The Media Layoffs Just Won't Stop

In Boston...The Herald reports Country WKLB 102.5 DJ Jackson Blue, who has been a longtime staple on Boston radio stations, announced he was being let go by Beasley Media Group amid a rash of layoffs on Tuesday.

“So what’s going on? I just got fired,” Blue said in a social media video to his listeners. “People always told me forever: You’ve never made it in radio until you get fired for the first time — which means I finally have made it, you know, after being in Boston radio for 20-something years,” he said.

Jaybeau Jones

105.7 WROR’s Jaybeau Jones also announced that he was one of the Beasley employees being laid off. “It’s one of those hard days in radio where we are seeing friends let go. Well, today I am one of those friends,” Jones posted on social media. “After a wonderful 10 year run at WROR in Boston, ranking #2 adults I was part of the 7% and let go.

“I am happy to say I won’t be far away as you can hear me tonight and every night on SiriusXM 70s on 7,” he wrote, adding, “I will be looking for another fun opportunity to complement 70’s on 7.”

Beasley Media Group is cutting 7% of its workforce across the entire company. “We are realigning our core business operations to reflect the current economic conditions in order to best serve the needs of our valued audiences, advertisers, and shareholders into the future,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Blue spent almost a decade hosting nights at KISS 108 before making the jump to HOT 96.9, where he did afternoons for a couple of years. Blue in his video announcing the layoff said he would make another video thanking everybody he worked with. “There are so many people I love, and that’s what might make me cry right now,” he added as he started to tear up.

Blue said he does not have a job lined up after his sudden departure from Beasley.

These layoffs at Beasley Media Group come after Audacy recently emerged from bankruptcy. Then the radio conglomerate announced “difficult but necessary” cuts. That included WEEI Patriots reporter Mike Kadlick being laid off by the company right before the NFL Draft. Then last week, WBZ NewsRadio 1030’s Kim Tunnicliffe said she was let go from the iHeartMedia station. WBUR recently announced that Boston’s NPR station is laying off seven employees and 24 others are taking buyouts. The layoffs and buyouts come weeks after the station on Commonwealth Avenue warned of possible job cuts.

In Philadelphia, both the Inquirer and Beasley Media had layoffs on Tuesday.

The News Guild of Greater Philadelphia said it was 'disgusted and enraged' after the Philadelphia Inquirer on Tuesday laid off five unionized employees just months after 32 others accepted a buyout package to avoid a similar fate.

The Phill Business Journal reports Diane Mastrull, a longtime Inquirer reporter and editor who is president of Local 38010 of the Communications Workers of America, informed members of the layoffs on Tuesday, noting in a memo that the cuts come less than a week after the newspaper announced a desire to have employees work more days in the office in the spirit of “collaboration, inclusion, and sense of urgency about our work.”

She said the five affected Guild members include four newsroom employees — two photographers, a photo editor and a sportswriter. The fifth is in the Inquirer's customer support center.

 The Beasley Media cuts went deeper, and included the departure of The Best Show Ever? co-host and producer Jen Scordo. Scordo was a WXTU anchor before sliding over to 97.5 when Natalie Egenolf left. 

Another on-air Fanatic host, who has not publicly announced the news, was let go later in the day. 

In addition, a number of longtime producers and behind the scenes folks were also laid off, part of a company-wide initiative to reduce the work force by 7%. 

Sources told Crossing Broad the Philly cuts included on air, sales, marketing, and production employees spanning the entirety of the cluster, which includes the Fanatic, 93.3 WMMR, 102.9 WMGK, WXTU, and 95.7 BEN FM. This follows a 24-month period that saw Beasley let go of Jamie Lynch, Hunter Brody, Paul Jaxon, Charlie Maxx, Eric Camille, and other behind-the-scenes employees.