by Lauren Rush

Executives

Lewis W. Dickey, Jr. – Chairman, President and CEO of Cumulus Media. He co-founded the company in 1997 and became its CEO in June of 2000.

 

 

Jonathan G. Pinch- Executive Vice-President and Co-Chief Operating Officer. He joined Cumulus in December 2000 and prior to this was the President of Clear Channel International Radio.

 

John W. Dickey- Executive Vice-President and Co-Chief Operating Officer. He joined Cumulus in 1998.

 

 

Joseph P. Hannan- Senior Vice-President, Treasurer and CFO. He joined Cumulus in April 2008.

 

 

 

Corporate offices: 

3280 Peachtree Toad, NW Suite 2300

Atlanta, Georgia 30305

Ph. (404) 949-0700

Overview/History

Cumulus Media Network is a company that runs approximately 525 stations within 110 cities in the US¹. They also have more than 4,500 affiliate radio stations; through these means they reach around 140 listeners above the age of 12 every week².  The company was founded in 1998 and works as developers of original content and as syndicators. As of 2011 Cumulus acquired Citadel Broadcasting Corporation, making Cumulus the largest pure-play radio company and the second largest operator of radio stations in the US ^{1, 4}.  The most famous programs and affiliates that Cumulus airs include: The Mike Huckabee show, A Better Life With Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Perez Nights Live, ABC News Radio, CBS Sports Radio, along with many others³. Furthermore, they now have many Spanish language programs broadcasting across the country.  In addition, Cumulus operates national scale digital and mobile platforms with websites that deliver over 70 million page views per month as well as the third largest radio-streaming network, Cumulus Streaming

Network, in the US according to Triton Digital¹⁰. Also in 2011,  Cumulus partnered with other top radio company, Clear Channel Media and Entertainment, to allow Cumulus network programs to be streamed on Clear Channels iHeartRadio app and website and for Clear Channel to give ad space to SweetJack, Cumulus’s daily deals program⁵.  Cumulus prides itself on its local and national advertising space stating, “high-impact local marketing solutions…help our customers build strong brands and tap into over $4 trillion of local spending power”¹.

Finances

Cumulus as of Thursday December 6^th was selling on the New York Stock Exchange for $2.25 a share⁶. However, like many companies in the current economy has been on a steady decline since its being priced around $22 a share in 2004²⁰ On November 5^th Lew Dickey, CEO, announced the third quarter results, which showed an increase in net revenue, up 120.7%, or $1.50.6 million from $124.8 million to $275.4 million⁷. However, earnings declined 5.9% from $59.5 million in 2011 to $56 million this quarter. Dickey pointed out that this quarter was the first anniversary of the Cumulus/Citadel merger and that integration was mostly complete. Plus he also made reference to the fact they the company is hopeful in its “turnaround” of 10 under performing stations that equate to 100% of revenue loss that they believe will be restored to growth in revenue in 2013⁸.

Recent News

In accordance with its new acquisition of Citadel Broadcasting Corporation, Cumulus’s stock price rose to $2.98 in September. This was the highest the stock has been since October 2009. CRT capital Group LCC commented, “the company’s cost-savings forecast with the acquisition may be ‘understated’”⁹.

Another development that happened in September was Marketron’s interface connection between its Network Connect service and Cumulus Media Networks’ traffic system¹⁰. This service automates and facilitates network orders and scheduling at an advanced technological level. Therefore allowing “valuable and efficient workflow” for affiliates and advertisers that work with Cumulus¹⁰.

On October 17^th, Cumulus announced that it would be adding a new talk show, “Michael Savage’s The Savage Nation”, to air on stations across the country.  Michael Savage is an author of 28 books and is ranked as the third most listened to radio talk show over broadcast and is ranked first via online streaming. Savage is a graduate from UC Berkeley. His show consists of politics, American conservative culture and values, and the ways in which these things are changing within the country. Cumulus hopes this acquisition will bring many new listeners and lead them toward their goal of having “radio’s most compelling mix of show hosts”¹¹.

