iHeartMedia
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Lekeisha Irion is the new head of A&R at Warner Chappell Music Benelux — a nifty portmanteau for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Based in Amsterdam, Irion will report to Niels Walboomers, president of records and publishing in the three-nation region. Since joining as A&R Manager last year following a stint as an office manager for Sony Music Publishing, Irion has influenced Dutch pop and hip-hop, working with artists like Roxy Dekker, who has slapped four No. 1s in the Netherlands this year, Dutch singer-rapper Antoon. Known for her collaborative work with Warner Music Benelux’s recorded music team, Irion has helped secure both publishing and recording deals for several artists. Walboomers and Shani Gonzales, WCM’s Head of International A&R, praised Irion’s early success and strong instincts for new talent. “She understands how genres and scenes are evolving in different markets and spots the opportunities for her writers to jump into collabs,” Gonzales said.
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Sony Music Publishing elevated Racheal Conte to vice president of sample clearance, legal and business affairs. In her new role, Conte will lead the U.S. sample clearance team, modernize operations and develop strategies to expand sampling opportunities for SMP’s songwriters and catalog. She’ll also collaborate with global offices to streamline sample clearances for U.S.-based works, reporting directly to Peter Brodsky, evp of business and legal affairs and general counsel, from New York. Conte joined SMP in 2006 and has held various roles, most recently assistant director of sample clearance. “Racheal’s contributions have been key to the success of SMP’s songwriters and catalogs, and it has been rewarding to see her growth as a leader throughout her time at the company,” said Brodsky.
RADIO, RADIO: iHeartMedia laid off dozens — hundreds, according to reports — of staffers from radio stations around the country. Among the impacted in the sweeping cuts are regional presidents Matt Scarano (Chicago), Clyde Bass (Texas/Arkansas), Alan Chartrand (Boston) and Michael Burger (Raleigh), among others … Back at the home office, iHeart elevated Jordan Fasbender from general counsel to chief legal officer, with the former 21st Century Fox exec retaining her other titles of evp and corporate secretary … Audacy hired senior vp of research and insights Ray Borelli, who arrives after working as Warner Bros. Discovery vp of ad sales research.
Emily Crews, former vp of brands and synchronisation at Warner Music Australia, joined Level Two Music as head of partnerships. She brings extensive experience in synch licensing and artist-brand collaborations from her time at Warner and, prior to that, Universal Music. The Sydneysider said she’s excited about Level Two’s dynamic and thoughtful approach to music supervision, while managing director Jen Taunton praised Crews’ ability to “navigate through often complex and layered deals, always managing to find the ‘sweet spot.’”
Nashville-based Reliant Talent Agency has announced a round of promotions and hires, with former Paradigm music executive Keith Richards joining RTA’s festival department. Reliant has also promoted Ron Kaplan and Garry Buck to executive vp roles, while Kailey Edgerton, Cole Speed and Robert Baugh have been promoted from coordinators to agents. Additionally, the agency has relocated its headquarters to a new office space at 1610 West End Ave. in Nashville. –Jessica Nicholson
NASHVILLE NOTES: Kelli Wasilauski resigned as The Oriel Co. director of Nashville operations, ending her year-long tenure on Oct. 28 … Keller Turner Andrews & Ghanem expanded with three new attorneys. J. Rush Hicks joins as Of Counsel, adding decades of experience and previous leadership at Belmont’s Mike Curb College of Entertainment & Music Business. New associates Cheshire Rigler and Alyssa Johnson also bring experience from other Nashville entertainment law firms.
Los Angeles marketing agency Game Over Media named Gavrielle Chavez as chief operating officer. Chavez will oversee operations across Game Over Studios, Game Over Agency, Game Over Records, and the new GameTune platform. Her role emphasizes expanding reach within next-gen communities and enhancing fan engagement at the company, where recent projects include campaigns for Big Sean, Childish Gambino, Imagine Dragons and Tyla. Chavez previously worked at Scopely, where she led product marketing for the popular game Monopoly Go!, and before that was a creator strategic at TikTok, where she launched TikTok Shop and fostered partnerships between gaming brands and creators. Founder Anthony Pisano said Chavez’s experience at Scopely and TikTok align with Game Over Media’s vision, adding “Gavi’s expertise will also be invaluable as we scale GameTune, our new cutting-edge AI platform that empowers record labels, brands, and gaming publishers to reach their audiences through strategic, data-driven marketing.”
Kuke Music Holding Limited, a NYSE-listed classical music service based in China, announced that its president, Li Sun, resigned in July. The company, which provides classical content to educational resources and boasts a library of about 3 million audio and video tracks, clarified that Sun’s departure was amicable, with no disputes over operational or policy issues. Following her resignation, CEO and chairman He Yu has overseen the company.
