I Told You So: Big Corporate Radio Is Broke

iHeartRadio parent warns it may not survive another year

I have been saying for years that my former industry is committing suicide. Five companies own 80% of the commercial radio stations in this country. They are all programmed by a small group of consultants and they nearly all suck.

This company's debt began back in the 90's when the government erased ownership limits. They WAY overpaid for stations as they built their empire. At the time, stations were generally worth 2.5 times their trailing cash flow, which was the total gross revenue for the previous 12 months. If a station had a trailing cash flow of $2 million, it was worth no more than $5 million.

This and some other companies paid WAY more than this. I remember sitting around with a bunch of radio friends in Florida, including a station owner, wondering how in the world do these companies plan on making money? In a steady market, they couldn't. Then thanks to the coming digital age and the Internet, the radio advertising pie began to shrink.

Things starting getting tight. I began thinking about what life would be like after radio. Then this and other companies started WAY overspending, including over-paying marginal talent. (yes, I'm talking about you WSIX) So they went more in debt.

I'd love to talk about the stupidity of bringing in an over-hyped country radio "personality" to take over for a retiring radio legend. You brought in a guy from Austin and hyped the hell out of it. Umm..... if you knew anything about Nashville, Big Corporate Radio, you would have never mentioned this guy came here from Austin. You see, Nashville doesn't like Austin. Austin presents a threat to Nashville. A major threat, You turned off half the market before the guy even got here.

Now, several years later, look at your ratings, WSIX. YOU SUCK. You're a middle of the pack station that is getting killed by other stations. That's how a company gets to be $20 billion in debt.

I told you so...

Obama Did Not Save The Auto Industry, He Saved The UAW

President-Elect Donald Trump sure stirred up the pudding when he saved 1100 jobs and got Carrier to change their mind and keep a plant in Indianapolis open. The next day, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest, unable to explain how a guy who hasn't even taken office yet, can get things done that Obama could not do. Earnest said that if Trump could do that 804 more times, he would equal what Obama has accomplished.

???

The left jumps to the auto industry, which Obama allegedly saved. Let's revisit that time and review what actually happened.

Two of the American-based automakers were in a heap of trouble. General Motors was failing because of repeated poor decisions and crap cars.  Chrysler was failing because Chrysler always fails. On the other hand, Ford saw the trouble coming and stacked up cash from selling overseas companies such as Jaguar. The Blue Oval would not need taxpayer help.

The Democrats are always beholding to the same groups of people. Identity politics. Obama needed to make sure HIS stakeholders were protected and to hell with everyone else. The first thing the President did was make up his own bankruptcy law, bypassing congress and breaking the law. The bondholders and shareholders, who collect first in a bankruptcy, were told to pound sand. They had invested their money in GM and lost everything. Obama instead put the United Autoworkers first in line.

Chrysler was fortunate to find a buyer in Fiat. GM was taken over by its employees. This was supposedly "saving the auto industry." It wasn't, and here's why...

Heaven forbid GM and Chrysler would have gone down the drain. Now a legal bankruptcy does not mean a company goes out of business, but let's say that is what happened here. Who lost? GM, Chrysler, their creditors, their bondholders, their stockholders and the UAW. The auto industry is not on this list, therefore it cannot be saved.

The auto industry would remain because people and businesses would still be buying cars and trucks. They just wouldn't be Dodge's, Chevy's and Cadillac's. They would be buying Honda's, Toyota's and BMW's.

The problem for Democrats is that the foreign-based automakers have nearly all of their plants in the South. And they are overwhelmingly non-union. Oops! The UAW would be squeezed out, and if you are a Democrat, this is a huge problem. The union sugar-daddies give them a lot of money come election time. In 23 states, unions can still force workers to pay dues.

Because they would be selling more cars, the foreign-based manufacturers would build new factories and expand current plants, either in the South or in other right-to-work states. That new factory space will require workers, thus the auto industry chugs along at the same level. Obama COULD NOT let GM's problems go down this way, so he made up his own laws.

So the next time you hear the liberal lie about Obama saving the auto industry, remember, that can't happen unless people stop buying cars.

Kroger: Re-Do Fail

For some unknown reason, retail corporate suits, who have probably never stepped foot into one of their stores to work, make silly decisions that accomplishes the following:

• Pisses off their customers
• Pisses off their employees
• Some incredibly stupid unintended (intended?) consequences

Take, for example, the store flip. This is where some executive somewhere decides the store is laid out wrong and everything has to be moved. Usually there is no explanation as to why this is necessary.

My wife once worked for a store where men's clothing was on one side and women's clothing was on the other side. I swear, they were ordered to put the men's side on the women's side and put the women's side on the men's side.

???

Who the hell would make an anal decision like that? I'll tell you who. Some MBA who has never worked in a store and certainly never flipped a store. That work is usually done by store clerks, not some sort of special floor set team that roams the country flipping stores.

Which takes me to the Kroger at Nashville's Nipper's Corner. The store was flipped. Left became right and right became left. The move included the pharmacy. The pharmacy was located on the left side of the store, and included a convenient drive-thru window.

The pharmacy is now on the right side, but the drive-thru is still on the left. One now looks at a video monitor of the pharmacy when at the drive-thru. Otherwise, they are looking at a brick wall. A pneumatic tube runs across the store to connect the drive-thru with the pharmacy.

Now this is certainly not the first store to do this, but here is the zinger - while you can see the pharmacy employee on the monitor and you can hear the person quite well, in order for the pharmacy tech to hear you, you must pick up a telephone handset hanging from the wall.

???

Over the years, I have gone through hundreds of drive-thru windows. Pharmacies, banks, fast-food joints, pizza places, even oil change and lube shops. I have never encountered one where I had to use a telephone handset pressed to my head to communicate with the person on the other side.

Now I have used drive-through windows while driving cars. I've used drive-thru windows while drivng pickup trucks. If you have ever used both types of vehicles, you know what the pain in the posterior is with drive-thru windows. If you're in a truck, you may be way above the drawer or window and need a very flexible 10-foot arm to reach it. Conversely, if you're in a car, you may find the drawer or window well above you, so once again you need that 10-foot rubber arm.

But I have never encountered a drive-thru window that requires one to reach out for a telephone handset to talk into. Then you somehow have to hang it up when you're done.

We were picking up a prescription for my wife. We pulled up, and a face appeared on the screen. My wife started saying what she wanted, when we heard the face on the screen say she needed to pick up the telephone. Well my wife could not reach the stupid phone. So we parked and she went into the store to pick up her order.

There are at least three other pharmacies at Nippers Corner. One of them is about to get a new customer...