Working at Cumulus Broadcasting — Reviews by Employees

The post from 6/22/10 was well stated. Cumulus bought the stations in '99 that I had worked for for 19 years. I too was hopeful they would on the cutting edge and bring new and vibrant ideas and plans, all of which turn into more sales. My dream was dashed. As each year went on, less and less attention was paid our group, no new equipment (on air is held together with gum and baling twine!), no promotional items, reducing to a skeleton staff, no receptionist, etc, etc, etc! They now in this city are a laughing stock and as each veteran sales rep leaves and each GM is fired (usually one per year), the trust and network so diligently fostered, becomes a distant memory. So sad. I don't know how Lew Dickey can look in the mirror.

I had a great time working for Cumulus. That's because I knew exactly what I was getting into and that it wouldn't last long. So I went to work, made decent money and when I was fired (which took about as long as I expected it to when I signed up) I felt great. Fact is, I knew the situation was hopeless going in. (It's run from Atlanta and I was just a sock puppet, albeit a decently paid sock puppet) I knew Dickey would screw me over if I let him so I made it a point to hose Lew Dickey first! I did and don't regret it at all.

The worse company I have worked for ever. If they think you make too much money you are gone. And sales people are 100% commission!! so how can we make too much!!

BULL SHIGADY! That just about sums up what I think about Cumulus. I have never seen Lew Dickey(Bart Simpson) or the one in person. My location has been a revolving door and has gone down since I started awhile ago. They have no RESPECT for their employees, that's why they cannot keep them. No benefits other than what you work for. They reep the benefits, believe me they have lost no money. They accidently left the web cam on in their office one day all day. That is the day I realized that CUMULUS really sucked, we got an ear full. If you only knew. It does not matter to Cumulus how hard you work, it is never enough. CSOS is HILARIOUS! All the improper grammer and misspelled words. It's absolutley nothing NEW, it's the same thing just, a different week or month. It was obviously created by someone who never sold anything, just information taken from others and put together(CSOS). They expect one person to do the job of 5 people, but not pay them, in return we all suffered. Terrible creative department or should I say NO creative department, unless you consider 1 person doing creative for several stations a creative department. Cumulus is too cheap to even purchase station promotional items, we can't even get registration pads and boxes, but Cumulus is the 2 nd largest radion company in the US....FUNNY! Cumulus owners are also THIEFS! HOW CAN THEY JUST DECIDE TO STEAL AN AE'S MONEY THAT THEY EARNED? THEY ALL THE SUDDEN IN OCTOBER OF 2009 DECEIDED TO TAKE ALL AGENCY BIZ AWAY FROM AE'S, JUST BECAUSE. SO IF YOU HAD AGENCY ACCOUNTS THAT WERE ALREADY SOLD, AND IN THE SYSTEM UNTIL THE END OF THE YEAR, THEY JUST SWITCHED THE ACCOUNT OVER TO SOMEONE ELSE, RATHER THAT PAY THE AE FOR WHAT THEY SOLD. THAT SHIGADY IS NOT RIGHT ON ANY LEVEL AND SHOULD BE EXPOSED. THEY WILL SOON GET WHAT THEY DESERVE, YOU CAN ONLY BREAK THE LAW FOR SO LONG. The TRUTH about what this MAFIA does in the dark will always come to the light. The day this happens I will be in the FRONT ROW.

I guess I shouldn't expect much working for a company that constantly let's qualified, knowledgeable people go to hire people with little or no experience as replacements. They do it to save money. It's business 101.

I've read the posts from across the country and for the most part, they are right on. If it were one or two markets, it would be one thing. Unfortunately, the problems you're reading about are the norm rather than the exception.I've worked in radio for quite a while, but have never worked for a company so sinister and intimidating towards employees with a complete lack of respect and professionalism. Sure, the corporate office can produce nice powerpoint presentations, but they don't believe in or support the employees in any way. Sales will pick up as the economy turns, but I'm afraid the mentality of this company will not change. They,ve discovered they can operate their stations with little or practically no staff. I'm already seeing other companies including Clear Channel beginning to hire sales and programming staff. Cumulus brags that they are hiring (sales), but doesn't point out or how often they blow people out or have to rehire because nobody wants to work in this environment. That's replacing employees, not creating new jobs. Jobs that were in the company a couple years ago.To Cumulus, it appears employees are nothing more than an expense that can be cut at anytime.