ICYMI:
Azu Olvera
Deezer appointed Pedro Kurtz as director of operations for the Americas … Former SiriusXM exec Azucena “Azu” Olvera is now general manager of WK Records … Alana Dolgin joined Atlantic Music Group as the label’s first president of digital marketing … Spinnin’ Records president Roger de Graaf is retiring from the Dutch label he co-founded … and Cara Hutchison was named head of The Lede Company‘s new music division, while Jess Anderson also joins her team. [KEEP READING]
Last Week’s Turntable: UMG’s Nigerian Label Picks a President
As iHeartMedia deals with weak advertising trends and another round of layoffs, the country’s largest broadcast radio company will save $200 million in 2025 compared with 2024 and has renegotiated 80% of its long-term debt, the company revealed on Thursday (Nov. 7) in its third-quarter earnings release.
The debt “exchange offers,” which are expected to close by the end of the year, will extend the majority of iHeartMedia’s debt maturities by three years, allow cash interest expense to “remain essentially flat,” and provide for “some overall debt reduction,” CEO Bob Pittman said during an earnings call. “The transaction support agreement marks an important step in our effort to optimize our balance sheet, and it provides the company with the flexibility to remain focused on iHeart’s transformation.”
The disclosure about cost savings and revamped debt comes days after news broke that iHeartMedia had laid off dozens — hundreds, according to one report — of staffers from radio stations around the country. Pittman called the layoffs part of iHeartMedia’s “modernization journey” that will create a flatter organization, eliminate redundancies and make it easier to do business with the company. Those cuts add to three rounds of layoffs in 2020 as the radio business struggled with an advertising slump during the first year of the pandemic.
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Throughout the earnings call, Pittman and CFO/COO Rich Bressler underscored the company’s embrace of technology to make improvements and cut costs. “Technology is the key to increasing our operating leverage and is a constant focus for us,” said Pittman. “It allows us to speed up processes, streamline legacy systems and it enables our folks to create more, better and faster.” Technology alone will reduce annual expenses by $150 million in 2025, he said, while measures taken earlier this year will bring the total annual savings to $200 million.
In explaining how iHeartMedia uses technology to save such a large sum of money, Pittman gave the example of expanding the reach of on-air talent. “What we’re able to do now, because we’ve got technology, is we can take talent we have in any location and put them on the air in another location,” he explained. “So it allows us to substantially upgrade the quality of our talent in every single market we’re in and allows us to project talent into the situations in which you’re going to have the best impact.”
As for the financial performance, iHeartMedia’s third-quarter revenue increased 5.8% to $1.01 billion, meeting the company’s prior guidance of mid-single-digit growth. Excluding political revenue, revenue was up 2.0%. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), a common measure of operating profitability, was flat at $204 million and fell on the low end of the guidance range of $200 million to $220 million.
At iHeartMedia’s multi-platform group, which includes broadcast stations and radio networks, revenue fell 1.1% to $619.5 million and adjusted EBITDA dipped 20.1% to $129.9 million. Broadcast revenue dropped 1.4% due to lower spot revenue but was helped by an increase in political advertising.
The digital audio group, which includes podcasts and iHeartMedia’s digital service, saw its revenue jump 12.7% to $301 million and its adjusted EBITDA improve 6.8% to $100 million. Podcast revenue grew 11.1% to $114 million. Audio and media services revenue rose 45.3% to $90 million due to the political advertising spending for the recent national and local elections.
iHeartMedia’s Q3 2024 financial metrics:
Revenue: up 5.8% to $1.01 billion
Adjusted EBITDA: flat at $204 million
Net loss: up 360% to $41.3 million
Free cash flow: up 8.4% to $73.3 million
Live Nation, which is facing a lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Joe Biden, saw its share price jump on Wednesday (Nov. 6) following Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election a day earlier.
Live Nation shares gained 7.1% to $125.99 and rose as high as $127.64, just shy of its all-time high of $127.75 set on Nov. 5, 2021. Investors could see Trump’s re-entrance into the White House as a good sign for Live Nation’s efforts to thwart efforts by the DOJ to break up the company.
In a lawsuit filed in May, the DOJ alleged Live Nation abused its market power to hurt competition through exclusive ticketing contracts and threats and retaliations against venues that choose competing ticketing companies, among other actions the DOJ claims are illegal and violate the consent decree that placed competition-enhancing restrictions on the 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
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“The change in administration typically brings a change in the climate around anti-trust efforts and could impact a case such as Live Nation,” says Bill Morrison, a partner at Haynes and Boone. “It depends on the who are in those key spots, and then what the priorities are of those offices. We’ve seen big pivots in the past.”
