Clear Channel Plans Revamp

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Post

The new owners of radio giant Clear Channel Communications will next week begin implementing a massive restructuring plan that seeks to cut $400 million in costs at the company, The Post has learned.

According to three sources with knowledge of the plan, the restructuring will include layoffs across the company's radio, outdoor advertising and international divisions as well as cuts to programming budgets and consolidation of back-office operations.

A precise headcount for the layoffs could not be obtained. Clear Channel has about 30,000 employees worldwide.

The company is also likely to move toward a "national programming" model that would require less local-level staffing, despite being criticized in the past for a similar action using centralized disc jockeys that made it appear as though they were broadcasting from local stations.

Sources said an initial round of layoffs is expected to commence next Tuesday - not coincidentally the same day President-elect Barack Obama is to be sworn into office. Clear Channel managers are hoping they can slip in the layoffs while the press is preoccupied with Inauguration Day festivities, sources said.



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/seven/01162009/business/clear_channel_plans_revamp_150374.htm

[Taverner]

1. If they are stupid, they will sell off their billboards

If they are smart, they will keep them

[ananda]

2. Clear Channel can just disappear..

.. as far as I'm concerned.

[undeterred]

5. Clear Channel hosts Air America Radio

where I live. And if they dump it, nobody else is going to pick it up.

[EconomicLiberal]

3. They can cut $400 million in costs by laying off Rush Limbaugh

And doing us all a favor in the process.

[onethatcares]

4. and Mark Larson down here in Florida too.

not sure if I spelled his name right but he could stand being layed off.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

16. I thought that asshole was up in Oregon or something,

[Veruca Salt]

8. +1

I was totally going to say that! :)

[Hawkeye-X]

6. How about removing Rush from the goddamn lineup?

You'll save SHITLOADS of money by firing Rush.

Hawkeye-X

[machI]

7. Clear Channel would probably see an increase in leadership without Limbaugh

They could sell more advertising with a balanced line up without Limbaugh and more progressive programming.

[dbt]

10. If CC thought they could save a NICKEL by canning Rush,

He'd have been gone a couple of years ago. The sad truth is, he's probably still a huge (and BLOATED) money maker for this corporation that SO needs to be cut up and sold for dog food.

dbt
(Gruntled former CC employee)

:evilgrin:

[machI]

13. It is not about saving money by canning Limbaugh, it is about making money by canning Limbaugh

I just noticed I said "leadership" in my post, I meant "listenership". I was too quick on the spell checker.

If Clear Channel broadens their base by adding progressive programming to their programming, they would get a bigger audience. Limbaugh is so polarizing, that only the group tuned to his thinking listen.

[dbt]

14. You'll never convince CC of that.

I maintain that nobody at the top of that corporation has ever spent five minutes on the air. CC is all about having bean counters do their programming. They deserve to fail. They've worked hard for it.

[machI]

15. Or perhaps Clear Channel has an agenda, and they like Limbaugh's message

I think this subject has been address at many different levels under the heading of:

The Fairness Doctrine.

Taking one of Limbaugh's stock ideas (I am just guessing at the actual wording) "If you want more pie, you have to make the pie bigger". I seems to follow that if you want a bigger audience, make your programming more diverse.

[dbt]

18. There's NO doubt that CC has an agenda:

Suck every possible dollar out of every market in which they operate (aka Prime Directive) and, when in doubt, lean Right. Ample evidence exists of the latter: CC's "support the troops" rallies early on the the Iraq War, trashing and boycotting the Dixie Chicks and the watering-down of Air America. Limbaugh is their Cash Cow (read: Pig) and he'll have to be pried from their cold, dead hand$.

I'm in total agreement with your point about diversity of programming. Given the cookie-cutter formats that Clear Channel churns out from coast to coast, it's no wonder that there are so many iPods in use. CC bears major responsibility for turning an entire generation--or two by now--off of Radio.

