CUMULUS’ BERNER DELIVERS WITHERING CRITIQUE IN INITIAL COMMENTS

Magazine magnate turned incoming Cumulus CEO Mary Berner, who moved into Lew Dickey’s executive office on Tuesday, took no prisoners in offering her initial state-of-the company address during a conference call with investors.

Here are her bullet points (we’re paraphrasing): The current culture of Cumulus sucks; the company is grossly underperforming relative to the rest of the industry. The top-down approach of management has failed, and local markets need more authority. To that end, individual stations will have a voice in every decision, and local programmers are going to be able to add some of their own music soon. There’s been too much focus on ancillary things and not enough on programming. No less than 48% of Cumulus employees have turned over during the past 18 months, and the company has much work to do in that regard. All employees will be held accountable for their performance. The company will need to endure short-term pain in order to achieve long term success.

Berner also stated that Cumulus will remain committed to the NASH brand.