Faced with the prospect of fewer regulations and an administration perceived to be pro-market, U.S. indexes posted big gains on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 3.6% to a record high. Similarly, the Nasdaq composite rose 3.0% and the S&P 500 improved 2.5% as both reached all-time highs. The NYSE composite gained 1.9% but fell short of its all-time high.
Stocks associated with Trump also fared well, including Tesla, whose CEO, Elon Musk, campaigned heavily for Trump. The company’s shares rose 14.8% while its competitors Rivian and Lucid Group fell 8.3% and 5.3%, respectively. Trump Media & Technology Group Corp., owner of the Truth Social app used by Trump, rose 5.9%.
Bitcoin rose 9.4% to an all-time high of $76,012 on Wednesday. Trump has signaled a laissez-faire approach to cryptocurrency and said he would quickly fire Securities and Exchange Commission chair Gary Gensler, a critic who has punished numerous crypto companies and favors tighter regulations. Trump himself is involved with a new cryptocurrency through World Liberty Financial, a decentralized finance startup that sells a token called WLFI.
In other music stocks news, music streamer LiveOne jumped 28.5% a day ahead of the company’s earnings release for the quarter ended Sept. 30 while iHeartMedia shares fell 12.6% following news that the radio broadcaster cut dozens of jobs at stations across the country this week.
The world’s biggest broadcast company, iHeartMedia, has laid off another round of employees in recent days, as the debt-plagued radio industry continues to contract during the music-streaming era. “Right now, it seems like the business model they’ve had the last few years, of making one person do 40 people’s jobs, is where it’s going,” says Nick Jordan, an assistant program director of Raleigh, N.C., country station WNCB until he lost his iHeart job Monday (Nov. 4). “But we did a good job, for as long as we could, keeping everything local and community-oriented.”
A rep for iHeart, which owns 860 stations in 160 U.S. markets and advertises “there’s a local iHeartRadio station virtually everywhere,” would not specify the number of recent layoffs, which follows a wave of job cuts in March and others since the pandemic. Radio-news outlets such as Radio and Music Pros and Barrett Media have listed more than a dozen laid-off names this week, including morning-show hosts, promotion and programming execs and big-city regional directors. Jordan said he was watching a video Monday morning of Bill Squire, an iHeart colleague who lost his job in Cleveland, when “one of the big bosses” walked into his own station to deliver the news.
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“S— happens,” says Jordan, 31, a nine-year industry veteran. “It’s part of the radio business.”
Although radio listenership has declined, according to some studies, the business remains resilient, drawing 82% of adult Americans as of 2022. And while major labels such as Universal and Atlantic have correspondingly laid off radio-promotion employees over the past year, the medium is still important for breaking hits, especially in country and other genres.
According to Wendy Goldberg, an iHeart spokesperson, “very few jobs” have been affected in the 10,000-employee company. She rebuts data that suggests a decline in audience consumption.
“Our broadcast radio audience has more listeners than it did 10 years ago,” she says, citing a Nielsen study that shows that younger listeners increased slightly in the third quarter of this year. She adds that iHeart remains “the No. 1 podcast publisher, bigger than the next two combined, and we’re five times the size of the next largest digital-radio service.”
“We’ve been able to achieve this by modernizing the company and increasing our use of technology,” Goldberg says in a statement. “These changes are another step in that journey.”
Squire, a stand-up comedian who has co-hosted the Alan Cox Show on Cleveland rock station WMMR since 2013, received the news of his layoff by phone Monday a.m. “They assured me it’s not performance-based: ‘There are big cuts across the company and there’s nothing they can do,’” he recalls.
Squire, who plans to return to the road as a touring comic, promoting his album We’re Getting Famous, says the radio business is “cutting costs wherever they can.” While Jordan is hopeful the “pendulum will swing back a little bit,” Squire says of media cuts: “You see it in radio, you see it in TV, a lot of Hollywood is out of business right now. The entertainment field has changed so quickly with the Internet and YouTube and podcasts that legacy media is just trying to catch up and figure out how to adapt to it.”
Time to drop the needle on the latest Executive Turntable, Billboard’s comprehensive(ish) compendium of promotions, hirings, exits and firings — and all things in between — across music.
Read on for (mostly) good news and also check out Billboard‘s annual list of top executives leading the live sector, plus our weekly interview series spotlighting a single executive, our helpful calendar of notable events, and have you ever wanted to look at tchotchkes inside the office of an executive while reading their in-depth answers to the most important questions facing the biz? From the Desk Of is probably your jam.