[mariawr]

9. get rid of rush, save a boatload of cash n/t

[JerseygirlCT]

11. Seriously

If a radio station is not going to actually USE DJs - to program the music, to speak with some knowledge about the music - the stuff I haven't heard done since I was a kid, then they ought to just not have them at all.

I don't want morning drive yuks. I don't want to have to wait forever for some music because some DJ thinks they're being entertaining while blathering on, or God forbid, doing a "show".

Just shut the heck up and play some music, will you?

I'm getting a satellite radio soon, and I cannot wait... remember when AM was what FM is now, and FM was real music with real DJs?

[stlsaxman]

19. just get an iPod touch w/ WiFi and go with internet radio...

and in the car you just listen to your mp3s.

As Frank Zappa said oh so long ago- "Kill Ugly Radio"

[JerseygirlCT]

21. Well, the satellite was a gift

And I've found I've been too darned lazy to keep up with my little IPod... need to put more music on it, and I just never get around to it, lol.

But of course, the cool one, the Touch, went to the college kid as it came with his cool computer. How come he gets all the good toys?

[stlsaxman]

23. treat yourself to some of "the cool toys"!

after all- he got "the cool computer", right?

well, he probably thinks you're a righteous mom! good going!

[JerseygirlCT]

24. He'd better, lol!

Thanks!

:toast:

[bemildred]

12. Don't fool around, just shutup and die.

Let someone else use the airwaves.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

17. cost cutting is what got Clear Channel to this point

The very existence of Clear Channel was based on the flawed assumption that you could combine centralized broadcasting with localized advertising and reap the profits of thousands of radio stations for the cost of operating a couple dozen and all the while provider higher quality programming.

Had they launched this effort a decade earlier they might have been able to pull it off for a while, but the problem is they launched their great homogenization effort at the very moment consumers entertainment options were exploding and broadcasted garbage nobody wants to listen to.

They already suck and now they are just going to escalate what already alienated their former listeners.

I will be shitting in the woods and eating dry noodles before I give up my Sirius radio. The antenna in my new car wasn't attached to anything and it wasn't until my parents drove it that they noticed the radio didn't work.

[Kolesar]

20. Can I listen to the Sirius channels-feed on the internet?

Try it before I buy it?? I must note that I found internet feeds of the HD FM feeds from around here and they did not impress me.

"BlagojevichFan"

[JerseygirlCT]

22. You can listen to it online, but I don't think you can w/o a subscription first

have to log in, etc.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

25. there is a free online trial

http://www.sirius.com/freetrial

as for "BlagojevichFan" read Skinners message about name changes...

[Kolesar]

26. RWers could never make a joke like "BlagojevichFan" on themselves

I'm thinking of changing my screenname to something easier to type, too.

thanks for the tip on Sirius!

[depakid]

27. Yet another poster child for media divestiture and re-regulation

Their hubris is just incredible- given some of Obama and his teams statements re: diversity and local programming.

In the meantime- a big shout out to Bill Clinton and the Republicans and DINO's in Congress for helping to create this mess in the fist place.

Heck of a job!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

28. They just need to look up the definition of "genuine music"

and then figure out that all they play comes under the definition of "utter talentless crapola".

If they were to ever figure it out, they would be shocked and amazed by how much money they'd begin to make.

[sarcasmo]

29. F/ Clear Channel.

[agincourt]

30. This is pathetic,

They gave pigboy 400 million just last year. This is a unreal world we live in. Talking pigs anus's like Rush, Hannity, Coulter, Beck etc rack in millions for getting the generation of swine elected. The same swine that brought us this economic crisis, this depression. Instead of being kicked apart in the streets, their asses will still be blowing in our airwaves to ruin the political careers of the leaders who might lead us out of this crisis. Cigarettes and RW propaganda, the only product we do very well anymore. Makes one hang their head to see us reduced to this.

[MinM]

31. Clear Channel is scum. Planned layoffs during Inauguration so nobody would notice...

WDFN Detroit - It's signature show, the "Stoney and Wojo" afternoon drive program, featuring 2 entertaining liberals, just cleared out of the building.:rant:

boycott Clear Channel :spank: