KXNO/iHeart Layoffs

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Urbandale2013

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I do not think it is semantics -- good products and good customer experience first means a good company. I think we are converging to the same point.

:)

I still do think local media is a special case, though, because of the effect the Internet had on advertising revenues. Here is a chart for retail/department stores, which you aptly bring up as a comparison for another industry riled by the Internet --

47232146_15345119842963_rId6.png


So department stores lost around 33% of their sales to the rise of the Internet. Even that sector did not get the 75% ding that local media got. Plus, look at all that growth for the red line that I imagine the blue line was imagining would be theirs circa 1995.
Maybe at the end of the day the issue is how much we think could have been prevented. News media was always going to go through a dramatic shift but I think it’s been amplified by the mis management and leveraged buy outs. I think quality journalism could have remained it would have just been more niche type of stuff. For example high school sports used to have more info. Simply getting stats from schools is something simple they could have done that would have kept interest. If they would have used their resources to print stuff that wasn’t easily accessible online they would have kept readers.

Anymore the paper doesn’t provide anything you can’t find online quicker.
 

Mr Janny

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I'm guessing this is what we'll find out shortly.

If these shows are truly profitable, then someone in Des Moines will be willing to put these shows back on the air.
I doubt it's a question of if they were profitable. If they weren't profitable, they wouldn't have lasted as long as they did.
They're banking that the reduction of costs that they'll experience by eliminating local shows will offset the loss of listenership when they switch to national shows.

I'm sure they see a sports fan as a sports fan as a sports fan, and are hoping enough of them will listen to sports radio regardless of if it's local or national.

And they're probably not wrong in a lot of cases. There are plenty of days where I just want to listen to sports radio. I don't care if it's local or national or even about the Huskers. That doesn't mean that I don't prefer local stuff, but a lot of times I'll take my sports anyway I can get them.
 

Cyinthenorth

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Sucks for everyone involved, but I'll admit, I only really listen to the Sports Fanatics. None of the other shows could really pique my interest for the whole 2-3 hours they aired. Even Chris and Ross could lose me it they went off-topic for too long, ie Ross getting philosophical. I agree, Ross lacks a bit of knowledge/passion on certain topics that CW was clearly better with, making it kind of a one sided conversation at times. HOWEVER - I loved their dynamic together, they have great chemistry and played off each other quite well. Love it when Ross bashes CW's lack of pop culture knowledge, specifically movies and music. Had a lot of laughs over the years.

All that being said, I hope they can figure something out. I don't think Ross joining CF is practical, being that he's a Hawkeye fan. His guest appearances are fine, but I'm not sure I'd enjoy him on our Cyclone pods in a fixed capacity. These guys should band together and create some kind of subscription-based model, similar to the Athletic, but with just podcasts. Give CW an hour a day to talk sports, sports betting, etc. Give Ross an hour to cover baseball, get philosophical, etc. Then do a 3 hour show together in SportsFanatics format, talking Hawks/Cyclones bring in their guests like Walters, Leistikow, Rosenfels, Long etc. for the first 2 hours, then in that last hour they could do their usual banter about pop culture, conspiracy theories, beer and whatever else. I'd pay 5-10 bucks a month for something like that.
 
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Sigmapolis

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Maybe at the end of the day the issue is how much we think could have been prevented. News media was always going to go through a dramatic shift but I think it’s been amplified by the mis management and leveraged buy outs. I think quality journalism could have remained it would have just been more niche type of stuff. For example high school sports used to have more info. Simply getting stats from schools is something simple they could have done that would have kept interest. If they would have used their resources to print stuff that wasn’t easily accessible online they would have kept readers.

Anymore the paper doesn’t provide anything you can’t find online quicker.

I think they could have managed getting into the industry (e.g., over-leveraging, as you pointed out) or the downturn somewhat better, yes they could have.

But there comes a point when it does not really matter that much on the margins.

Trying to find the optimal route to ski away from an avalanche taking out the entire side of a mountain... well, it's probably going to get you anyways, left or right.
 

Farnsworth

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I doubt it's a question of if they were profitable. If they weren't profitable, they wouldn't have lasted as long as they did.
They're banking that the reduction of costs that they'll experience by eliminating local shows will offset the loss of listenership when they switch to national shows.

I'm sure they see a sports fan as a sports fan as a sports fan, and are hoping enough of them will listen to sports radio regardless of if it's local or national.

And they're probably not wrong in a lot of cases. There are plenty of days where I just want to listen to sports radio. I don't care if it's local or national or even about the Huskers. That doesn't mean that I don't prefer local stuff, but a lot of times I'll take my sports anyway I can get them.

I agree with this. Sadly this is true. I don't think they will lose nearly as many listeners as some think, especially in regards to cost savings. Plus if people stop listening to KXNO and stick with AM/FM, there is a good chance they will land on one of their other stations.
 

Cy94

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I don’t think it’s controversial to evaluate how to better make money. I think it is controversial to cut out most of your product and pretend like it will bring long term success. In the short term it probably makes sense to do this but in the long term it makes no sense. They destroyed their loyal following and made everyone mad.

worked for Sears.
 

Gunnerclone

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I think the best possible resolution for local DSM sports talk is for iHeartRadio to sell out some of their stations before going under and the new owners reinvest in local content.
 
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agcy68

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Were The Morning Rush and Sports Fanatics financially viable? IE, were they making enough in ad revenues to cover salaries and operating expenses?
 

DSMCy

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I doubt it's a question of if they were profitable. If they weren't profitable, they wouldn't have lasted as long as they did.
They're banking that the reduction of costs that they'll experience by eliminating local shows will offset the loss of listenership when they switch to national shows.

I'm sure they see a sports fan as a sports fan as a sports fan, and are hoping enough of them will listen to sports radio regardless of if it's local or national.

And they're probably not wrong in a lot of cases. There are plenty of days where I just want to listen to sports radio. I don't care if it's local or national or even about the Huskers. That doesn't mean that I don't prefer local stuff, but a lot of times I'll take my sports anyway I can get them.
I'm referring to local Des Moines ownership.

Purely an example, but what if the Albaugh family (Jason Loutsch) decided to start up a DM radio broadcast company. Is there any reason they couldn't buy airtime and put these shows back on the air?

Again, if the shows are profitable, I don't see why someone locally won't hire Chris and Ross to keep the show going.

This is assuming there aren't any non-compete issues, etc.
I have no idea how these business operate so maybe it isn't as easy to do this.
 

spierceisu

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Were The Morning Rush and Sports Fanatics financially viable? IE, were they making enough in ad revenues to cover salaries and operating expenses?
That is a good question, but I bet they were. I have a feeling that Iheart in general was not making a profit and decided to go with the generic syndicated model for types of stations rather than looking at each individual station/show. If this was the case, it didn't matter if the show made money or not, it was going to get cut.

If I heart is so about cutting costs, why don't they just have a computer hooked to a broadcast tower that would run the same music/shows as every other city at the same time so there is no local shows anywhere. This seems to be the route they are going anyway.
 
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capitalcityguy

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Were The Morning Rush and Sports Fanatics financially viable? IE, were they making enough in ad revenues to cover salaries and operating expenses?

I think most feel they were given their Nielsen ratings.

I mean, Younkers as a group of stores was still profitable, but it was brought down by the larger entity that owned it.
 

Mr Janny

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I'm referring to local Des Moines ownership.

Purely an example, but what if the Albaugh family (Jason Loutsch) decided to start up a DM radio broadcast company. Is there any reason they couldn't buy airtime and put these shows back on the air?

Again, if the shows are profitable, I don't see why someone locally won't hire Chris and Ross to keep the show going.

This is assuming there aren't any non-compete issues, etc.
I have no idea how these business operate so maybe it isn't as easy to do this.
I used to work in radio, and admittedly, it was in smaller markets than Des Moines, but in my experience, owning a radio station is not a great investment. Not a single station anyway. It might turn a profit, but the owner isn't getting filthy rich. The Des Moines market might be different, but sort of doubt it. There's a reason why so many of the independently owned stations were willing to sell
 

kingcy

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Were The Morning Rush and Sports Fanatics financially viable? IE, were they making enough in ad revenues to cover salaries and operating expenses?

The afternoon shows have to be the most profitable on KXNO. They ran very little KXNO promos. The national shows ran KXNO promos all the time.
 

CascadeClone

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Are non-competes binding if an employee is fired without cause? That would seem hard to enforce.

We hired a guy a couple years ago who had a non-compete, so I know a bit about it.

Non-competes are really hard to enforce, even if the employee leaves of their own volition. It's anti-competitive behavior by the firm, and they are illegal in some states.

In the case of a firing, I can't imagine it being applicable. And even if the contract was written in such a way as to include it, I cannot imagine a judge would enforce it.


In our case, the guy was 22 years old, and his hothead boss forced him to sign it on the spot one day by surprise. Not only did the boss refuse to allow him to let a lawyer review it, he wouldn't even let the employee read it prior to signing! Said you can sign it, or be fired right now. No judge would enforce that kind of contract signed under duress.
 

CycloneRulzzz

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I doubt it's a question of if they were profitable. If they weren't profitable, they wouldn't have lasted as long as they did.
They're banking that the reduction of costs that they'll experience by eliminating local shows will offset the loss of listenership when they switch to national shows.

I'm sure they see a sports fan as a sports fan as a sports fan, and are hoping enough of them will listen to sports radio regardless of if it's local or national.

And they're probably not wrong in a lot of cases. There are plenty of days where I just want to listen to sports radio. I don't care if it's local or national or even about the Huskers. That doesn't mean that I don't prefer local stuff, but a lot of times I'll take my sports anyway I can get them.

National shows lose my interest quickly. Unless there is a major story or like a Monday following a packed weekend to comment on I don't go far past the first segment. We are market where our college teams are the attraction. I want to hear about our teams.
 
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CyDude16

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I'm referring to local Des Moines ownership.

Purely an example, but what if the Albaugh family (Jason Loutsch) decided to start up a DM radio broadcast company. Is there any reason they couldn't buy airtime and put these shows back on the air?

Again, if the shows are profitable, I don't see why someone locally won't hire Chris and Ross to keep the show going.

This is assuming there aren't any non-compete issues, etc.
I have no idea how these business operate so maybe it isn't as easy to do this.

I doubt they’d be interested in an investment that probably would be a marginal profit at best. Just my opinion.
 
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