Lew Dickey, Cumulus' notorious, penny-pinching CEO, views "listeners" much in the same way as Walmart views labor unions. Ditto outgoing Citadel leader, Farid Suleman--although, to some degree, Suleman makes Dickey look like a modern day Walter Haas.
Take this statement from Dickey on his company's pending takeover of Citadel: "The acquisition should give our company 'the national scope and financial strength necessary to make critical investments in content and technology necessary to compete in today's rapidly evolving media landscape.'"
How nice.
And this statement, from Suleman, perhaps giddy that his flailing broadcast empire was overpaid by a cut-throat, soulless megalomaniac like Dickey.
"Citadel's board of directors has been focused on maximizing stockholder value--'We believe this transaction appropriately reflects the value of the company's assets and is in the best interests of Citadel stockholders.'"
In. the. best. interests of. Citadel. stockholders. That pretty much explains how these guys view business. Damn the local community, the listeners, programming--gotta take hold of our stockholders.
What does this mean here?
As I have said repeatedly, expect wholesale changes at KGO. KSFO too, but to a lesser extent. Get used to the advent of a ton of non-local, mostly syndicated programming that is cheaper and more 'bottom-line' friendly to the corporate goons like a Lew Dickey.
Think KGO's cancellation of its "Cure-a-Thon" is bad? That's only the beginning. Although that move was made before the Cumulus purge, it had all of Lew Dickey's finger prints all over it. "And that's only the beginning, " said a local broadcast media veteran. "They're going to cut a lot more."
The changes will be incremental. It'll take about six months for this deal to be completed, what with FCC approval and other peripheral issues to be dealt with, but gradually you'll begin hearing the changes.
News, talk, community-minded programming and content--everything's on the board. Which means damn the public, take care of the stockholders and maintain the bottom line. Listeners? Who are they?
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