Gayle Troberman, iHeartMedia’s chief marketing officer for the past decade, is transitioning to a senior advisory role. In a joint memo to staff, chief executive Bob Pittman and president and COO Richard Bressler praised Troberman’s “major impact” on innovation and brand development efforts at the radio giant, adding, “we fully expect her influence to continue in her new role. We’re grateful for her innovative thinking and insights, and we’re pleased she will continue to contribute to the company.” In her advisory role, Troberman will continue leading thought leadership initiatives, including the “New American Consumer” studies, and remain active at key industry events like CES and Cannes Lions. Prior to iHeart, Troberman was CMO at IPG Mediabrands and spent a high-impact 16 years at Microsoft, where she was chief creative officer during rollouts for the Xbox, Bing and other major brands. A successor has not been announced.
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RADIO, RADIO: Lauren Burrows Coleman is joining Beasley as chief financial officer, effective Nov. 1, succeedinmg retiring CFO Marie Tedesco, who served for 33 years. Burrows Coleman previously led global financial operations at Wayfair and has held leadership roles at WindSail Capital Group, Wind Point Partners, GE Capital and Lehman Brothers … Jim Malito joined Black River Entertainment as director of radio promotion west coast. He continues to be based in Phoenix. Malito’s career includes time at Warner Music Nashville, BBR Music Group, and most recently Stone Country Records, where he served as vp of radio promotion and marketing … and Big Loud senior director of media Jess Anderson wrapped a three-and-a-half-year run with the label on Oct. 17, with plans to take a new position next month. She had just been promoted in August.
Triller Group unveiled Kevin McGurn as its next CEO, effective in November, when “further enhancements” to the TikTok rival’s leadership will be announced. McGurn, with experience at T-Mobile, Vevo and Hulu, has a strong track record in driving innovation and fostering growth, with achievements including leading Vevo’s global expansion and building Hulu’s sales team. Meanwhile, 1-800-Flowers.com founder James McCann joins Triller’s board as chairman of the nominations committee. McCann brings over 40 years of leadership experience, having served in governance roles at Willis Towers Watson and International Game Technology. Finally, former Triller CEO Bobby Sarnevesht will remain on the board, providing strategic guidance to McGurn and other leaders. “Our renewed focus means Triller Group is well positioned to deliver best in class entertainment, when, where and how our fans watch it,” said McGurn. “We will continue to build from our strong roots in vertical video, music and sports, and optimise our expertise in mobile and connected television.”
Isabel Quinteros
Jen, an ethically-trained AI music creation platform, appointed TikTok’s former global head of music partnerships Isabel Quinteros as senior vice president of marketing and industry relations. In her new role, Quinteros will develop a scalable framework to help artists monetize their contributions, fostering a sustainable model for AI-driven music creation. She’ll work closely with cofounder Shara Senderoff. Quinteros, a public relations expert, joined TikTok in 2019 and helped transform it into a key platform for artists, supporting artists in every phase of their careers. She also co-launched TikTok’s first IRL concert and led DEI initiatives, earning industry recognition. Senderoff praised Quinteros as a game-changer who can “bridge the worlds of music and tech, while keeping talent at the center,” while co-founder Mike Caren highlighted her skills in partnership-building and innovation, adding, “I’m confident that under her leadership, Jen will set a new standard for how AI can elevate creativity while ensuring artists remain at the heart of the process.”
Frontiers Label Group, the Italian metal label, appointed Amy Pugh as global digital marketing & social media manager. With over 15 years of industry experience, Pugh is the founder of digital marketing agency 10/13 Media and has held key roles at Sony Music Publishing, EMI, Universal Music Group and Stingray Music. She has managed or worked on global campaigns for a slew of major artists, including Taylor Swift, Metallica, Wu-Tang Clan and Foo Fighters, among others. FLP president Serafino Perugino expressed enthusiasm for Pugh’s “massive expertise and fresh approach,” adding he’s “thrilled at the prospect of the added value that she will bring to the label and our artists.” Pugh, already a fan of several Frontiers acts — the label’s roster includes Blue Öyster Cult, Stryper, Winger and more — looks forward to contributing to the label’s success through innovative campaigns and projects.
