In an interview with Bloomberg TV talking about the launch of the Nash brand, Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey stated that the company’s plans are to focus on four key format verticals for the company: Country, Talk, Sports (via CBS Sports Radio), and Rock along with their publishing business.
We’ve already started to see the beginning of the plans to expand their Rock programming over the past couple weeks with the relaunch of “Rock 100.5” WNNX Atlanta. The company has also parked the WRXP call letters and a few domain names for potential use on its pending New York move-in.
Dickey also touches upon Cumulus’ lack of mobile revenue, the drop off in political talk ratings, and the growth of sports talk.
Watch the interview below:
oasisrulz 
Ryan 
Steven 
Thank goodness finally a company that thinks Rock is a popular format. Most companies believe what the no nothing suits and what that other board thinks that Rock is not happening. Wrong, CC thought that when the brought Spanish to Philly, then were skeptical on flipping to Alternative, which proved them out of touch, with 1045’s fantastic numbers over 5 years. I do believe GM is another Rock based company, but all the others are Rap, Hip Hop, Urban driven which are dying formats.
@oasis you are crazy to think urban formats are dying. Rock is a dying format in major cities. They’re dieing more then Urban formats. The only cities that Rock survives are in rural/suburban areas. Do the math
Yeah, but what are the chances that some, if not most, of those listeners are streaming other stations online or buying songs off iTunes?
The problem right now with the active rock format is the lack of decent product, and instead of trying to find good current product, they are relying more on the library… filling it with music from the Seattle/Grunge era. That music is starting to find its place on Classic Rock (which probably won’t exist past the next decade IMHO, as the 90’s and beyond are fragmented, but that’s another discussion). The trend will probably change, Alternative had the same problem a few years ago and now there’s a lot of decent product to pull for currents.
As for the “new” WNNX, it sounds a lot like Milwaukee/Chicago rimshot WIIL, Rockin’ 101 St. Cloud, MN and Rock 94.7 Wausau, WI.