By Annie Ross
Radio advertising has cratered along with the rest of the pandemic economy, and Philly-based Entercom, which owns 94WIP sports talk, has told employees it would eliminate or furlough “significant” numbers of employees. The nation’s No. 2 radio chain, which reaches 170 million listeners, also will temporarily cut employee pay by 10 to 20 percent for those earning more than $50,000.
Entercom CEO David Field said in a company memo that he would slash his salary 30 percent.
Bonuses will be zapped for the first half of this year and so will the company’s 401K match. Entercom stock, which hit a high of $16 a share in late 2016, was trading at $1.40 a share on Thursday.
Entercom recently relocated from its Bala Cynwyd headquarters to new offices at 2401 Market Street, along with its Philly-area stations, KYW, WIP, 101.1 More FM and WPHT.
The company, which acquired the former CBS Radio operations in recent years, is making the cutbacks to preserve its financial strength. Field noted in his memo that it has “virtually no debt” to be repaid before 2024.
“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,” Field said. He added that “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.”