The Savage Nation Full Show from November 26 [10]

Along with progressive talk shows and hosts, Cumulus is trying to compete in the sports format by dropping ESPN radio from 47 stations

and exclusively syndicating CBS Sports Radio¹² . Beginning on January 2^nd. CBS Sports Radio will air on approximately 100 stations, including the major markets of New York, Boston, and Dallas. These programs are estimated to reach 10 million households¹² . However, it is not clear how much of a success CBS Sports Radio will be because ESPN radio still has more station affiliates and total listeners. Plus NBC also launched a sports radio network this fall with NFL rights¹². However, Cumulus has signed a 12-year contract extension with the San Francisco 49ers football team. This allows the games to continue to be broadcast through 2023 on three Cumulus stations in the Bay Area¹⁰.

Two new changes that will be launching on CBS Sports Radio are “The D.A. Show” and three new hosts for the morning drive^{13, 14}. “The D.A. Show” was announced on November 16^th and will debut Wednesday January 2, 2013. It will be available in 12 major markets across the country, including Boston, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Washington D.C., and more. The host will be Damon Amendolara who was a previous host on CBS Radio Boston’s WBZ-FM and has had many other positions within the Boston, Miami, and Kansas City areas. He is a graduate from Syracuse University¹³. The new hosts of the morning drive were

announced on November 26^thand they will include Tiki Barber, Brandon Tierney and Dana Jacobson. Barber was a professional football player with the New York Giants, while Tierney and Jacobson both already have prolific careers as broadcasters and reporters¹⁴.

Along with the third quarter reports Lew Dickey announced that Cumulus received $4.3 million from political ad revenue²³. However, Dickey was disappointed with this outcome since they had received $5 million from the same quarter in 2010. One explanation given for this downturn was the amount of experimentation with social media that occurred during this election, which was greater than ever before. Although Cumulus, and radio in general, did not profit too heavily from this seasons elections, Dickey told the Wall Street Journal that he believes “radio can do a better job of selling itself” in the future and “perhaps we can change [sales] in the next cycle²³.

Cumulus announced on November 26^th that JT Batson would be appointed as the company’s first Chief Revenue Officer. He would direct sales strategy and operations for their broadcast, commerce, events, publishing, and digital platforms. Batson’s previous positions include: Chief Strategy Officer at Mediaocean, an advertising systems provider,

and facilitation of the merger between Donovan Data Systems and Mediabank. He also worked on marketing for Mozilla Firefox. Batson is a graduate from Stanford University¹⁵. Prior to this major announcement, on November 13^th, Cumulus also announced promotions of Bob Raleigh and Davey Morris to Corporate Program Directors¹⁴.

Along with these corporate announcements Cumulus made some regional changes as well this fall. In September, they launched a new Adult Hits station in Atlanta¹⁶ as well as flipping a Modern Rock station to Active Rock format, also in Atlanta ¹⁷.  In October, Cumulus published that it is purchasing WFME-FM in the New York metro area but has not released format plans¹⁸. Plus, Ann McManus was named the Regional Vice President of Northeast Cumulus markets on October 18^th. Markets included are: Bridgeport, New London, Westchester and Poughkeepsie. Some disappointing news came to Cumulus on November 9^th when Steve Borneman, their New York Market Manager moved to Clear Channel Media and Entertainment¹⁹, the only company more prolific in radio than Cumulus and their fiercest competitor. Lastly Scott Jameson replaced Dave Hamilton on December 3^rd as the OM of Cumulus Media’s Minneapolis three-station market²¹.

Most recently many of Cumulus’ AC stations across the country have switched to all Christmas music formats for the holiday season. They will remain on this format 24/7 through December 25^{th 10}.

The Future

Looking towards the future Cumulus is very happy with its new acquisition of Citadel and believes that it will remain a huge player in the radio industry for years to come because of this deal. Dickey, comments that Cumulus is one of really only three major radio corporations in the business and they are looking to expand on numerous platforms in the months to come. Regarding their partnership with Clear Channel, Cumulus is excited about the outcome of more EasyJack airtime and increased efforts towards improving ways of bringing better advertising to consumers and advertisers²². Cumulus’ CEO also does not believe that the radio business will suffer substantial losses in the future because  93% of the population is continuing to listen to radio ^{2, 22}.

Any Future for Radio? [14]

 

References