https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/01/31/iheartmedia-radio-artificial-intelligence-djs/
The article I will be reviewing this week comes from The Washington Post and was written by Drew Hartnell, a technology writer with the newspaper since 2014. The article, titled “iHeartMedia laid off hundreds of radio DJs. Executives blame AI. DJs blame the executives,” covers the reasons iHeartMedia gave for the layoffs as well as reactions from a few of the on-air personalities who lost their jobs. Hartnell also provides background on iHeartMedia and their 2018 bankruptcy filing. He also interviews someone from an AI-based media technology company that is currently used by IHeartMedia’s online radio systems that could be utilized by over-the-air radio stations in the future.
The article covers a lot of topics, but Hartnell provides links to online articles and documents that back up or provide context to the information covered. In fact, a total of fifteen hyperlinks are included that cover: iHeartMedia’s press release, Securities Exchange Commission filings, bankruptcy court documents, the history of the company including links to two investment firms (Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners) that leveraged the buyout of Clear Channel and resulted in iHeartMedia’s mountain of debt, and the announcement on Instagram and Facebook Live by one of the on-air personalities who was let go as a result of the mass layoffs. This is an impressive amount of references that allow the reader to see where Hartnell got his facts. This transparency gives the article and Hartnell credibility since these sources can be verified directly.
Hartnell interviews Wendy Goldman, iHeartRadio’s spokeswoman and communications chief, who tries to downplay the number of layoffs compared with the 12,500 employees of iHeartMedia but declined to provide a total number of employees who were let go. But Hartnell includes a link to RadioInsight, an industry newsletter that posted the names of hundreds of “talk show hosts, news anchors, producers, program directors, reporters and drive-time DJs let go from local stations across the country.” He also interviews Jerry Del Colliano, a professor at New York University who also publishes the industry newsletter Inside Music Media, who says that the cuts could equal to more than a thousand people losing their jobs. Hartnell points to conflicting information that iHeartMedia gave to the Securities Exchange Commission in April 2019 that touts the on-air personalities build a “trusted bond and strong relationship” with local audiences. iHeartMedia filed for bankruptcy in 2018, at the same time that Pittman, CEO of iHeartMedia took home $13M in salary and bonuses, and asked the bankruptcy judge to approve an increase in the bonus package for top executives. This information is crucial to understanding what prompted iHeartMedia to change programming directions in an industry that must complete with online streaming services for listeners.
What is lacking are more interviews with on-air personalities who lost their jobs as a result of the layoffs. In the article, Hartnell mentions interviewing six people, but only quotes three of them. The article also could have benefited from interviews with radio station program directors with information about what will replace the human DJs who lost their jobs. The article makes it sound as if local DJs are programming music and news content which is mostly automated already. We get to hear about a company called Super Hi-Fi, whose AI-driven technology is used to program the content on iHeartMedia’s online radio stations, but little is said about what will be used in the over-the-air stations.
Given the amount of links to outside sources, I believe this article is very credible but could have benefited from more information about radio programming and how the layoffs will affect radio station formats. I give the article an A-.