I've noticed a few posts making positive remarks. Let me guess, these are remarks made by employees hired since the new CSOS system was implemented with little or no experience.I do understand their excitement as we were all excited when we landed our first radio job. You have nothing to compare it to. I also understand why Cumulus is doing this. If you hire people with little or no experince, they have no preconception of what radio sales should be. Welcome to CSOS, this is the way radio is done. Right now, It appears Cumulus is scrambling to hire warm bodies to sell and manage. I understand they have a contest for production staff to produce recruitment commercials.They've also been offering bonuses to sales staff members for referrals.This all sounds great, but it doesn't appear the current employees are buying it. Nobody would refer a friend to work here.

Don't get me wrong, there have been some good things come from CSOS, but I don't know if I'd call it a vision. A vision would require some sort of clarity and direction. CSOS has been changed every quarter since the corporate office started structuring sales offices around it. Sales are starting to come back, but I think you could ask any salesperson and most sales managers and general managers and they would tell you it has nothing to do with CSOS.

I find it offensive that a previous post referred to unhappy employees as lazy or not wanting to work hard. That's just plain wrong. This refers to many of the employees that were billing anywhere from 20-50% more before the economy crashed. They are working harder than ever, but due to economic factors are billing less. If they are lazy, explain why their billing was so much higher before the crash. Their work habits didn't change. The economy did. Lord knows we wouln't want to recognize the obvious and sure wouldn't want to blame any of the new "green" managers. But go ahead and feel free to take credit as sales come back. Once again it's the economy rebounding, not your plethra of radio knowledge pushing the market forward. CSOS is not a "fix all". If it were, you wouldn't see so many markets rotating managers (sales and general managers) out like pitchers. Many markets are operating without GMs at all.

I've visited with friends working with other radio groups. Most stations are still rebounding from last year as is Cumulus, but the employees are not dealing with the same treatment from their corporate offices. It's refreshing to hear there are still good companies out there. Cumulus is not one of them.

If you're interested in radio, go anywhere but Cumulus. Believe me, most employees (including newly hired employees) that are left are looking and will be gone as soon as they can find positions with better companies.

As far as current radio companies go, this is one of the better ones. There is a vision and purpose to Cumulus, and that make it better than most!

Overall, I like the company. I work hard and my efforts have have paid off and I have taken on a sales management role. The complaints that I hear are from the reps who don't feel like giving it 100% and don't want to work a full day (8-5:30) productively. Cumulus is looking very closely at activity and effort of all it's workers, but in this economy, any company needs to be sure that everyone is on the same page and trying their best. Most of the reps and workers that I have seen not happy were just used to coasting through with no accountability and now they are pissed because they have to work.

I had very high hopes when our cluster was purchased by Cumulus. The local people were nice and we were made to feel as if we were all important assets to the group. That changed almost immediately.

The first indication of trouble was the endless series of "music calls." A large group of stations in the same format would be listening to the format director's weekly "schpiel" and then would be actually told the songs they were to add. Well, let's put it this way: at first the format director would name the songs he favored and then have each PD pipe up with "what they were looking at for the week." One could quickly pick up as everybody on the call "parroted" the very songs the format director had "suggested" that if somebody were to say, "No, I would rather add such and such," they would not have a job with Cumulus for very much longer.

The second thing I noticed was the complete disregard for anybody having a normal life AWAY from the station. I was a morning guy and a very successful one at that in every market I had been in. Most of it was because I worked VERY hard at it, but I was mainly successful because I was actually very DIFFERENT from the usual "cut and paste/dub the cheezy comedy bits" shows I was up against . A lot of that had to do with actually being out IN the market on MEANINGFUL appearances. Now they decided that what would "really 'win' " was to do the very things that everybody else was doing in town (and boring people with.) Quickly, my show was turned into the "pre-recorded lame bits and TV clips from last night" festival that I had always called "cookie-cutter." Just as quickly, and not surprisingly, the show began to tank with the listeners. Then management had the nerve to question my ability as a morning guy, even though my track record was nothing short of stellar until that point. (A fact I can back up with all the numbers and with clients to prove it!)