The Academy of Country Music revealed its newly-elected board of directors for the 2024-2025 term. Previously announced officers for the ACM’s 2024-2025 term are Randy Bernard (chair), Cris Lacy (vice-chair), Jeff Krones (vice president), Carmen Romano (treasurer), Gayle Holcomb (sergeant-at-arms), Duane Clark (parliamentarian) and Tommy Moore (secretary). Newly elected board of directors members are Adam Weiser, Becky Gardenhire, BJ Hill, Cameo Carlson, Chandra LaPlume, Cyndi Forman, Deana Ivey, George Couri, Jon Loba, Kristie Sloan, Lee Thomas Miller, Marcel Pariseau, Margaret Hart, Martha Earls, Meredith Jones, Scot Calonge, Scott Scovill, Tim Roberts and Ward Guenther. Newly appointed director-at-large members of the board of directors are Aaron Spalding, Andy Moats, Benson Curb, Candice Watkins, Chris Lisle, Cindy Mabe, Curt Motley, Emily Falvey, Howie Edelman, Jeremy Holley, Matt Cottingham, Rod Phillips, Sally Seitz, Shawn McSpadden, Storme Warren and Tim Foisset. –Jessica Nicholson
The Orchard appointed Jeeyoung Lee as head of South Korea, overseeing operations from Seoul and reporting to evp and head of strategy, Prashant Bahadur. Lee, with nearly 20 years of experience at companies like Warner Bros. Discovery and CJ E&M, will manage label relations, release strategies, global distribution and regional support. Additionally, Sungho “Jake” Bae has been named director, Asia Pacific Region, Artist and Label Services. Bae, also based in Seoul, focuses on release strategies and cross-country marketing, drawing on previous experience at Spotify and Big Hit Music, where he played a key role in BTS’s global success. John Park, svp of strategy and corporate development, will now focus on business opportunities in Korea, working closely with Lee on new signings and partnerships. The Orchard’s Korean roster features artists from Starship Entertainment, ABYSS, Eric Nam and more.
OpenPlay Inc. hired Chris McMurtry as senior solutions architect to enhance the platform’s features for label and publisher clients. McMurtry brings over 20 years of music tech expertise, having led product development at companies like Artist Growth, PEX and Exactuals, where he launched RAI, a machine learning tool designed to enhance song metadata. Earlier in his career, McMurtry founded Dart Music, an automated digital distribution platform specializing in complex metadata. His industry impact earned him recognition on Billboard’s 2019 Digital Power Players list.
Berklee made it official with Michael Shinn as executive director of Boston Conservatory at Berklee, effective Oct. 28. Shinn, who has served as interim executive director since August 2023, will lead new initiatives, programs and collaborations while contributing to Berklee’s strategic planning. During his interim tenure, he expanded the dance division, raised over $4.2 million, hired more than 30 faculty members and recruited a new dean of theater. Previously, Shinn was the Conservatory’s dean of music for six years. Before Berklee, he chaired keyboard studies at Juilliard, his alma mater, and also co-founded the pianoSonoma Music Festival. “Michael brings a wealth of leadership experience to the executive director role, as well as a passion for the development of the arts, arts education, and performing artists in a contemporary context,” said David Bogen, Berklee’s interim president. “He is incredibly collaborative and supportive of faculty, staff, and students.”
mtheory appointed Jared Losow as senior director of tour marketing and Dirk Lemmenes as vp of client relations. Losow, co-founder of Barley MGMT, will be based in NYC, while Lemmenes, former COO and management lead for Zac Brown Band, will work from Atlanta. Losow brings nearly 15 years of industry expertise, having worked at various indie labels and venues, plus he held leadership roles at In de Goot Entertainment, Relapse Records and the San Francisco Symphony. Lemmenes clocked over 20 years in artist management and operations. He has managed teams across marketing, finance and touring for Zac Brown Band and previously worked as a MTV music supervisor, a booking agent, record store owner and touring musician.
EastCoast Entertainment appointed Erin Collums as director of marketing. With over 12 years of experience in marketing and entertainment, Collums has managed campaigns for major sports organizations like the Carolina Panthers (NFL) and Charlotte FC (MLS). At ECE, Collums will focus on enhancing the brand’s national presence through developing digital strategies to engage audiences and foster growth across corporate events, performing arts, comedy tours and various private entertainment programming. ECE president John Wolfslayer called it a “significant milestone in the company’s evolution” that Collums is joining the team, seeing her appointment as a key step as the company approaches its 50th anniversary. Passionate about live events, Collums believes in the transformative power of music and performance and looks forward to helping ECE create memorable experiences for clients.
ICYMI:
Michael Rapino
New York City nightclub complex Avant Gardner hired Josh Wyatt as its new CEO … Jeff Jones is stepping down as the CEO of The Beatles’ Apple Corps Ltd after 17 years in the role … and Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino has been deposed in the ongoing litigation over the 2021 disaster at the Astroworld music festival. [KEEP READING]
Last Week’s Turntable: Capitol Hires Breaker of Artists
iHeartMedia’s business has been in steady decline since the beginning of 2023 but showed signs of improvement in the second quarter.
Total revenue rose 1% to $929 million, slightly above the company’s guidance, but was up just 0.1% excluding the impact of political advertising. A spike in expenses — namely operating and selling, general and administrative — contributed to a 21% decline in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).
