Opinion: There's A Problem With iHeartMedia Leadership

By Richard Wagoner | rwagoner@socalradiowaves.com

When two of your brightest stars leave your company, smart managers would reflect on why.

But we’re dealing with iHeart Media; and in my humble opinion, there is a definite lack of caring or programming intelligence at the very top. That is why they are in such dire financial straits and have been for at least 20 years.

Longtime KFI (640 AM) program director Robin Bertolucci resigned her positions — she also oversaw programming on KEIB (1150 AM) — on Friday, November 8th, the same day as her husband Don Martin left his position as general manager of KLAC (570 AM) and executive vice president of sports for iHeartMedia.

Reached for comment, Bertolucci said her resignation was not forced. “It was a breakup,” she called it. “Totally mutual. It was time.”

Asked what her plans were now, she said she’s going to relax. “I am just taking a minute to catch my breath and I’ll go from there.

“I am at peace. It was a good time to go, but leaving hurt. It was very hard to say goodbye,” she concluded. Bertolucci spent over 22 years programming the station, one of the most popular talk stations in the country and the highest-rated AM station in town — by far.

Christmas Cuts

The resignations came as cuts were rumored at iHeart, which owns 860 stations in 160 markets in the United States. Those rumored cuts — hundreds across the country — became a real thing by the following Monday. More than half the KFI news department was let go, including News Director Chris Little who was with the station for 33 years. My hunch — though no one will say it — is that Bertolucci and Martin didn’t want to stay around knowing the cuts were coming.

Some call the layoffs iHeart’s “Merry Christmas cuts.” I call them further proof that the company is unfit to hold a broadcast license. When you tear apart the very thing that made your station successful, you truly have no clue what you are doing.

“Not to be overly dramatic,” one industry observer told me. “But we appear to be witnessing a sad historic moment in the devaluation of local radio.”

Absolutely true.

KFI’s news department has been a highlight of the station since it began broadcasting in 1922. Even during its top 40 days, local news coverage was an extremely important part of the station’s programming. In recent years, KFI’s news team has won more awards than all-news station, KNX (1070 AM, 97.1 FM).

Now, just as broadcasters like iHeart push for a law to ensure AM is included in vehicles because “AM provides important local news coverage during emergencies,” iHeart is dismantling one of the best local news departments in the industry, and will instead rely on their syndicated “24/7 News” operation to provide our local newscasts … out of Phoenix.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but this is exactly why deregulation allowing one company to own hundreds of stations has been nothing less than a catastrophic failure. Instead of developing talent, iHeart CEO Bob Pittman and his team have continued to cut from the local markets, leaving listeners no reason to stay and plenty of reasons to search out other entertainment sources. The result: fewer listeners, lowered ad rates, and a declining industry.

If Pittman and his ilk wanted to increase radio’s fortunes, they would put the money locally where talent and creativity would allow the industry to thrive. That they do not proves that there is no reason to save iHeart and competitors like Audacy. Let them die a well-deserved death in bankruptcy and allow local owners back into the game. Then and only then will radio start to come back from the death spiral.

It can be done. But it won’t happen until the people who destroyed radio are no longer running things.

I reached out to iHeart Regional President Paul Corvino for comment; he directed me to Chief Communications Officer Wendy Goldberg, who did not respond.

(Hat Tip to Richard Wagoner for permission)