Bloomberg: Huckabee A Centerpiece of Cumulus Media Strategy
by May 21, 2012 5:54 pm 98 views
Bloomberg Businessweek has in-depth story on the business strategy behind radio media giant, Cumulus.
At the center is the new relationship between former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee — now daily talk show host — and Lew Dickey, co-founder and CEO of Cumulus Media.
Dickey and Huckabee struck up a friendship on an airplane flight from Atlanta to New York in 2010. As Dickey revamped the company, which had just bought rival Citadel Broadcasting, he thought Huckabee might be a moneymaker for him.
From Bloomberg Businessweek:
Dickey considered others for his new show, including Bill Clinton and Sarah Palin, but “getting them to sit down and stay behind the mike for the next five years would be a problem. They both have ADD!”
Huckabee, on the other hand, seemed to have the right mix of name recognition, likability, contacts, and the dexterity to take on different subjects without sou
nding harsh or grating. Dickey offered the governor $5 million a year if his show gets enough “clears,” or stations picking up his show. And Dickey promised to build a studio in Huckabee’s Florida home. “I could finally get off the road,” Huckabee says.
Large and jolly, Huckabee, 56, makes an unlikely player in the contest for supremacy of the airwaves. His show on Cumulus is broadcast four days a week from his home in Blue Mountain Beach, Fla. Every Friday he flies up to New York and does his show in the WABC studios near Pennsylvania Station so that he can tape his Fox News show, Huckabee, on Saturday. Mostly, though, “My commute is, I walk across the hall.”
You can read more here.