Cumulus Media enacted another round of layoffs this week, cutting sales, programming, and podcasting staff across multiple markets while the company waits on FCC approval to close out its Chapter 11 restructuring.
It’s the second gut-punch in as many months. Westwood One, a Cumulus subsidiary, trimmed its own staff last month. Together, the cuts land as the latest reminder that no corner of this industry is safe from the balance sheet.
I’ve watched these announcements roll in for years now, and they never get easier to read. Names attached to real careers, real mortgages, real lives get reduced to a line item. And yet, somewhere in a break room or a Zoom call at a station that hasn’t been hit yet, a manager is probably telling their team, “We’re a family.”
I need you to run the other way when you hear it. Or at minimum, dust off your resume.
We Are Not A Family
We’re not a family. This is a business, and businesses don’t behave like families do.
My maternal grandfather was born during the Great Depression. He was one of eight kids. Do you know how many of his siblings my great-grandparents left on the side of the road because they couldn’t afford to keep them anymore? It’s zero. It never happened. Do you know why? Because when you’re a family, you can’t and don’t cut someone out just because it’s better for the household finances.
Companies don’t operate that way, and radio has proven it again and again. When times get lean, someone gets cut loose — not because they failed, but because the math says so. Cumulus is Exhibit A this week. iHeartMedia and Audacy have already gone through layoffs, and very well could again before the end of the year. That’s how the cycle goes.
So when a manager reaches for “family” language, they’re borrowing warmth from a relationship their employer has no intention of honoring.
Watch What Comes Next
Pay attention to what usually follows that phrase. In my experience, it’s rarely gratitude. It’s an ask. More airshifts, more production, more responsibility covering for a role that got eliminated — often without a raise attached. The “family” talk is emotional cover. It’s designed to make you feel like the ungrateful one if you push back or ask for more money.
That’s not culture-building. That’s a persuasion tactic, and a fairly transparent one once you’ve heard it a few times.
Now, I’ll grant that not every manager who says it is being cynical. Plenty genuinely want a workplace built on loyalty, connection, and shared purpose. Their instincts aren’t malicious. But even well-meaning “family” talk tends to run one direction. Employees get asked to sacrifice. Employees get asked to be team players. Rarely does that same grace flow back when a restructuring plan needs a number to shrink. Or when an employee is in a situation where it needs the company to pick up the slack or look out for them for a time.
This industry calls itself the radio business, the media business, the broadcast industry. Nobody calls it the media family. That’s not an accident. Words get chosen because they’re accurate. “Business” is accurate. It tells you exactly what kind of relationship you’re in, and what kind of decisions will get made when a lender needs its debt reduced or a P&L needs to look better by Q4.
If your company genuinely valued you the way a family would, this week’s headlines out of Cumulus would read differently. They don’t. Longtime hosts, program directors, sales leaders — years of tenure didn’t buy any of them protection this time, and it won’t next time either.
So here’s my advice, plain and simple: keep your resume current, keep your network warm, and don’t mistake a manager’s language for a guarantee. Be a great employee. Work hard. Build real relationships with the people beside you — those are worth protecting. But don’t confuse your employer with your family, because your employer never will.
Businesses cut costs. Families don’t cut members. The moment somebody in leadership blurs that line, believe the business, not the buzzword.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.