Cumulus Media to be swallowed up

[SBaxley]

Radio Insight is reporting from Reuters that a consortium led by Connoisseur Media head Jeff Warshaw has made a $1.2 billion offer to acquire Cumulus Media

[Mega Hertz]

Good. Fuck 'em. Maybe THEN he would do something about 93.1

Just curious, though. Who the hell wants to buy radio stations anymore? Especially in a market like this?

[Realist]

I’m really hoping that this happens. Cumulus ruined the Citadel stations that they bought with most shifts being voice tracked, along with too many hands messing with their playlists. I looked at Connoisseur’s stations and not so sure that’s happening

[Colonel Flagg]

I disagree. The guy who runs Connoisseur is a Lew Dickey wannabe. Adding a bunch of LBO debt onto the existing Cumulus portfolio is a recipe for disaster, if you ask me.

While I am NOT well versed in high finance, there's NO comparison between Jeff Warshaw and Lew Dickey, other than the fact that their Dads owned radio stations. Howard Warshaw owned Universal Broadcasting. The company owned foreign language / block program stations, every single one in a major market (New York, Chicago, San Francisco, etc)

Jeff already did what Lew Jr did, but Jeff exited laughing. He wasn't fired by his own board, and told "pack up your office, and get OUT!!!!" Comparing Jeff to Lew Jr is like comparing Howard Warshaw to Sima Birach.

[TC Talks]

Just curious, though. Who the hell wants to buy radio stations anymore? Especially in a market like this?

And who would fund the deal?

[TC Talks]

I worked with Jeff back in the late 90's. He has a fierce demeanor with revenue development and programs his stations well. It was rather sad to see how Cumulus destroyed his stations when he sold in early 2000.

However, time hasn't been kind to his hair....

[burytheneedle]

Any change would be good change but Cumulus has beat these stations so far into the ground that it would be tough to get them out of the hole. I would love to see Cumulus break apart and have local or regional owners step in to make some of these stations profitable again.

[Mega Hertz]

Larry Wilson was well respected, too, but due to overly aggressive acquisition activity got out over his skis at Alpha. The company that used to embrace "live, local radio" now uses a ton of syndicated content from third parties, voicetracking, and jockless dayparts as a result.

Their Saginaw and suburban Chicago clusters are likely among their better ones, but Dayton and Louisville are a mess. Their San Jose stations have seen a gargantuan decline in billing compared to 10 or 15 years ago - 70 percent plus.

Issues at Cumulus are largely due to residual issues from the Dickey area and a lack of sufficient scale in the biggest markets. The company really should consider divesting more of its major market stations. The Detroit cluster feeds little to no content to the outstate stations, and management of non-PPM versus PPM markets flows thru totally separate silos.

The existence of WJR is not complementary to WDRQ or WDVD. Having only two FMs - only one of which has seen long term ratings success - disadvantages Cumulus on buys.

So a 25-54M and a 25-54F combo buy would be a better idea? If WJR plays no part (other than being a clear channel 55+M station), would they be wise to flip 93.1 to a male oriented format?

[Colonel Flagg]

I’m really hoping that this happens. Cumulus ruined the Citadel stations that they bought with most shifts being voice tracked, along with too many hands messing with their playlists. I looked at Connoisseur’s stations and not so sure that’s happening

Farid Suleman, and Judy whats-her-name ruined Citadel long before the Dick Brothers took over. All of the Citadel stock I owned was immediately worthless. Even the lousy company known as "Big City Radio" was kind enough to insist that shareholders receive equal shares of Entravision when they acquired the tattered remains of Big Shitty.

As to Jeff Warshaw's proposal, it looks he may have undervalued Cumulus. I'm not sure I agree with that. Cumulus is a disaster in many markets.