11-5-2012
For the second quarter in a row, Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey expressed his frustration with 10 stations, saying they are the cause of Cumulus' "material decline" in top-line revenue. Cumulus reported a pro-forma drop of 3.7 percent in revenue for the third quarter of 2012 (from $269.6 million to $280 million). Those 10 major market stations account for nearly 10 percent of Cumulus' total revenue. So why are they giving Dickey the revenue blues? He has a long list of reasons.
Dickey says the problems include expensive talent contracts, events that were losing money, lost sports rights to the L.A. Dodgers and Buffalo Bills, format changes, and poor selling. Dickey indicated these 10 stations, believed to be all in some form of spoken word format, would continue to be a drag on the company in Q4. "We are in the middle innings with these 10 stations. We expect they will be positive in 2013." Dickey said that when you back out these 10 stations, the other 515 Cumulus stations were basically flat for the 3rd quarter.
(11/6/2012 6:38:27 PM)
Janet,
They love each other because of their love and circle-jerks at the FCC over the HD Radio scam.
payback time for Lew..he get's what he deserves.Wanna see more of it too.
(11/6/2012 2:01:10 PM)
The problem very simply is that Lew did a deal that would have been great- in 1995. He simply did a finance deal and brings nothing else to the table at a time when radio is undergoing a profound and fundamental change.
I'm sure Cumulus will muddle along for a few years but if anyone thinks there's huge upside to this they are kidding themselves.
Just a small antidote to the liberal bias toward Obama. I view quite a bit of media, and there have been many episodes of disappointment with the President by some liberals, especially single-payer. At the same time, except for the Harriet Miers nomination to the SCOTUS and Middle-Eastern ownership if some port facilities, 'W' was really fawned over by the right.
(11/6/2012 12:50:04 PM)
proof that the dickeys are way out of their comfort zone........Bismarck, NC stretches their competency, what the heck did they expect in LA, SF, Chi, NYC?
For a guy that excepts no excuses the ceo sure is talented at dishing them out.
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