Pittman on iHeart Layoffs: ‘There’s Not a Slot For Everybody’

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    During the company’s Q3 earnings call, iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman addressed recent layoffs affecting managers and air talent, where he touted his syndication stable as the company seeks to save $150 million by “eliminating redundancies.”

    Referencing Radio Ink coverage of the RIF, Barrington Research’s Jim Goss asked Pittman about the consolidation of talent. Pittman responded, “I think what we’re doing is not getting rid of air talent. What we’re able to do now, because we’ve got technology is we can take talent we have in any location and put them on the air in another location. So it allows us to substantially upgrade the quality of our talent in every single market we’re in.”

    “Great talent are great talent because people all wanna be their friends. When you look at Ryan Seacrest, he’s America’s favorite friend. Everybody wants to be his friend. Or Charlamagne tha God or Bobby Bones.”

    “There’s not a slot for everybody. Just because [talent] was willing to live in the market, doesn’t assure that they’re the best person for that slot.”

    “The criteria had to be willing to live in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, or Jackson, Mississippi – my old hometowns – in order to be on the radio. Today, technology frees us of that constraint and our programmers can now make the decision about who’s going to be the best talent in that time slot on that radio station regardless of where they live.”

    Earlier in the call, Pittman praised iHeart stations that went wall-to-wall live and local in the Asheville area to serve their communities after the devastating flooding caused by Hurricane Helene.

    Pittman stated, “We’ve now taken another significant step in our modernization journey, flattening our organization, eliminating redundancies, and breaking down silos. It will be easier to do business with us and easier to get our business done as well as accelerate revenue growth.” Those changes are expected to save iHeart $150 million.

    iHeart’s leader also had brief comments to make on the election, calling it “the revenge of the ignored consumer,” and laying out how the company plans to capitalize on the demographic.

    “Let me tell you who they are,” said Pittman. “Their top participatory sports are not golf and pickleball. They’re cornhole and bowling, with hunting and fishing not far behind. They have deep respect for religion, the military, and the police, and they span gender, age, ethnicities, geographies, and income levels.”

    “We’ve been connecting with these ignored consumers for years through our network of trusted hosts and broadcast radio stations who talk and engage with them on a daily basis. These ignored consumers will have a tangible impact on business and marketing decisions going forward. And given our unique position here, we think we’ll benefit from that.”

    As for the financial results, Pittman and President/COO Rich Bressler highlighted continued momentum in its digital and audio & media services segments.

    The broadcaster reported total revenue of $1.008 billion for the quarter, a 5.3% increase compared to the same period in 2023. However, net loss widened to $41.325 million, compared to a loss of $8.969 million in Q3 2023.

    In the Multiplatform Group, Broadcast Radio revenue declined slightly by 1.4% year-over-year due to economic factors impacting advertising spending.

    The Audio & Media Services segment experienced significant growth, with revenue increasing by 46.4% year-over-year. This growth was primarily driven by increased demand for digital audio advertising and podcasting services. The Digital, Excluding Podcast segment also saw strong performance, with revenue increasing by 13.8% year-over-year, reflecting strong performance in digital advertising and streaming. Podcast revenue grew by 11.1% year-over-year, driven by increased listener engagement and advertising revenue.

    iHeart is also now the third major radio broadcast company to offer an exchange offer transaction to push its debt window back by three years. The company has secured support from major lenders and noteholders, representing approximately 80% of its total debt.

    That exchange offer is expected to begin shortly.

    31 COMMENTS

    1. Right, because the ‘ignored consumer’ Pittman sees is clearly every medium to major market local who’s just itching to toss back a beer at a cornhole tournament after casting a ‘revenge vote.’ The idea that radio’s big revival hinges on camo, bowling leagues, and heartland stereotypes being the future of places like Palm Springs and Aspen? Sure, if iHeart’s plan is to treat every city like it’s Mayberry, they’re really onto something—just not reality.

