Limbaugh's living large while radio boss Clear Channel implodes

[Robbien]

Even for a pancaked industry like radio broadcasting, which has become somewhat numb to years' worth of mass layoffs triggered by hyper, corporate consolidation, and more recently by an over-the-cliff advertising recession, last week's HR wave of mutilation unleashed by industry giant Clear Channel Communications must have felt like a pile-on.

Drowning under massive debt and desperate to cut more costs, Clear Channel took an ax to its payroll -- again -- and hacked hundreds of radio pros out the door. Program directors, morning show hosts, production pros, news anchors -- all of them tossed over the side. A "bloodbath," one newspaper called it. (In Albany, New York, the entire on-air staff at a Clear Channel music station was sacked; same with a radio outpost in Exeter, New Hampshire)

The most recent blizzard of pink slips (one industry report pegged it at "nearly 1,000") came in the wake of a January purge, in which 1,850 Clear Channel employees were let go. So already this year the company has shed nearly 3,000 employees, or 12 percent of its workforce. Also, last week, Clear Channel's parent company announced it was suspending its matching contributions to employee 401(k) retirement programs.

. . .

And yet Clear Channel's most famous employee, Rush Limbaugh, remains oblivious to it all. I sometimes wonder what Limbaugh thinks when he reads about the not-so-slow-motion collapse of his radio employer while lounging in his 24,000-square-foot Florida estate or motoring in his $450,000 car to the airport to ride in his $54 million jet. Does Limbaugh feel bad? Does he feel a little guilty? And does he ever think about giving some of his riches back so that thousands of radio colleagues wouldn't have to be bounced to the curb?

And I wonder what those pink-slipped Clear Channel employees -- some of whom spent decades working for the company -- think about Limbaugh as they're ordered out the station door and onto "the beach." (That's radio-speak for unemployment.)

. . .

The astronomical worth of Limbaugh's eight-year pact: $400 million. The amount of money Clear Channel execs have been trying to scrimp and save this year as they lay off thousands from the struggling company: $400 million. Ironic, don't you think?

. . .

At the time of his renewal last summer, Entertainment Weekly insisted, "It's probably worth it for Clear Channel to pay him an exorbitant sum of money ... than to risk losing him to another radio network when his current contract expires."

Here's the real oddity about Clear Channel's pact with Limbaugh: Last summer there was nobody else in a position to steal Limbaugh away. Clear Channel was basically bidding against itself and decided, in the end, to give Limbaugh a 40 percent raise, which included writing a $100 million signing bonus check to celebrate his contract extension. That right: A nine-figure signing bonus. At the time, it was a puzzler. Looking back at it today, the $100 million goodwill gesture, viewed against the backdrop of Clear Channel's doomsday woes, makes no business sense whatsoever. (That $100 million bonus could have saved maybe 1,000 Clear Channel jobs this year alone.)

more . . .

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200905050007


All those local radio hosts who were laid off will of course be replaced by the syndicated Limbaugh show. More Rush for everyone.

[dkf]

1. Maybe if they go bankrupt Rush's contract will be null and void.

That would be cool.

[aquart]

2. He hasn't offered to take a cut to save a single job, has he?

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Wonder when someone will notice.

[Robbien]

6. Bain Capital was the one who bought Clear Channel and loaded it down with billions in debt

They went to court to force the banks to finance the deal. Bain won, banks lost.

A Clear Channel bankruptcy debt reorganization will be another big battle of the corporate titans, big banks versus Bain Capital. Neither of whom would want Rush's voice silenced.

[liberal N proud]

3. Their loss if they are going to let this windbag drag them down

[Maccagirl]

4. I couldn't care less about Clear Channel or their "beached"

employees. They've allowed Limpballs a platform for decades and reward him for lying.

[tularetom]

5. When CC goes tits up, who will pick up the pig's contract.

Sounds like there aren't a lot of viable competitors around.

Pig boy may have cut off his snout to spite his whatever.

[Stellabella]

7. Limbaugh "thinks"?? "feels"????

No to both.

That misogynistic jerk doesn't think, and the only thing he feels is satisfaction with his ugly self.