Layoffs hit radio as ad revenues dry up

[retailisking]

https://radioinsight.com/headlines/185698/townsquare-media-iheartmedia-detail-cost-cutting-measures-and-related-cuts/

[Brammy]

Entercom really did it. One lady they laid off at WMJX 106.7 in Boston had been with the station for 38 years! I know Beasley laid off employees too, but I wonder if Beasley still owned WMJX if she still would've been laid off. Entercom got WMJX from Beasley in 2017 in exchange for 98.5 The Sports Hub with the merger of CBS Radio and Entercom. Entercom wasn't allowed to own both Sports Stations in Boston. They kept 93.7 WEEI-FM and 850 ESPN Radio WEEI.

In Hartford they cut Nancy Barrow from WZMX HOT 93.7, where she had been doing mornings for 22 years, which predates their current Hip-Hop format. They've been Hip-Hop for 19 years. When she started at WZMX they were Classic Hits 93.7 The 70s Station. She was the side kick of local shock jock Sebastian. She replaced Diane Novak. After Classic Hits they tweaked their format to 93-7 The Point and played Rock and Roll from the beginning to today. (1950s-1998). Running jokes on the message board was they should've called themselves 93-7 The Pointless because the format was pointless. Which was true. By playing over 30 years of Rock & Roll they were going after 4 stations in Hartford. They were going after BIG D 103 (50s, 60s, and 70s Rock and Roll), Radio 104 (Which was Modern Rock), 105.9 HCN (Which was classic Rock of the 60s, 70s, and 80s), and 106.9 The Rock (Which played Current Rock and Roll). In '99 WZMX flipped to what the Radio Industry Called Jammin' Oldies - Their parent company called it Dancin' Oldies (another company owned the trademark Jammin Oldies), and the listeners called Disco. Sebastian was laid off. Nancy Barrow remained in mornings playing music and she was paired with JD Houston. Like most other Jammin' Oldies stations across the country the novelty wore off pretty quickly and WZMX flipped to their Current Hip-Hop Station in March 2001. Initially JD and Nancy were kept for Mornings, but eventually JD was replaced by DJ Buck from HOT 106 in Providence.

At Lite 100.5 WRCH night DJ Dean Richards was let go after 28 years. He hosted Pillow Talk Love Songs. They replaced him with even more of they syndicated Delilah Show. *gag* WRCH was already airing her show on a delay from Midnight-5AM and 7PM-5AM on Saturdays and Sundays. Now she's on 7PM-5AM 7 nights a week.

[Ameskid]

And to think I used to dream about a career in radio.  An internship at a group of Cumulus stations 3 years ago made me realize that it wasn't worth it.  Very little job security unless you are number-one in the ratings, and even then, things are bound to change quickly and without warning.

[Brammy]

And to think I used to dream about a career in radio.  An internship at a group of Cumulus stations 3 years ago made me realize that it wasn't worth it.  Very little job security unless you are number-one in the ratings, and even then, things are bound to change quickly and without warning.

That's the truth - whether you work for a big company or a small independent company.

I'm friends on social media with a guy who goes by the on-air name of DJ Red. He's a longtime personality on Bomba Radio (Hispanic Hit Music). He started out strictly doing Sunday Nights and then they also made him one of the Bomb-Squad DJs, who does mix shows. Eventually he added the Midday Shift Monday-Friday in addition to his Sunday Night Show. Last summer he posted on social media he was taking a 2 week vacation and when he came back he would be the new host of The Bomba Radio Morning Show. So he did that. No more Sunday Night Show. Then in February 2020 he announced he was ousted from the station. A week later he was filling in on the Midday Shift and the week after that he announced he was back doing the Midday Shift "permanently".

Springfield, Massachusetts. From the late 80s (or early 90s) Power 1270-AM WSPR was the station that played all the Hispanic Hits in the market. In late 2015 Connecticut based Full-Power Radio bought the station and their sister station Oldies 990/1490 (990-Southington, CT 1490 West Springfield, Mass). In early 2016 they renamed Power 1270 to Bomba 1270 to match the name of their Hispanic Network in Connecticut. In April 2016 they took the Oldies format off 1490-AM and moved the Bomba format to that station along with a new FM repeater on 104.5 FM. For a month straight 1270-AM ran an announcement in Spanish "Big News Springfield! Bomba Radio is now on 104.5 FM and 1490 AM!" In May 2016 the Oldies format relaunched on 1270-AM as Kool Radio. By the end of 2016 all local programming was off Bomba 104.5 FM in Springfield, replaced by the Bomba programming from the Connecticut station. I forgot how many people were laid off.

From 2001 until 2009 La Mega 910-AM WLAT was the dominant station in Hartford playing all the Spanish Hits. - There were other stations, but they were much smaller. La Mega started losing their position as the dominant Spanish station in late 2009 after Bomba Radio signed on. - After all why would you listen to an AM station when the same music is on FM? It certainly didn't help La Mega any when Bomba added repeater signals across Connecticut. Finally in 2017 La Mega added an FM repeater on 101.7 FM. Licensed at just 27 watts (I believe) they only covered a fraction of the area that is covered by the 910-AM signal (not to mention the state-wide coverage of Bomba Radio). In 2018 (or 2019) La Mega got busted for running 101.7 at over 700 watts!!!!!! As of February 2020 it appears most local programming has disappeared from La Mega 101.7, replaced by programming from their sister station in Boston (which has their studios in Worcester). - More lay-offs. I don't know enough Spanish to confirm this, but at the Top of the hour station break I heard one afternoon in February on 101.7 was "You're tuned to La Mega New England WAMG Dedham, WORC Worcester, WLLH Lawrence, WLAT New Britain).