You see a train wreck about to happen and know you can’t do a thing to stop it.<\/p>\n
The Cumulus strategy has been to turn their news\/talk stations into cookie cutter stations carrying almost nothing but Cumulus Media syndicated shows – Don Imus, Geraldo Rivera, Mike Huckabee, Mark Levin, John Batchelor, the Midnight Trucking Guys, and dumping Coast to Coast, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh as soon as existing contracts permit to “save money”.<\/p>\n
Sure it will cut costs. \u00a0 It will also kill ratings. \u00a0 Cumulus doesn’t believe in ratings and doesn’t subscribe to Arbitron (other than a few acquired stations). \u00a0 Arbitron no longer publishes numbers for non subscribers. \u00a0 The Cumulus “plan” seems to be to replace traditional advertising will Groupon like” deals – get 50% off a pedicure at Lisa’s Salon but you have to buy and prepay today. \u00a0 You don’t need an expensive staff of greedy sales people to sell that and it can be done from Atlanta with customer service from India.<\/p>\n
The outcome of thus plan is not in doubt, only the time table.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Sirius\/XM is closing in on 23 million paying subscribers and Mel Karmazin looks poised to stop trying to be a one man team and allow the folks who saved him from bankruptcy a few years ago take control of at least part of the decision making. \u00a0With spreading content money wider than just Howard Stern, growth could accelerate. \u00a0 Tom Leykus is waiting in the wings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You see a train wreck about to happen and know you can’t do a thing to stop it. The Cumulus strategy has been to turn their news\/talk stations into cookie cutter stations carrying almost nothing but Cumulus Media syndicated shows … Continue reading