Field, FISH, and Fires
Your local radio correspondent is still trying to make sense
of the past year on the local dial and the business in general. Nonetheless, while
the (now belated) year in review is still in progress, there’s been some recent
news worth highlighting.
Clearing the Field: Audacy Chairman David Field
has stepped down as the CEO of the broadcasting and audio company after 27
years.
There’s different ways to view the departing Audacy CEO.
Under Field’s leadership, the company has expanded from 15 stations with $35
million in revenue to its current 230 stations, including the former CBS Radio cluster,
and $1.2 billion in revenue.
Still, Field has weathered his share of criticism. The company
filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy (from which they emerged in late September 2024), restructuring $1.6 billion of debt to $350 million. The company’s stock
price now hovers around 15 cents per share from a high in 2000 (as Entercom) at
$66 a share.
Part of it is the changing nature of the radio business.
Around the world, the radio business is evolving, for better and perhaps for
worse. In British Columbia, for example, a number of AM stations are going dark.
Meanwhile, in Japan the government is temporarily shutting down some AM radio stations to see if there will be any impact on broadcasters and listeners. But
back to Field and Audacy.
Much of the criticism revolves around the merger of (then
known as) Entercom with the CBS Radio stations. Locally, this involved JACK-FM
(KCBS-FM), KNX AM & FM (the latter being the former NOW 97.1 KNOU), K-EARTH
101 (KRTH), KROQ, and The WAVE (KTWV).
It was known Les Moonves, the now-departed CBS CEO, wanted
to dump their radio operations, believing radio “had no growth potential.”
Entercom became the willing buyer. At first, it was considered a plus to merge the
244 stations in 47 markets with a company “all about radio” in 2017.
Since then, the company led by Field has weathered its share
of criticism. Barrett Media shared a number of confidential comments from Audacy employees. One offered a succinct summary of what they thought of Field’s
leadership:
I never had any problems with him, but I think his legacy
is going to be that he will be the guy who screwed up the great radio stations
that CBS gave him in November 2017. The original sin is when Entercom took over
CBS, thinking they were smarter than many of the CBS people who they ousted
very quickly upon that merger.”
You cannot run New York, Los Angeles, Chicago like you
would some of the medium to smaller size markets in America. Cumulus made that
mistake and we all know what happened to them. You would’ve thought that the
folks at Entercom would’ve seen that playbook and done the opposite. They
didn’t. I think that original sin led us to where David Field unfortunately is
today.
Other criticisms involve Audacy getting a slow start
compared to rival iHeart in podcasting/ Changing the name from “Radio.com” to the somewhat obscure “Audacy” (which led to some ads for their app having to actually spell out “Audacy”)
was also questioned. To be fair, the gap between the two services may have narrowed.
The acting CEO, Kelli Turner, is the first leader of the
company who is not a member of the Field family. She was appointed to Audacy’s Board of
Directors in September 2024 as part of the aforementioned Audacy restructuring
and emergence from Chapter 11. Her background includes stints at Time Warner
and New Line Cinema, with significant experience on the business side of
entertainment. Audacy states they have launched a search for a permanent CEO
and President.
The FISHing season is over: To some, it may be a
niche format. Nonetheless, The FISH 95.9 (KFSH) offered its loyal listeners contemporary
Christian music (CCM) for almost a quarter century. There was the “FISHfest”
held every summer, a well-attended music festival since 2002.
Jennifer York, Chuck Tyler
Some of the familiar personalities include Billy Burke,
Lauren Kitchens, Ted Zigenbusch, Jennifer York, Chuck Tyler,
and long-time station veteran James “Big Wave Dave” Benzing. It will be
Benzing alongside his other colleagues tomorrow night when the FISH signs off at midnight.
