Don Imus roughs up the Dickeys and Cumulus
By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed Thursday, October 15, 2015
Don Imus, the legendary, irascible New York morning host heard locally on 1160/WCFO-AM, unloaded on the Dickey brothers and Atlanta-based Cumulus Media Wednesday for shoddy treatment of radio, including his home of WABC-AM in New York.
Lew Dickey, founder of Cumulus, was bumped down to vice chair and replaced as CEO two weeks ago amid sinking financial fortunes at the second largest radio company in the country. His brother John lost his senior vice president role as well.
According to Tom Taylor, Imus on the air was fed up with promos for weekend infomercials on the station.
“Now [WABC] is being programmed by the sales department," he griped. "It’s a disgrace…I know they have to make money, but that’s why they got rid of the Dickeys.” Later, he added: “They went around the country and ruined radio stations. This [WABC] is one of them.”
NewsRadio 106.7 also sells weekend time to people who do infomercials. Its ratings have been flat this year, far behind those of 90.1/WABE and News 95.5 and AM 750 WSB.
Cumulus Media has hired an outside Mary Berner, who promises a culture change from the centralized, cost-cutting approach that Cumulus had undergone under the Dickeys.
We'll have to see. As I noted in this story two weeks ago, Cumulus Atlanta - which includes Q100, Rock 100.5, Kicks 101.5 and NewsRadio 106.7 - has not been doing particularly well lately.
About the Author
Rodney Ho writes about entertainment for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution including TV, radio, film, comedy and all things in between. A native New Yorker, he has covered education at The Virginian-Pilot, small business for The Wall Street Journal and a host of beats at the AJC over 20-plus years. He loves tennis, pop culture & seeing live events.
