Radio Lay-Offs Spread To Cumulus Media

Cumulus Media appears to have started a series of lay-offs in at least two markets.

Four radio personalities in Cumulus’s Little Rock operation have been laid off, including KURB 98.5 morning co-host Robyn Cisar and several people in KARN’s newsroom.

All four broadcasters have confirmed the job losses in media posts, and a worker who answered the phones at KARN on Monday confirmed some layoffs but referred a reporter for Arkansas Business to Keith Liesmann, the Cumulus vice president and market manager for Little Rock.

Liesmann didn’t respond to a message seeking comment. Along with Cisar, who was part of B98’s Kevin and Robyn show with Kevin Idol, others put out of work were news and traffic anchor Chris Ingram, anchor and reporter Heidi Sohl, and traffic reporter Chris Counts.

The layoffs occurred last week, with the news arriving at KARN a day after Cisar, who succeeded Lisa Fischer on the morning show in June 2018, was let go.

In Oklahoma City, Cumulus Media also made a round of cuts last week.

The “Wild Wake Up” morning show at RhythmicCHR  KKWD Wild 104.9 hosted by Mike Ipong, Maggie Flores and producer Beartoe has been eliminated as the station picks up the syndicated Bert Show with at least Ipong exiting.

Traffic Reporter and production chief  Gregg  Moore also exits the cluster.   Plus a couple of reporters at “98.1 The Sports Animal” WWLS-FM.

Cumulus Media of Atlanta is the third largest radio chain in the United States with more than 400 stations in nearly 90 markets. The company, which had $1.14 billion in 2018 revenue, has seven stations each in the Little Rock and Fayetteville markets, and three stations in Fort Smith.