As expected Entercom completed its acquisition of CBS Radio this morning.
CEO David Field sent the following memo to all employees as well as a video:
It is with great pleasure that I write to inform you that we have officially completed our merger! We are now one company!
And so with great respect and appreciation for the former CBS Radio and its extraordinary history and achievements, we usher in a new era in which these two proud and great organizations will join as one to create a preeminent industry leader with the scale, team, brands, focus, resources and will to build something truly special.
Today marks the end of a near two-year journey to complete this historic, transformational merger that has created an incredibly exciting new company with truly game-changing power and potential. Now we begin a new journey together.
We have an amazing opportunity to make history and to transform not only our company, but all of Radio and even the broader media landscape. And we start our journey in a terrific position. We are a leading American media and entertainment company reaching and engaging over 100 million people each week through a premier collection of highly rated, award winning radio stations, digital platforms and live events. We are the country’s #1 creator of live, original, local audio content and the unrivaled leader in news and sports radio. We are the nation’s #2 podcaster and #1 or #2 in virtually every music format. We are one of the country’s two largest radio broadcasters, at virtual parity with iHeart in the country’s top 50 markets. We have built a terrific, best-in-class team from CBS Radio, Entercom and many other organizations. We have an excellent financial position, providing us with the stability and resources to compete aggressively. And now, we also have the scale to compete more effectively with other media for a significantly larger share of advertiser dollars.
Those of you in our new markets will notice some changes. We will play to win. We are done playing defense; it is time to play offense. We plan to make big investments in our brands, people, capabilities and innovation. We are also done apologizing about Radio, America’s #1 Reach medium, which is massively undervalued and offers superior ROI to other media competitors. We will be a passionate, collaborative, confident, learning organization that moves decisively and boldly and eschews silos, politics and unnecessary paperwork. As in any industry these days, there will be some bumps in the road along the way, but I pledge to you we will always aspire to be great and set our sights high.
There will be much more to come in the hours and days ahead, but for now I welcome you to the new Entercom and want you to know how excited I am about our future together. I have attached a video welcome to share some additional thoughts. And we will be holding a company-wide town hall on Tuesday during which I will discuss our shared values and principles and some further thoughts on the road ahead.
I want to take this opportunity to thank those individuals who worked tirelessly and effectively over so many long months to get us to this point. First and foremost, I would like to recognize Andrew Sutor for his truly extraordinary, heroic work spearheading all of our legal and regulatory efforts over the past year. I also want to recognize Weezie Kramer, Rich Schmaeling, Pat Paxton, Jenny Nelson, Bob Philips, Ruth Gaviria, Pat Cunnane, Deborah Kane, John Graefe, Chris Pimental, Gene Levin, Noreen McCormack, Esther-Mireya Tejada, Mike Dash, Carmela Masi, Johnny Palumbo, Amy Farley Prophet, and so many, many more, for all of their outstanding efforts to enable us to close the transaction and hit the ground running. I am grateful to all of you.
I also want to thank and acknowledge Les Moonves and Joe Ianniello for their leadership and all of their efforts to lead us to such a successful outcome for both companies. As Les stated last month, Entercom provides investors with “the opportunity to invest in what we believe will be a best-in-class radio company, with top assets and a terrific management team.” We look forward to having a great working relationship with CBS for many years to come.
I will close in the words of Michelangelo who said, “the greatest danger isn’t that our aim is too high and we miss is, but that it is too low and we reach it.” We will live by those words as we embark on this exciting journey.
All eyes will be on us in the days and months ahead. We have a window of opportunity to elevate our game and get listeners, customers, partners, and others excited by what we are working to build. Let’s get off to a terrific start as one team and show the world what we are capable of achieving. Congratulations and all best wishes to each of you, David