The third REAL red flag with Cumulus was their growing penchant for hiring complete "greenhorns" with awful voices and even LESS experience at using them to replace veteran people who mysteriously suddenly "didn't cut it anymore." Interesting how those who "didn't cut it" had been cutting it darn well for years. Not so surprising: the greenhorns worked for minimum wage and only part-time, which meant far more duties for the remaining vets. After a while--- "sounding good on the air (you know---Your PRODUCT?!?!?!) became dead last in priorities for many fantastic talents in the building as they scrambled around trying to multi-task with the website, promotions, voicetracking 3 other stations and more.

I could go on and on about the lies, stealing of accounts, spycams, reading of others' emails, arbitrary and senseless cuts just so that the kings of Atlanta could grab their annual bonuses, but most of that is now common knowledge. Some of that I understand, because it basically becomes a real life game of "SURVIVOR" played 6-7 days a week. The part I could not sit still for was the constant berating and horrible treatment of veterans who WERE "up to date" with computer skills, website know-how and other necessary skills----all in the hopes of forcing them out to hire more greenhorns or to save a salary. The TRUE pros were suddenly "worthless" to this company, and were made to feel like they would never work anyplace else once they were cut loose. Never mind that most of them had more practical knowledge of running a radio station than anybody in the markets they served. No......they were all made to feel like children and treated accordingly. The word "Gulag" has evidently become an underground nickname for Cumulus amongst those who remain with the company in more than one markets, as I have seen it pop up on this thread more than once. Sadly, it's close to the truth.

The scariest part of all is the chaotic way in which the upper management in Atlanta flips and flops, lurching in an alarmingly spastic fashion from one "hot new concept" to another that will "make millions"----almost ALL of which have laid big fat goose eggs or have already been done much more efficiently by other companies. There were frantic "corporate initiatives" passed down that essentially said "we don't care if your wife is IN LABOR, or you are having CHEST PAINS, we need a promo EVERY HOUR on our hot new "JOBS" website NOW!! Voice track mornings if need be to get it done!!!!" Almost every concept they have come up with has been mediocre at best-----at worst, a total failure which then is suddenly swept under the rug.

Here is the funny part. I LOVED most of the co-workers I had. Some of them were among the best I had every worked with in 25 years of on-air work, both personally and professionally. That goes for most of the sales people as well. Those who were "laid off" were tossed out like garbage after years of loyal service and threatened to be held to meaningless non-competes. However, due to selective enforcement, a lot of them have been able to (thankfully) land on their feet without uprooting and moving again. Not bad for people who suddenly "weren't up to the high standards of Cumulus."

Fortunately, I saw the handwriting on the wall and left shortly after the notorious bloodletting began last year. (You know....the "Bloody February" where hundreds of loyal hard working employees were laid off at the same time that some BONUS CHECKS with a LOT of zeros on them were being cashed by the "Lords of Atlanta?")

My assessment of Cumulus is this: If you THRIVE in an environment where you actually enjoy paranoia, distrusting managers, corporate micro managing that is done for ego rather than results, and long long hours for almost no recognition or chance to improve your own skills---You will LOVE this company. As for me, I moved back to a larger market for a different group. I think my blood pressure has been cut in half in the past year. And I am enjoying my job again.

I have only worked for this company for a short time and don't plan to stay one moment longer than it takes me to find another job. I can't express my disdain for the management here. I will say that I have made great friends of my coworkers who all seem to be looking for other jobs, but never have I been treated in the manner that I am being treated currently.

Management has the great ability to destroy it's employees quite methodically. From the deceptive interview process, the incomplete training, the lack of support, the robotic management to the micromanagement, the constant berating, this company seems to have the ability to suck any confidence one might have going into the job.

The expectations of the job are such that any resemblance of a personal life is unacceptable. Family relationships are not valued. I have been told repeatedly that though the hours here are 8:00 to 5:00, my administrative duties are to be done outside the office before 8:00 or after 5:00. We are actually told that other than meetings and call sessions we are not to be seen in the building. Daily recaps, calendars, numerous reports are redundant and wholly unnecessary.

I don't recommend anyone work here unless they have no intention of staying, and this company will change you for the worse.

It seems that the station managers have been softening their approach to workers, but I assume that is due to the ongoing class action lawsuit. In its core, Cumulus is a mean company that does not value its workers. Knowing what I know now, I would never recommend working at Cumulus to anyone. They should rename Cumulus "gulag" because working there feels like being in a Russian prison.