The only national black talk network has been having a lot of trouble. Of course, I point to the day they pulled my show off the air as the beginning of the end.
1) According to the Washington Post: Radio One's stock lost 17 percent of its value this week, closing yesterday at $1.06. Since last year, when the company's stock traded at a [sic: high] of $7.59, its value has declined 85 percent.
2) The son of the founder of the company has just received a generous pay raise and compensation package. According to the Washington Post: Liggins would receive $980,000 in salary, a 70 percent increase over the $575,370 he made in 2007, and have the opportunity to match that in an annual bonus, contingent in part on the company meeting certain performance goals. He would be paid a $1 million "signing bonus" because, the Radio One compensation committee said, he has been underpaid for the last three years. Liggins also would be paid $4.8 million to compensate him for losses he incurred when he was forced to repay a company loan to buy Radio One stock several years ago.
3) The ReidBlog reports that Lee Michaels, former national program director of Syndication One and XM 169 The Power, has just gotten fired. Michaels is the one who pulled my radio show off the air after we had a dispute over my show on urban legends. Reid also tells the following story: Apparently, the company finally managed to sell its L.A. station, (then called KKBT - 100.3 The Beat, now called V100, and the station that used to employ Steve Harvey, before the Radio One folks kicked him to the curb, allegedly over remarks he made about Cathy Hughes as she sat in the audience for the BET Comedy Awards, which he was hosting. The station, which with Harvey had the number one show in the market, promptly went in the tank after that, and in 2005, Harvey jumped to Clear Channel. The rest, as they say, is history...
CJL
