Must-see new video from Rick Beato: How Corruption and Greed Led to the Downfall of Rock Music

[highplainsdem]

[ProfessorGAC]

1. Just Called His Channel Up On My RV!

I'll post again after I watch it.

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Ok, Watched It

Really good! We are quite fortunate to have WXRT in Chicago. They still do the "soup to nuts", old & new, rock & eclectic mix that made them what they've been for 40+ years. They even still break Chicago acts, being likely the only high power station playing those songs.
This video made me realize how lucky we are to still have that gem of a station.
Now I also know how, with Jim Peterik and his business savvy, set up deals that made the guys in Survivor so wealthy.
It also explains how everything being automated reduces cost to produce and makes the companies even more money.
Sad that the trigger of all this was a law signed into existence by Bill Clinton.

[highplainsdem]

3. It's a really good video, but the industry it describes is an atrocity that pretty much destroyed rock

as a successful genre.

And yes, you've been lucky to have that station, WXRT.

But it's owned by Audacy:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WXRT

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audacy,_Inc.

And Audacy just filed for bankruptcy and is billions of dollars in debt.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-biz-audacy-radio-bankruptcy-20240108-e2j36ubplzhlxhn7yspt2664o4-story.html
Archive page at https://archive.ph/3hMhl

From that Chicago Tribune article yesterday:

-snip-

The Philadelphia-based radio giant, which owns 225 stations, including Chicago powerhouses such as WBBM-AM 780, WXRT-FM 93.1 and WSCR-AM 670, blamed a “perfect storm” of pandemic headwinds, revenue declines and mounting debt from its 2017 megamerger with CBS Radio as driving the need for financial restructuring.

-snip-

The Chapter 11 agreement would reduce Audacy’s $1.9 billion in debt to $350 million by converting long-term loans to equity stakes in the reorganized company, pending approval by the Texas bankruptcy court. Much of that debt — about $1.4 billion — was accumulated through the CBS Radio merger, which tripled the size of Audacy and gave it substantial radio presence in major markets, including Chicago.

-snip-

In 2019, Audacy generated $1.5 billion in revenues, according to the bankruptcy filing. Revenues declined to about $1.25 billion in 2022, and are down another 6% year-over-year through the first nine months of 2023, according to the company’s financial filings.

-snip-

The radio chain, then known as Entercom, completed its $2.4 billion acquisition of CBS Radio in November 2017. The merger added a Chicago cluster of CBS stations including news stations WBBM-AM 780 and WCFS-FM 105.9; Top-40 station WBBM-FM 96.3 (B96), sports-talk station WSCR-AM 670 (The Score); country station WUSN-FM 99.5 (US-99); and eclectic rock station WXRT-FM 93.1. It also immediately flipped WJMK-FM 104.3 from classic hits to a classic hip-hop station, now known as WBMX-FM 104.3 Jams.

-snip-

The Audacy CEO's memo to employees yesterday said it would be business as usual for the stations during the bankruptcy process. And he mentioned two other chains - Cumulus and iHeart (which each have 3 Chicago stations) - that went through bankruptcy successfully.

I hope WXRT won't change.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. I Knew About Audacy

One of the big sportsradio stations here is owned by that.
I expected Audacy to change XRT, but they didn't. They at least were smart enough to know that the listenership consists of mid-aged folks who still use terrestrial radio but still comsider themselves hip because they listen to XRT.
The station creates the cache that maintains its own audience.
They may have financial issues, but they didn't screw this one up.