What a ridiculously brutal year for Entercom Radio.

They moved to a new headquarters at 2400 Market Street, dealt with multiple rounds of cyber attacks, and then recovered only to face a global pandemic, which is crushing advertising revenue for terrestrial radio.

Inevitably, Entercom was going to join Beasley and other local media companies in announcing layoffs, furloughs, and related cost reduction measures during the Coronavirus crisis, and we’ve now arrived at that point.

Here’s a memo from CEO David Field, sent to employees and obtained by RadioInsight.com:

Thank you for your resilience, dedication and fortitude as we manage through the extraordinarily challenging and disruptive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are all doing our best to ensure that our loved ones remain safe and healthy while working tirelessly to serve our listeners, customers, and communities. I am deeply appreciative of everything you are doing to keep us moving forward under these difficult conditions. We are fortunate to work in an industry that plays such an important role in our country at a time of crisis, providing a critically important and trusted local voice for news and information as well as entertainment, companionship and respite during these uncertain times.

Unfortunately, the severity of the situation necessitates us making significant cost reductions in order to cope with the realities at hand. Our nation is facing unprecedented disruption that has shut down countless businesses and entire industries, including many of our customers. This is having a very large impact on advertising revenues. We must take hard but necessary actions to ensure that we endure the crisis and emerge as a strong, healthy and competitive company.

I am deeply saddened that we need to make these painful moves at this time, but they are necessary under the circumstances. We are doing everything in our power to minimize the number of layoffs through shared sacrifice across the organization, but we will still need to eliminate or furlough a significant number of positions. In order to make the transition less painful for our colleagues, we will be providing up to an extra month of additional severance for those individuals for whom their normal severance and the recently announced enhanced federal unemployment benefits provide less support. In addition, we will be providing enhanced employee benefits for furloughed team members.

We will also be taking other cost reduction actions at this time, including the temporary suspension of our dividend and our 401K Company match, the elimination of Q1 and Q2 bonuses, and temporary salary reductions of between 10% and 20% for anyone earning a salary in excess of $50,000 per year. I will be taking a 30% salary reduction. We hope to restore regular salaries, bonus eligibility and our 401K plan match at the start of the third quarter. I very much appreciate the sacrifice that people will be making in these difficult times.

We will get through this crisis and put this all behind us. Better days lie ahead. With the tough but necessary actions we are now taking, we are doing what is required for us to preserve the health of the company and ensure that we are strong when we get to the other side. Our future is further protected by our strong financial position with substantial cash reserves and virtually no debt due before 2024. And when the crisis abates, we look forward to resuming our growth and building on our strong strategic position as a leader in the audio business, including the best lineup of local radio stations in the United States.

I deeply appreciate your dedication and commitment and look forward to better times ahead.
We will be following up with additional information shortly.

Yours,
David

It’s pretty bad. That’s what I’m hearing right now from a couple of people on the inside. We should get more information shortly on specifically what areas they’re targeting for these reductions.

Locally, Entercom operates 94 WIP, Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, KYW NewsRadio, B101, WOGL, and 96.5 WTDY. The national headquarters in located in Philadelphia and all of those stations now operate from the same building after they were purchased from CBS Radio a few years back.

EDIT:

Here’s a tidbit from Andrew Marchand regarding WFAN, which is also Entercom-owned –

You’ll probably see this in Phillly with WIP, since they’re the most important local station and bring in more revenue than the other properties.

EDIT 2 –

They are starting with talent at the music stations. Coop and Casey was the morning show on 96.5 –

EDIT 3 –

B101.1 midday host Andrea Duffy was also let go: