In a multi-part feature, CNN.com has produced a look at the issues facing music radio. Like many mainstream media features on the medium, it focuses on the few known talking points like death of broad playlists, the loss of big name personalities of the past, and statements from those expecting the worst.
There are a few strong comments within, including an interview with Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman.
In a response to Pittman’s plans for IHeartRadio, Galaxy Communications head Ed Levine was very poignant.
“What he says sounds really good. What he does, not so good,” says Galaxy Communications’ Levine. “He talks about content over here and when you’re not looking, lays off 700 people over here. And nobody calls him on it.”
“(The) IHeartRadio app is not content,” he says. “You need living, breathing people to drive this thing called content, and if you keep systematically firing them, like Clear Channel and Cumulus do, you’re not going to have much of an industry left.”