At the opening panel of the 2020 Radio Show Monday afternoon Cumulus CEO Mary Berner, Entercom CEO David Field and iHeart CEO Bob Pittman described to MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle what it’s going to take to get back to business after a near total government mandated business shut-down due to the pandemic.
The week-long virtual 2020 Radio show, produced by the RAB and NAB, kicked off with a CEO Town Hall featuring the leaders from radio’s three largest companies, iHeartMedia, Entercom and Cumulus.
All three have experienced massive declines in revenue since the pandemic took hold of the nation in March. Those declines forced each CEO to institute cuts that included layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts. Ruhle asked them to talk about these past few months.
Berner said, it’s been a ride. “With the industry’s ability to broadcast from anywhere the audio platform has been extraordinarily resilient. Consumer behavior radically changed during the shutdown. Audio remained a vibrant part of the day-to-day lives of our listeners. People were not in cars at the beginning, so listening dipped, but that was more than offset by streaming listening increases, listening more on home devices, podcasting. And now what we’re seeing more people get back on the road, broadcast radio has made a near complete recovery. So, it was pretty difficult in the beginning but the listeners shifted as opposed to went away.”
Field said the last few months have been quite a challenge. “Radio has persevered as it always has in times of crisis. It’s been there for the American public as a source of solace and respite. We’ve provided great news and information, companionship and all the other things that radio does. We’re back to the same level of listening as before and the pandemic has provided us with an opportunity to get stronger and better. As we come out of this, the audio industry is in a great position to thrive and move ahead faster than when we went into this.”
Pittman said radio keeps people company wherever they want us to keep them company. “Unlike other media, people don’t come to radio for an hour and that’s it for the day. They’re checking in all through the day and you have to separate radio from the music collection. We’re about keeping someone company, enjoy life, get through the day, and its times like this we’ve actually strengthened our relationship with the consumer. You saw digital music services dip, we went up on exactly those same digital devices. Why? Because they needed to be kept company, they needed information. When we go through experiences like these we come out of them with a stronger relationship with the consumer because we were there for them. I think this is the first time we’ve seen something nationally where people have reached out to radio and that relationship is going to have a huge long-term benefit for us.”
Berner revealed something that was very interesting. She said starting in April, she, Field and Pittman got on the phone, they spoke multiple times per week, to work together with Nielsen for example, to figure out how to get fair measurement during the pandemic, adding those discussions had a very positive outcome for Nielsen and for the industry. “As leaders we have to work together and we have. I’ve spoken to Bob and David about this. We’ve made decisions that would have normally taken us months to make, and we’re making them very quickly. It might be uncomfortable at the moment but it will be beneficial in the long run.” An example she gave was that none of them need to real estate footprint that they thought they needed. She says the companies are much more focused and the situation has made them stronger.
The Radio Show continues today at 2pm Eastern. Check out the schedule HERE.
Yes and ALL 3 companies have done SO well for so many years…..LOL