Entercom Lay-Offs Take Toll In Chicago, San Diego

Entercom Communications this week has 'restructured' at stations in Chicago and San Diego.

In Chicago,  News WBBM 780-AM / WCFS 105.9-FM has laid off eight employees this week. According to Chicago Media Watcher Robert Feder, the lay-offs include  five in traffic and continuity and three in sales. Another four positions in finance are expected to be cut in August.

Numerous additional staff reductions are possible, according to Feder citing insiders.

In a note to employees, Jimmy deCastro, senior vice president and market manager of Entercom Chicago, wrote: “These are longtime co-workers and friends — we want to thank them for their years of hard work and wish nothing but the best for their collective futures.”

In San Diego, Classic Hits KXSN 98.1 FM's Dave Mason, A/C KYXY 96.5 FM Program Director Mark Blackwell and an engineer has been released.  Blackwell had been at the station for 37-years.

The layoffs are apparently part of Entercom's effort to make $110M in costs savings promised to lenders by CEO David Field.  Entercom stock has lost more than $10 a share since the merger with CBS Radio was announced. Entercom is in the same boat as iHeartMedia and Cumulus Media.  The companies are selling advertising in the face of ever-increasing competition.

“Local [advertising] still lags,” Field said on the analysts call in April, adding that there are “some fundamental issues” with advertisers shifting from radio to targeted digital ads. Field also said local companies that advertised on radio are stressed by the growth of giant retailers like Walmart and Amazon.

The radio industry generally is dealing with a crisis of its own making after station groups gorged on debt to build themselves into big corporations after the 1996 rewrite of the federal telecommunications laws. Those station groups then ran into hard times when ad growth slowed, and new platforms — satellite and digital — drained listeners away from over-the-air radio.