Southern Cross Austereo is in the process of issuing redundancy notices to somewhere between 50 and 100 staff this week, as it faces tough trading conditions.
Some radio staff have already received notices, while management is still in negotiations with others.
Some functions, such as Content Directing and Music Directing in the Radio part of the business, are expected to be combined across stations and/or networks.
Some of the people made redundant include Music Director Irene Hulme, Triple M overnight presenter Stephen Cenatiempo and SCA Fraser Coast CD Lee Bevington.
SCA would not be drawn on details of the redundancies, but did give us this statement:
SCA shares have rebounded Wednesday morning after taking a dip following news of pending redundancies at the network.
Despite closing Tuesday night at $0.92, this morning the shares have already hit a high of $0.94 as investors are likely to see the reduction in staff numbers as adding to the profitability of the group.
In October SCA flagged that trading conditions were tougher then usual and that “changes” would “impact some of our people,” telling the stock exchange:
“The entire advertising and media sector is operating in a challenging and difficult market and Southern Cross Austereo has and is being equally affected.“Management, with the support of the Board, have conducted a comprehensive review of our workforce structure to provide an effective and efficient organisation for now and into the future. These proposed changes will impact some of our people.“These decisions have not been taken lightly and we are committed to supporting our people as we work through this process…”
There may well be cost cutting such as the combining of each state's musical director. As I said earlier in another comment on this site about the inconsistent ratings for a particular radio station brand , unless the research indicates to the contrary, you cannot assume that the market in one particular city is not the same in another particular city.
It may well be that the 'merged' music director's role may have to take note of variations of what listeners for a given demographic want in a particular city.
A further remark is that the statement SCA made to RadioInfo is exactly the same statement made to the ASX.
Thank you,
Anthony of exciting Belfield