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iHeartMedia: Life Support Fail

By Aaron Tyler on May 2, 2017

While spokespeople at iHeartMEDIA won’t officially refer to this as a Reduction In Force, there are a number of employees exiting the company. Most of the employees being “let go” (in order to operate efficiently and effectively according to the iHeart comment) are Producers, Program Directors, and Disc Jockeys. How this makes financial sense for a radio station is beyond logic. Perhaps iHeart believes that college interns can run and manage these stations for free? Perhaps they just don’t give a shit? After-all — Who needs real employees when they have years of syndication to replay?

iHEARTMEDIA commented, “Each market constantly looks at all aspects of its business to ensure that it reflects how the best organizations work today so they can continue to operate as effectively and efficiently as possible. This creates some new jobs, and unfortunately sometimes eliminates others.”

Among those departing, between YESTERDAY (5/01) and TODAY (5/02) according to All Star Access:

BO MATTHEWS, SVP/Programming/CINCINNATI, PD WEBN (ROCK 102.7) and Top 40 WKFS (KISS 107), bo*************@***il.com or (216) 269-0700

BOB CHRISTOPHER, News Dir. iHEARTMEDIA/NEW ORLEANS

BRITTA CLEVELAND, middays, Country WBCT (B93.7)/GRAND RAPIDS, MI

BRODY, nights, Top 40 WFLZ (933 FLZ)/TAMPA

BROOK, morning co-host, AC WSRT (STAR 105.7)/GRAND RAPIDS

ED PALMER, PD/mornings, RANDY “MUDFLAP” WILCOX (843) 621-3621 or ra****************@***il.com; APD/MD Country WEGX (EAGLE 92.9)/FLORENCE SC (NET NEWS 5/1)

JIM FISHER, PD WRNO/NEW ORLEANS, WBUB/BILOXI, WMTM/MOBILE (504) 390-3204, or ji*@**************on.com

LAUNA PHILLIPS, MD Country WFUS (US 103.5)/TAMPA MD, La***********@***il.com

LISA GREENE, part-time, Country WEBG (BIG 95.5)/CHICAGO, lg*******@*****il.com

MARLON GEORGE, Market Mgr., iHEARTMEDIA/NEW ORLEANS

MATT SHEPARD, mornings WDFN (SPORTS 1130)/DETROIT

PACEY WILLIAMS, mornings Classic Hip-Hop KHYL (V101)/SACRAMENTO pa***********@***il.com

MIKE SMITH, morning show producer “STEVE HARVEY Show,” Community Affairs Director, Top 40 WKSL (97.9 KISS FM)/JACKSONVILLE.

You may, or may not notice that “Big Wigs” like Bob Pittman, CEO of iHeart (the guy who spent millions remodeling the NY offices in 2011 and was supposed to save the company from itself) are missing from this “Release List.” It seems very chicken shit to pick low-hanging fruit when the top of the corporate culture at iHeart is to blame for the state of this company. iHeart needs to examine its culture, its vision, its mission, and revamp — firing your talent pool does not seem like the best of ideas to us, but we LIKE radio and the creative arts. We’re not sure a person can say the same about iHeart.