The changes at the La Mirada station (heard throughout Orange County and southern LA County) come about because of the parent company, Salem Media (which owns Christian talk KKLA) selling all of their music stations – The FISH 95.9 plus stations in Atlanta, Cleveland, Colorado Springs, Dallas, Portland, and Sacramento – for $80 million to Educational Media Foundation (EMF). The latter company owns K-LOVE (KKLQ) and at last check, will simulcast their syndicated music programming on both 100.3 and 95.9.
A bit of nostalgia: One of the first CCM stations was KBRT,
then a daytime only operation emanating from Catalina Island. Gary McCartie led
the station back in 1979. He told Billboard Magazine “One thing we
looked at was the growing popularity of contemporary Christian concerts at
Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm.” McCartie envisioned the new format as an
alternative for young, energetic and active Christians seeking "”an up,
positive music station.” He left the station after disagreement with management about the direction of the station. When the station was purchased
by Crawford Broadcasting in 1980, they pivoted to Christian talk and
teaching.
When KHOF-FM (previously owned by Gene Scott’s Faith Center) was ordered to surrender their license, the station was purchased by Salem Communications, who rebranded the station as KKLA.
Scott O’Neil
offered CCM in the afternoon until that station went to full-time teaching and talk programming.
For a short while, KFSG (now Spanish KXOL) and K-WAVE (KWVE, not to be confused
with 94.7 The WAVE) filled the CCM gap until the arrival of The FISH in 2000.
Of note, while other broadcasting corporations are trying to
survive, the non-profit EMF is thriving. Among other acquisitions, the company
offers the K-LOVE format (not to be confused with Spanish K-LOVE 107.5…yeah, it
can get confusing) on New York’s former heritage rocker WPLJ, once the sister
station of local rocker KLOS, blanketing the New York metro area. Currently,
the company offers either the K-LOVE format (see previous comments about local
Spanish…oh, never mind) or the somewhat edgier Air1 format over the 1,000
stations they own. Though some of the signals are low-powered FMs and
repeaters, it’s nonetheless worth noting EMF owns more signals than either
iHeart Media (860 stations) or Audacy (235 stations).
Big Wave Dave has assured his listeners that CCM will
continue to be heard over 95.9 FM. But now the “talent” on the one-time FISH has
been reduced to whatever’s received by a satellite dish. Once again, local
radio has cut bait.
But what’s local radio good for? Perhaps plenty: We have to send our props to our local stations, both radio and TV, for the outstanding job they’ve done for the community during the LA fires. One AM station and one “sorta” AM station deserve special accolades. Of course KNX has a strong presence on FM (the station came in loud and clear during a recent visit to the Inland Empire), but it’s also likely many listened to their AM simulcast because that’s what they hear on the emergency radio they own. Led by Pete Demitriou, the Dean of radio field reporters, KNX offered non-stop commercial free coverage during the most intense moments of the Eaton and Palisades fire.
Also worth commending is the work of KFI, which also provided outstanding continuous coverage. Do I wish I could hear Steve
Gregory and Kris Adler, along with their (former) colleagues provide
eyewitness reports to Gary and Shannon and John Kobylt?
Obviously. But the station is doing everything they can to provide a quality
product which has also been invaluable for their audience.
One more station worth their props is LAist 89.3 (KPCC).
Breaking news is not their specialty, albeit they did provide regular updates during
news breaks. Led by Larry Mantle, the station’s 40-year veteran (we hope
we can get an interview), LAist provided perspective and context for
their listeners navigating through the disaster, something the station did
admirably during the pandemic.
Meanwhile Frank Mottek, John Phillips, and Randy
Wang offered an alternative to fire coverage. KABC had access to (sorta)
sister station KABC-TV for breaking news, otherwise the station favored
commentary and opinion about the fires, openly criticizing the response of
local and state politicians.
And to reiterate: The disaster relief
volunteer in me needs to again mention the current support for fire victims has
been rather amazing, now the goal is to keep being there in the midst of the
recovery for the next six months, one year, two years…whatever it takes. Anyone
else want to take some disaster intervention training with me?
Stay safe and stay tuned.
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