    2. This latest round of layoff (if rumors are true, the biggest day of this bloodbath hits tomorrow (Mon 11/11). Is hidden behind other major stories. The election and now Veterans Day. Bob Pittman failed AOL/Time Warner and has been mentioned here never has shown a profit in his time at iHeart. As far as talent, the company is forcing established talent to take pay cuts. You don’t sign, you’re out. They replace you with scared workers who will do the job for a fraction of the price. I know. Happened to me over my last decade with them. When I left I was making 200k and was replaced with a voice tracking talent who accepted $25 per show. This is not about talent. They don’t care. This is about throwing in people who will work for peanuts. I laughed out loud at Pitman’s comment, “Ryan Seacrest, he’s America’s favorite friend.” UUuhhhgggg! lol

    3. For years, we taught listeners to hate commercials.
      Format clocks were 48-54 minute of music with
      commercials treated as the least important element.
      –Any savvy business owner saw that-
      And now that there are countless alternatives to spend
      their advertising dollar, they’re gone, and rightfully so.
      Sure, there were standouts who made commercials
      as important as the music. Dick Orkin, Bert Bertis,
      Stan Freberg. Where are they today? We treat TV ads the same way as they’re only celebrated one day a year during the big game. If broadcast can learn to treat ads as important as the format, everyone wins.

      Listen for the song of the day for your chance to win $1,000

      Listen for the ad of day for your chance to win another $1,000

      Ever heard that?

    4. I prefer live and local, yet in my market the imported midday host seems to have a higher share than the local am and pm drive hosts at IHate stations in my market.

    5. Sounds like a lot of former employees who hate Iheart… the only power you have to get pitman, is to use your investor rights (assuming you still have this $hit stock)… vote his ass off the board… you would think anybody that’s heavily invested in this company and has a lot of shares would have no problem in getting Pittman out if enough voted him out. Call roaring kitty… he could head it up. Problem solved.

      • The local staff ruined radio. They drank coffee and read prep sheets. Everyone hid behind the saying “Live and local”, but they missed out on the 3rd part “Live local and lousy”… that’s why the advertising money is leaving radio, because the talent isn’t talented.

        • The talent at local stations that I worked with in LA were not sitting around “drinking coffee.” They came in hours before their shows and worked hard on planning every minute of their shows.

          Advertising money is leaving radio because there are so many targeted and trackable alternatives. In addition, most people under 30 don’t ever turn on a radio.

          When a car had a radio and a cassette player, most people listened to their radios in the car. Now the options for in car listening are endless: Apple car play, pandora, etc, etc.

          The scarcity of talent is not because the talent is sitting around “drinking coffee.” The LBO’s that consolidated the radio industry required an impossible amount of debt. As the debt became unmanageable, local hosts were eliminated and voice tracking became the norm. This lead to a smaller talent pool as dozens of talented people left the industry. Most of the local hosts who are left work their butts off and live day to day wondering when their jobs will be eliminated. In fact, IHeart is now going through another round of masssive layoffs as they’ve had to restructure their debt for what seems like the 100th time.

          If you know talent that sits around drinking coffee, they are the exception.

      • Name all the live & local staff at Spotify, Sirius, Apple, and all the other digital companies. You can hire all the live & local staff you want. People aren’t throwing away their phones and buying transistor radios.

        • Bob/Aka “thebiga”…just to remind you…people CAN listen to their LOCAL station by way of their phone/streaming, on your iHeart app! Right? And if they’re NOT listening to your local stations, that’s on you — the content is not compelling, too many commercials, whatever.
          And why do you reference Sirius, Spotify, Apple, etc ? – Isn’t radio listening still far greater than those apps? So why would you want to be like them?! Lol!!
          Your intentions are good Bob, no question. But you just don’t have the creative bandwith to look beyond your own thinking. That’s not meant as a criticism, just an observation. Putting on great parties and events, pontificating with fancy new word-isms, and cutting expenses by using cheap “talent” and moving increasingly more to voice-tracking, are proven now to NOT be pathways to success. …Success as in PROFIT for the company.
          Be careful. I know first hand, about brand new audio products now in development, that will have MAJOR mass appeal and will cause major disruptions to current listening platforms and listening habits. It’s all about CONTENT, not platforms.

    6. Just stumbled across this propaganda. Not one point would encourage any wise investor to invest in iHeartMedia. Sounds like a basket case for optimists to me.

