn things...then someone that actually might know something about the issue calls in and he shouts them down.
I wonder if Tpark aka (I hate people who are out of work and I own my own business) hires Walter.
I wonder if Tpark aka (I hate people who are out of work and I own my own business) hires Walter.
I hear Walter pours a mean funnel cake...
Wow that sucks. I enjoyed Ben's show when I leave my radio on overnight.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