“We’re seeing sequential improvement in our revenue growth,” CEO Bob Pittman said during the earnings call on Thursday (Aug. 8). “While the marketplace continues to be dynamic — with a changing outlook on interest rates, inflation trends, global uncertainty and rapidly evolving domestic political landscape — we continue to see strong momentum in our podcast business, our digital ex-podcast business and the sequential improvement of our multi-platform groups’ year over year revenue performance.”
iHeartMedia’s digital audio segment contributed to the company’s revenue uptick. Podcast revenue improved 8.1% to $104.5 million, well below the previous quarter’s growth rates, while digital revenue excluding podcasts rose 10.3% to $181 million. Overall, digital audio revenue climbed 9.5% to $285.6 million.
The multi-platform segment fell 3.4% to $575.9 million. Broadcast radio, the company’s largest single source of revenue, declined 0.9% to $425.5 million. Networks fell 12.8% to $106.6 million. Sponsorship and events improved 2.4% to $39.1 million.
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Looking ahead, iHeartMedia expects third-quarter revenue to increase in the mid-single digits, which would be $991 million to $1.01 billion, and adjusted EBITDA to land between $200 million and $220 million, compared to $204 million in the prior-year period. For the full year, revenue is expected to increase in the mid-single digits, which equates to roughly $3.9 billion to $3.98 billion, and adjusted EBITDA will be between $760 million to $800 million, up 9% to 15% from 2023.
“As we look at the back half of the year, our results will reflect the continuing positive impact on an ad market recovery year material upside from political advertising, as well as the benefit of our ongoing focus on cost efficiencies,” said Pittman.
While iHeartMedia eked out a small improvement in the second quarter, two other radio companies that reported earnings in the last week continued their slides. Cumulus Media revenue fell 2.5% to $205 million as its net loss grew to $27.7 million from $1.1 million in the prior-year quarter. Townsquare Media revenue fell 2.5% and adjusted EBTDA dropped 8.3%.
Jessica Hoy figured her show, Mornings With Bo and Jess on CKCE-FM (101.5 Today Radio) Calgary, Alberta, was about to undergo major changes. Her co-host, Bobby May, had already warned her that he planned to quit the station in March. Hoy did not expect management to fire her and replace the show with a podcast duo based nearly 200 miles away who are broadcast on multiple stations.
“I was quite shocked when I was let go,” says Hoy, who nevertheless points out that, these days, “A lot of stations are trying to cut costs.”
As broadcast companies contend with debt loads, advertising declines and competition from streaming services and popular podcasts like The Joe Rogan Experience, radio stations have spent the last few years laying off dozens of employees, including on-air talent. Once-popular morning shows are the latest casualties, including, in late June, WKTU-FM New York’s Carolina With Greg T and KZZU-FM Spokane, Wash.’s long-running Dave, Ken and Molly.
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“With longevity comes larger salaries, and if the return on investment isn’t there anymore, these significant moves have to be made,” says Lance Venta, owner and publisher of Radio Insight. “Most of these corporate communications groups look at the individuals as a line item on a spreadsheet.”
Sean Ross, who puts out the Ross on Radio newsletter, tells Billboard, “With a lot of heritage morning shows, radio stations find themselves in a trick bag where the show is simultaneously not quite as big as it used to be, less tenable financially after years of salary increases but is still the biggest asset the station has.”
Many of the recently fired morning-show stars did not respond to inquiries or declined to comment, as did the stations that terminated them. Carolina Bermudez, the laid-off co-host of iHeartMedia’s Carolina With Greg T, says she was “advised by my lawyer not to comment at this time,” and Kendall Hopkins of Dave, Ken and Molly says he would talk “when I’m free to.” But after Canada’s Pattison Media dropped Mornings With Bo and Jess, May posted an Instagram screed: “Radio is in terrible shape with the current CEOs and shareholders at hand nationwide and I HATE to see my coworkers go down with it. … Talents have unfortunately become just a number on a piece of paper.”
Tanner Jay, whose Jake and Tanner Show on WKSZ-FM Appleton, Wis., was canceled in November, adds that radio stations are “struggling,” and instead of spending more money on training and nurturing on-air talent, “They’re saying, ‘We might as well put all this money toward getting some Taylor Swift tickets to give away and having one or two people that have never done mornings.’”
His partner, Jake Kelly, with whom he continues to host a daily podcast, adds, “I don’t know if the higher-ups know exactly how to fix the problem. Maybe they’re just firing until they figure it out.”
Morning shows on music radio stations were once cultural and financial juggernauts — Howard Stern rose to fame on WXRK-FM New York in the 1980s, and Steve Harvey’s show on WGCI-FM Chicago helped him diversify beyond stand-up comedy and gain broader celebrity status in the ’90s. Stations still differentiate themselves regionally with flagship shows such as Winston and Mel on Denver’s Kool 105 and Mojo In the Morning on Detroit’s Channel 95.5. Many of these shows, including those by Audacy’s Gary Bryan and iHeart’s Ryan Seacrest, are syndicated and have podcasts of their own.