      • Absolutely agree. Any investors reading this would be suckers to invest in iHeart. In almost 15 years, Pittman has not made one dollar in profit for iHeart!
        No other company would keep a CEO who continues to lose billions, while paying himself and his minions. But the iHeart Board of Directors never holds Pittman accountable, because the Board is stacked with Pittman’s people. What a scam!!
        And for Pittman to say that people want to be Seacrest’s friend?!! Seriously?? No normal American male would want anything to do with Seacrest. … his “likes” and preferences are well hidden.

        • Watch out Bob…the mighty BigA will soon be talking down to you as well with his flowery, condescending language showing his unabashed worship of Pitchman.

          See below. The guy has sung Pitchman’s praises for years on these blogs. Despite the facts.

          • By the way, Seacrest is HORRIBLE as a radio “talent”… he’s plain vanilla, almost emotionless . The ratings on KISS Radio in Los Angeles in the morning, are about 1/3rd now, of where they were before Seacrest took over mornings years ago. That says it all.

      • iHeart’s stock is in serious trouble—smart investors should steer clear, and I’m sure they are. They might claim to be the #1 audio company, but with a stock this low, revenue declining and debt this high, it’s clear something isn’t adding up. The debt load is enormous, and the clock is ticking on Bob’s time to turn things around. The stock is practically a penny stock… worthless…and his solution? More “restructuring,” which seems like a smokescreen to cut costs in ways that don’t make sense.

        Some of the layoffs seem arbitrary, with the choices of who stays and who goes raising eyebrows. It’s like the ones making these decisions are just protecting their own circles and families, leaving longtime employees out in the cold. Who’s giving them the power to make such moves?

        Investors will only take iHeart seriously when the company stops putting on lavish festivals and yacht parties and starts generating actual revenue to chip away at its towering debt. Until then, it’s hard to see this as anything other than a company in denial about its financial reality.

        The solution? Syndicate as much content as possible and pay these disconnected, soulless voices even more to broadcast in every city, pretending to be “down to earth.” They’re doubling down on this approach, trying to make one-size-fits-all personalities pass as relatable in every market. Instead of investing in genuine local talent, they’re choosing voices who are anything but connected to the communities they’re supposed to serve.

    7. If the local talent and PD’s did a better job, this wouldn’t be an issue. Announcing songs and fake laughing, coupled with loads of contest plugging totally eroded audiences. No one cares that it’s national doughnut day, but “Bob and Mary in the morning” were lazy and went with it…. here we are….

    8. Another 41 million dollar loss. This man could not be more full of total crap. I almost feel as much for those still there as those recently made redundant. There debt is rapidly approaching the US debt.
      Somewhere Lowry is rolling over in his grave.

      • “Somewhere Lowry is rolling over in his grave.”

        Lowry Mays CAUSED this problem. He’s the one who bought hundreds of local stations. He’s the one who cashed out to Bain and put the company $20 billion in debt. He did it, not Bob. Bob is just the janitor cleaning up the Mays mess.

        • So it takes Pitchman 13 YEARS without even ONE profitable quarter to “clean up the mess”??

          But he still has his private jet. A very well paid janitor.

            • He packed the board of directors with his own people.

              But I forgot that you worship at the altar of Pitchman.

              Numbers don’t lie. Not ONE profitable quarter in 13 YEARS.

            • He doesn’t have the power to pack the board. The lenders pick the board. That was all laid out in the bankruptcy agreement. He is an employee with a contract. Nothing more. Don’t confuse fact checking with worship. The lenders set out the targets he has to hit. This week’s layoffs is about hitting those targets. The lenders just want their money.

            • They won’t get their money with a loser like Pitchman who can’t show even one profitable quarter over the past 13 years. And you can check those facts.

            • They won’t get their money keeping a loser like Pitchman who can’t show even one quarter of profit in 13 years

              Feel free to fact check that. In Pitchman’s case past performance is indicative of future results.

    9. Bob the Reaper… Just flattening away and “breaking down silos”. What the hell does that mean? Moo.

      How do you sleep at night?

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