The deal isn’t even official yet between iHeartMedia and Entercom for WBZ-AM to change hands to iHeart and the staff at one of the nation’s top all news outlets is wondering if they will be pink-slipped. The reason they are nervous…when the deal is complete, iHeartMedia will not assume the SAG-AFTRA union contract put in place by Entercom. They will negotiate their own deal.
It also appears the union is doing everything it can to make it look like iHeart is acting in bad faith. We are told they have even approached a Boston politician claiming iHeart is union busting. On Sunday a SAG-AFTRA Spokesperson told Radio Ink, “SAG-AFTRA intends to aggressively advocate on behalf of its members employed at WBZ-AM who will be affected by this transaction.” They did not respond to our question about whether they approached the local politician and accused iHeart of union busting.
WBZ employees caught wind of this letter from an iHeart corporate attorney, which states that every WBZ employee will have to re-interview for their jobs when iHeart takes over the station, which could be in about two weeks (when the Entercom/CBS merger closes). Part of that letter reads: “Although iHeartMedia management will be making a number of changes to integrate WBZ-AM into the iHeart platform, it will have a number of positions to fill. Interested individuals who meet our qualifications will be offered employment under iHeartMedia’s compensation and benefits program. iHeartMedia will not be assuming the two collective bargaining agreements between CBS Radio and SAG-AFTRA.”
That has the staff at WBZ understandably upset.
We reached out to iHeart Sunday and received the following statement:
” When stations change hands there are many moving parts, and we are working to resolve them as quickly as we can. That includes labor contracts, which aren’t transferring. We know this process may cause anxiety, and we truly apologize for any discomfort some union employees may be feeling. We plan to get all these important details in place as soon as possible. iHeartMedia and SAG-AFTRA have worked constructively after other transactions and we expect that to continue after the acquisition of WBZ-AM. We plan to work with the union as we integrate WBZ and the individuals we hire into the iHeart platform.”
iHeartMedia is picking up WBZ-AM in Boston as part of Entrercom’s divestiture plan to get under the ownership limits in order for its merger with CBS to close. iHeart is also getting WRKO-AM and WKAF-FM from Entercom and WZLX-FM from CBS.
When ABC sold off its radio properties and Cumulus got them out of bankruptcy, the next owners kept the Call Sign for WABC in New York and the ABC owned TV Station kept the same letters for Channel 7 there. It’s already been done.
There is a lot of jumping to conclusions here. A lot of assumptions. I’ve been through a number of station sales, and this is pretty typical of what happens. The new owner, no matter who it is, has the option to make changes. The radio station has been co-located with a co-owned TV station for a number of years, and there are a lot of tangled relationships. There will be new benefits packages that have to be worked out, and the company has already said that it will begin negotiations for a new union contract. iHeart has lots of union shops around the country, and also owns a lot of heritage quality AM stations, including KFI, WLW, KOA, WTAM, and WOAI. These stations are all locally programmed. Yes change is hard to handle, but it’s going to happen regardless of who gets this station.
You are such a shill for iHeart!! Please… We don’t need your constant “company line” and incessant pro iHeart propoganda. It is so obvious to the rest of us what you are doing!!…Is Bob Pittman in the office next to you??? Or maybe you ARE him???? Lol!
What in my post is factually incorrect? Stop with your personal attacks and deal with the facts, if you can. There is no legal foundation for a challenge to this sale. You’re acting like a baby.
Other potential ownership groups should challenge this sale and go for the WBZ license. They could very well win. The challenge would be based on the obvious: it is in no way in the public interest, for the WBZ license to be awarded to a company (iHeart) that is 23 billion dollars in debt, and on the potential verge of bankruptcy.
There should be a more financially sound, potential other owner out there who could demonstrate that they would do more local programming than iHeart, etc.
This transaction is a total disservice to the Boston community and the radio industry.
And to those on the digital bandwagon, communities don’t get served thru that platform either.
This is both inevitable and disturbing. Inevitable because there are way too many stations for our new digital age, and nearly all of them are being absorbed into too few giant consolidators—none more focused almost exclusively on the transition to digital than iHeartMedia, which significantly changed its name from iHeartRadio, and before that was Clear Channel. Disturbing because WBZ is one of the last of the true clear channel stations that still does well in the ratings. Given those facts, iHeart’s letter to employees is ham-handed in the extreme given WBZ’s legacy, its continued success, and the people who made both possible.
Since there is still a TV station called WBZ-TV, what are the chances that WBZ radio will be forced to give up the 3-letter call that has been its identity for longer than all but a few human beings have been alive? Betcha CBS holds on to the call for the TV station. Will it allow (or can it allow) WBZ-AM to continue with the same call?
This is all thinking out loud on my part, sitting in a London conference with no other input on this subject than what I just read in this post. But I’ll bet my assumptions are not far off. And I believe WBZ’s team is right to be upset. Wish I could be optimistic for them, but I’m not.