Kelly argues today’s broadcast morning-show hosts are overdue to update their content. Many shows, he says, rely on clichéd content such as “War of the Roses,” in which the hosts help couples confront each other on-air, often through pranks. “The fakeness of the laughter, the fakeness of the stories — Gen Zs can see through it if it’s not authentic,” he says. “My daughter’s 14, and I don’t know if she’s ever turned on the radio.”
Before their program director took them aside after a Wednesday broadcast and fired them, Kelly and Jay were moving away from conventional morning-show shtick toward more personal stories, including discussing alcoholism and family issues on-air. Their new approach did not change the station’s fortunes. Their station’s overall ratings declined in the Green Bay, Wis., market from spring 2022 to fall 2023, according to Radio Online.
Hoy, who currently works as a medical outreach coordinator for a dermatology clinic, praises her replacement crew, Crash & Mars, as “unbelievably talented.” She adds that a Calgary morning show based in Edmonton may appeal to the station’s finances, but not the community. “I do worry about what happens when local news and events happen,” she says. “It just breaks that connection with the listeners.”
A version of this story appeared in the July 20, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Sphere Entertainment Co. stock gained 5.4% to $35.04 this week after Point72 Asset Management, the hedge fund of Wall Street giant Steve Cohen, took a 5.5% stake in the company, making it one of the best-performing companies on this week’s Billboard Global Music Index.
Cohen is the owner of the New York Mets professional baseball team. Sphere’s sister company, MSG Sports — James Dolan is CEO of both companies — owns two of the city’s major professional sports franchises, the New York Knicks basketball team and the New York Rangers hockey team. The Sphere venue in Las Vegas will host its first sports event Friday evening (June 28): the National Hockey League draft.
Elsewhere, radio companies Cumulus Media and iHeartMedia gained 9.1% and 9.0% this week, respectively, as radio stocks bested other publicly traded music companies on the Billboard Global Music Index. Both Cumulus and iHeartMedia clawed back nearly half of the losses they suffered in the previous two-week period. After dropping 21.1% from June 7 to June 21, Cumulus finished up at $2.04. Similarly, iHeartMedia had lost 21.1% in the prior two weeks and finished this week at $1.09. Townsquare Media, which is not in the Index, rose 9.2% to $10.93, turning its 5% year-to-date loss into a 3.7% gain.
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Many radio companies are still having a tough 2024, however, as they slog through a challenging advertising climate. Through June 28, iHeartRadio has fallen 59.2% and Cumulus is down 61.7%.
The Billboard Global Music Index was effectively unchanged from the previous week, rising less than one point to 1,815.54. The index’s year-to-date gain was also unchanged at 18.3%. Most of the stocks showed little movement as 16 of the 20 companies fell within the range of +2.1% to -3.4%. Even though 12 of the companies posted gains, the biggest winners are among the index’s smallest companies, and those winners were overcome by losses suffered by larger companies such as Spotify (down 1.1%), CTS Eventim (down 1.3%) and SiriusXM (down 3.4%).
Streaming stocks had the worst week of any sector after losing an average of 0.4%. The top streamer was Anghami, which rose 0.9% to $1.07. Cloud Music and Deezer each lost less than 1%. LiveOne fell 1.3% to $1.57.
Reservoir Media was the week’s greatest gainer after improving 11.9% — 9.6% on Friday alone — to $7.90. The gain came without major news or analyst commentary. The last analyst to increase a price target on Reservoir was B. Riley on May 31, the day after Reservoir announced that its full-year revenue increased 18% to $145 million.
K-pop companies all had modest increases this week. HYBE gained 1.3% to 202,500 won ($146.60). SM Entertainment, also a Billboard Global Music Index member, rose 1.1% to 80,400 won ($54.21). Elsewhere, JYP Entertainment jumped 2.1% to 57,300 won ($41.48) and YG Entertainment sank 1.0% to 40,300 won ($29.18). All four stocks have fallen sharply in 2024, however, with an average year-to-date decline of 22.6%.
Major stock indexes had mixed results this week. In the United States, the Nasdaq composite rose 0.2% to 17,732.60 and the S&P 500 fell 0.1% to 5,460.48. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 0.5% to 2,797.82. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 dropped 0.9%. China’s Shanghai Composite Index declined 1.0% to 2,967.40.
Live Nation was the top-performing music stock and one of four stocks in positive territory this week. The concert promoter gained 2.5% to $97.02 while three other concert promotion stocks — Sphere Entertainment Co., Madison Square Garden Entertainment and CTS Eventim — each lost ground.
