i(doesn’t)HeartRadio

January 15, 2020 Off By Eric O'Brien

Tuesday, January 14, 2020 has been dubbed “Black Tuesday” as the largest corporate radio owner in the United States, iHeartRadio restructures (again) resulting in “employee dislocation”. To me that sounds like a mob boss sent his agents to the stations to “take care of a few knees”… or fingers… or well you get the picture. Meanwhile, the “dislocation” means you have been asked to leave the station… with your personal belongings.

Oddly enough, before this started, iHeart took all of the “on air” staff pages off of the station websites. In the best case scenario, is it easier to take ’em all down and remove those who have been asked to leave behind closed doors and put the survivors back up?

iHeart is restructuring so that the large market stations are operated under one group called the “Region Division”. The medium groups will operate under the “Metro Division” which will serve areas that encompass several communities. And then the “Community Division” will serve the small markets.

Meanwhile, the talent remaining within the company will work at what will be known as a “Center of Excellence”. There they will be asked to provide content for many stations. That is just the tip of the iceberg, radioinsight.com has the details.

Meanwhile we have had reports of the Erie Market being affected as Bill Page departs middays at WXBB; Chuck Rambaldo is out as PD of WTWF where he was on afternoon drive, WXBB, WRTS and WRKT. Sammy Stone leaves the morning shift and Carrie Leigh leaves middays at WTWF. Daniel “Baxter” Irving leaves nights as WRKT, and Alex Womer leaves his production room and afternoon hosting at WFNN. (RadioInsight).

In Pittsburgh, we have heard from various sources that Bob McLaughlin, Bob Benedict (WWSW), DJ Scottro (WKST), and producer Greg Kuntz have been let go. We have no formal confirmation of these at this time, but have seen some social media posts indicating a few of these are fact. That said, we prefer not to speculate on these things – particularly when they affect people’s livelihoods. But it seems no market cluster is safe from this round of cuts.

Stay tuned…