Layoffs by iHeartMedia have affected radio stations across the country, including some in the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n
A memo obtained by the Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday said the company \u2014 which owns WAEB AM 790, WABE FM B104, WZZO Z95 and WSAN Real Oldies 1470 \u2014 is in the middle of restructuring its radio programming while building new tech capabilities.<\/p>\n
The Reporter also said the move comes after iHeart announced a plan that is meant to lead to $50 million of annualized cost savings. That comes in addition to the $100 million of previously announced savings, it said.<\/p>\n
IHeart did not reveal how many jobs were cut, but reports say it was in the dozens nationwide.<\/p>\n
In the Lehigh Valley, B104 morning hosts Mike Kelly and Becca Lynn were among those let go.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell it was bound to happen,\u201d Kelly said on social media. \u201cI\u2019ve been let go. No long speeches. Just thanks for the ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also out is Joel Shimer, the midday host on Z95, who also announced his layoff on social media:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always heard the saying, \u2018You haven\u2019t worked in radio until you get fired,\u2019 \u201d Shimer said. \u201cAfter today, I guess I can officially say I\u2019ve worked in radio.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the memo, iHeart Chief Programming Officer Tom Poleman and Multiplatform Group CEO Ann Marie Licata wrote that sellers \u201cneed faster and easier to use information about our programming\u201d and that \u201cfaster is better.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re now moving to scale this approach, implementing structural changes within our programming organization and expanding responsibilities for key leaders,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Layoffs by iHeartMedia have affected radio stations across the country, including some in the Lehigh Valley. A memo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[138,156,212381,18943,256,157,111,43,139,18942,69,9016,112275],"class_list":["post-495501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-business","tag-entertainment","tag-lehigh-county","tag-lehigh-valley","tag-local-news","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-northampton-county","tag-nz","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}