iHeartMedia has reportedly laid off dozens of people across its network of radio stations, including DJs and program directors.
So far, the company, which is the largest broadcaster in the world, has not specified exactly how many employees were laid off. A spokesperson for the company would only say that “the number is relatively small given our overall employee base of 12,500.”
What’s more, no one outside the company has been able as of yet to independently instantiate the number of layoffs. But Billboard has received many reports of layoffs from across the United States.
Here are a sample of these:
“It’s been a bloodbath across the whole country. My [superiors] came into my office and closed the door and said, ‘Hey,’ and gave me the talk of, ‘This is your last day.'”
“It was a shock. I definitely didn’t see it coming. I’m sure a lot of people didn’t. You can never really sit too comfortable, can you?”
“My meeting with the GM this morning lasted maybe 45 seconds or so. He read a statement from a piece of paper (that I barely remember) and I was shown the door.”
The spokesperson for iHeartMedia also issued a statement to explain the layoffs.
It said, “We are modernizing our company to take advantage of the significant investments we have made in new technology and aligning our operating structure to match the technology-powered businesses we are now in. This is another step in the company’s successful transformation as a multiple platform 21st century media company.”
iHeartMedia operates over 850 traditional radio stations. In recent years, though, it has struggled, which led to it declaring bankruptcy. At the same time, it has been trying to adapt to today’s digital music world by introducing a streaming service that currently has 128 million users.
Unfortunately, this service generates much less revenue than their terrestrial radio stations.
The company made news last month when it selected Nashville as the second headquarters of its iHeartRadio digital team.
IHEART RADIO SUCKS! THEY KILLED GOOD RADIO! BOB PITMAN…SHAME ON YOU.
iHeart aka Clearchannel couldnt care less about its employees or the communities of the stations they serve. They have been cutting staff at stations across the country for years relying more and more on automation and national personalities who offer no link to the people. You cant call in to request songs as you are forced to follow a national playlist that feels as if its dictated by the record labels and forced to listen to B-rated music that is beyond repetitive and uninspired. The email touts all these #1 parts of iHeart but missed the whole “Largest Radio Group to Delcare Bankruptcy” part too. It’s corporate radio in the worst form, putting stress on what few workers remain, while a clueless management team doesnt understand the beauty of radio was that it connected to its listeners and those individual personalities is what made you want to listen. Pre-recorded fake call-ins to Elvis Duran and the like are going to drive this company into the ground.
Big corporations care only about money and playing high quality music is the last thing on their agenda. Down, down, down goes the music business and at some point the fans need to realize that this new era of music is a disaster for the fans and for the musicians. We need a brand new business model which will provide the fans with great music while at the same time supporting the musicians to help them produce great, long lasting quality music. Record companies stopped investing in quality music many years ago because it cost too much. This thoroughly rotten and corrupt music business force feeds crap music to the public who then buy it because they hear it on the radio. And radio stations only play the music provided to them by the big corporations who control everything with MONEY. The musicians need to start a brand new business model eliminating these middle men and start to get quality music back on the radio.