The Billboard Global Music Index fell 1.9% to 1,788.83 as 16 of its 20 stocks finished the week in negative territory. Music streaming companies Deezer and Anghami were two of the week’s other big winners with gains of 1.0% and 0.9%, respectively. Still, the index has risen 16.6% year to date and 12 of the 20 stocks have posted gains in 2024.
Another notable gainer this week was Believe, which closed Friday at 15.04 euros ($16.21), up 0.3% from the prior week. A closing price of 15.04 euros is above the 15.00 euros offer price by consortium of investors that aims to take Believe private. Some minority shareholders may remain, however, because the consortium, which has lined up 71.92% of share equity, will not implement a squeeze-out and force shareholders representing the remaining 28.08% of share capital to sell.
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iHeartMedia shares declined 42.7% to $1.30, leaving the radio broadcaster with a market capitalization of just $194 million. Its shares fell 36.1% on Thursday following its first-quarter earnings release and dropped another 5.8% on Friday.
As streaming has surged in popularity and economic importance, radio companies have struggled to reinvent themselves. In 2021, iHeartMedia shares surpassed $28 after the advertising market recovered from a COVID-19 pandemic-related collapse. But in the subsequent three years, its shares have lost nearly all their value as sluggish radio advertising has overshadowed iHeartMedia’s budding podcast business.
The index didn’t fall further than 1.9% because many of its most valuable companies suffered only minor losses this week. Spotify, the largest contributor to the float-adjusted index, dropped only 0.5% while HYBE, one of the index’s more valuable components, fell just 1.5%.
Those small losses, and Live Nation’s 2.5% gain, helped offset larger losses by some other valuable components of the index. Universal Music Group fell 3.1% to 28.01 euros ($30.22) and Warner Music Group dropped 7.3% to $31.64 following its fiscal second quarter earnings release on Thursday. Evercore and Morgan Stanley both dropped their price targets by $2 on WMG’s stock on Friday. Guggenheim maintain its WMG price target.
While music stocks had a rough week, stocks were broadly up around the world. In the United States, the S&P 500 gained 1.9% to 5,222.68 and the Nasdaq composite improved 1.1% to 16,340.87. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 rose 2.7% to 8,433.76. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index gained 1.9% to 2,727.63. China’s Shanghai Composite Index rose 1.6% to 3,154.55.
iHeartMedia shares fell 36.1% on Thursday after the company’s first-quarter earnings showed continued uncertainty in broadcast advertising mixed with improvements in its digital business.
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iHeartMedia’s loss of 12 cents per share bested analysts’ estimate of a loss of 55 cents per share, according to MarketWatch, and its revenue ($799 million) and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ($105 million) both fell within the guidance it provided.
CEO Bob Pittman and COO and CFO Rich Bressler reminded listeners to Thursdays’ earnings call that the first quarter is historically the slowest period of the year. They also reiterated the company’s optimism about 2024 and the expected benefits of political advertising in the second half of the year.
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“Although the marketplace continues to be dynamic, with a changing outlook on interest rates, inflation trends and global and domestic uncertainty, we remain confident that this is a recovery year highlighted by the strong momentum and our podcast business and the sequential improvement of our multi platform groups year over year adjusted EBITDA performance,” said Pittman.
The current quarter may be an improvement over the first quarter, but iHeartMedia doesn’t expect much improvement over 2023. Thursday’s guidance for Q2 revenue as “approximately flat” compared to the prior-year quarter’s revenue of $920 million was slightly below analysts’ consensus of $935 million, according to Zacks Equity Research. April revenue is expected to be down 0.4%, Bressler said, and the multi-platform group’s gross revenue is expected to be down “mid-single digits” in the second quarter.
iHeartMedia shares dropped to $1.38 on Thursday, bringing their year-to-date loss to 48.3%. Thursday’s closing price was 70.8% below the stock’s 52-week high of $4.73 established on July 31, 2023.
Another blemish was the first quarter’s free cash flow (FCF) was negative $88 million, although it was improvement from negative $133 million in the prior-year quarter. First-quarter FCF did not include the $101 million iHeartMedia received from the sale of BMI to New Mountain Capital in February.
Total revenue of $799 million was down 1.5% from the prior-year period. The multi-platform group, which includes iHeartMedia’s broadcast radio networks and events business, suffered the biggest declines: revenue fell 6.7% to $493 million and adjusted EBITDA dropped 11% to $77 million.
Led by growth in podcasts, digital audio group revenue rose 7.0% to $239 million and adjusted EBITDA jumped 25.9% to $68.1 million. In the audio and media services division, revenue improved 12.7% to $69.2 million and adjusted EBITDA soared 54.4% to $23.7 million.