Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Clear Channel's Running Job Loss Total

The national radio trade websites have mostly been eerily silent about the latest round of Clear Channel job cuts today, but we've been pointed to one running list...courtesy of the folks at FMQB.com.

This list contains one other Ohio name we have not yet listed:

Nathan Reed has exited as PD of Top 40 WVKS/Toledo.

This may be the tip of the iceberg. We have unconfirmed rumblings that a host of "Kiss FM" Toledo staffers are being pushed out the door along with their program director.

And though it's not in the OMW coverage area, we hear similar stories out of Clear Channel top 40 "Kiss" outlets in Albany NY and Jacksonville FL, leading us (and our readers) to wonder if the company is planning on supplanting local talent there with the rumored "national format" - voicetracked generically by other Clear Channel personalities in larger markets.

At this point, we have no indication that any of this has spread to either of Northeast Ohio's "Kiss FM" outlets - WAKS/96.5 in the Cleveland market (we'd suspect WAKS would be a feed source, more than a receiver), and WAKZ/95.9 in the Youngstown market.

Speaking of Youngstown, we hear unconfirmed rumblings that three on-air staffers are out at Clear Channel's Youngstown cluster.

We have not nailed down the names, which are offered up by an anonymous commenter to one of our earlier items today. (We're hearing the number of 3 on-air layoffs at South Avenue from another source not connected to the commenter.)

And on the fringe of the OMW coverage area, in Tri-State Media Watch territory in Cincinnati, there's word of layoffs at Clear Channel's big news/talker there, WLW/700 "The Big One"...from Cincinnati Enquirer TV/radio guru John Kiesewetter's blog on Cincinnati.com:

"SportsTalk" host Paul Daugherty has been laid off. He's apparently being replaced by Lance McAlister from sister station Homer WCKY-AM.

In fact, the WLW-AM Forum page lists "SportsTalk with Lance McAlister" already.

Sports blogger C Trent Rosecrans also could be out. He just sent out a Twitter message saying: "What does one wear to get laid off? Decisions, decisions?"

We're still tracking more moves...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Add Sean Stevens, PD of WAKZ/95-9 KISS FM to the list. He was also the Imaging Dir. for the CC/Youngstown cluster.