I hate to make an example out of someone, especially one who has recently been let go from a media job that they not only had for a long time but also happened to be very good at. However, I just need to make a point and there’s no better way to make a point than to show an example.
Earlier this week, there was a news story on the site about an ESPN Radio personality being let go after more than 20 years with the company. His name is Kevin Winter and again, this is not really about him, it’s the overall message. I have heard Kevin studio hosting and doing SportsCenter on ESPN Radio forever. He is really good. Other outlets would be silly not to look to bring him in.
It appears Kevin was caught up in a simple case of corporate cuts where someone decided that category needed to drop by X% and as a long tenured employee he was probably making decent money for that position. Which, unfortunately, makes management think they could get someone who is dying to be in the business that maybe isn’t quite as good as Kevin, but could be over time, and comes at half the price. It’s not supposed to be how it works and isn’t how it used to work, but it is what is happening everywhere in this business and has been for quite some time.
However, with that said, that same company paid Kevin, I am guessing on time, twice a month for over 20 years. They probably also provided benefits. They also paid for all of the things needed to broadcast, the signal, the equipment, the expensive doors on the studio. This was ESPN Radio, so they also provided a major platform for Kevin to shine on for two decades. It was their prerogative to do that and also their prerogative to stop doing it. That is how businesses work when it comes down to it.
Kevin posted on his social media about 10 days after he got the news. He noted the day of his first solo shift on ESPN Radio and that he had been told after almost 21 years that his services were no longer needed. He then wrote:
“I have been informed due to ‘cost cutting’ my contract was not being renewed. I’ll let you all discuss the idea that a multibillion-dollar corporation needed to cut my small 6 figure salary in order to keep the lights on.”
A lot to unpack here. First off, as someone who has experience going out ‘guns a blazin’ – it’s never the right thing to do. It just isn’t. Way too much comes around in life. Here, I’ll put it in writing – I completely regret doing it. Wherever Kevin lands next could get bought by Disney, you just never know in this business.
Next, I realize that if you have never owned a business, it is hard to think like a business owner, but the name of the game is PROFIT. This situation isn’t about one person’s ‘small 6 figure salary’ it is about all of the cuts they probably made along with it that ends up putting the company in a better financial position – you know, make the amount of profit they want (or in this case have forecasted and need to hit).
To make it out like ESPN or Disney had to cut your salary to keep the lights on says you just don’t really understand business. And I suppose that is ok, although maybe not something you want to highlight for the whole world to see on social media.
What is absolutely not ok is that Kevin seems surprised he was let go. How can anyone who has been paying attention to anything in our business over the last decade or so be surprised by being laid off?
How is that even a real thing? How many articles have to be written? How many times does it have to be discussed? Big media companies are in trouble. There is less advertising revenue being spent on radio and television. Guess what? When less revenue is available, cuts get made.
But acting shocked in 2025 to a corporate media layoff? I really don’t want to pile on Kevin here but as Cris Carter would say, ‘C’Mon Man!”
Allow me to make this clear for everyone including those in the back. More cuts are coming. You are not safe, and need to be building out your own platform and driving audience to things you create. Essentially start diversifying what you are doing.
If you are sitting in a big media company as a salaried employee and do nothing except what is expected of you and then you collect your check, YOU ARE GOING TO GET LET GO AT SOME POINT! Act now. Take matters into your own hands. You have to know this, you are just trying to ignore it and thinking it can’t happen to you. It can. It will.
Ask yourself what revenue is tied to YOU. What great content that people cannot live without is tied to YOU? What are you doing to go above and beyond? Are you making yourself versatile where someone sees you are directly driving ratings or revenue or that you would have to be replaced by three people?
I am not going to pretend to know anyone else’s situation, but folks the game has changed. This isn’t about who has been there the longest anymore. It’s about who is producing and how someone in the corporate office can tie things directly to you.
And I will add this. If you are someone who is ‘safe’ in your corporate media gig because you do have ratings and revenue tied to you – you would make more money and be more in control of your own destiny if you got out and did it on your own. I know you won’t because you love the stability of that check every two weeks. But someday you are going to wish you went out on your own sooner. Trust me.
It is what it is. This is not news. I hate to be the one to keep screaming it, but as they say…where’s the lie?
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The Best/Worst Thing I’ve Heard/Watched/Read Recently
If you read my stuff, you know I worked for Audacy in Kansas City for a time, which was the second time I had the chance to work with Bob Fescoe, morning host at 96.5 The Fan in Kansas City. I originally met “Bulldog Bob” who came to St. Louis and was put in a terrible situation that had almost no chance of succeeding, but Bob made it work for as long as he could before returning to his preferred side of Missouri – the Kansas part.
Bob spent many years with Josh Klingler on 610 Sports and now the station is on the FM dial. Bob is still in mornings but now works with Dusty Likins who took over when ‘Kling’ stepped back from daily radio to solely focus on his role with the Kansas City Chiefs Radio Network as far as media is concerned.
The Chiefs are once again at the Super Bowl and you would think this is starting to become old hat for KC media. Not for Bob.
If you have followed Bob’s social media or tuned in to the show this week, he appears to be as energized as he has ever been. And why not. New FM stick, new partner, teams winning everything…what a time to be covering Kansas City sports!
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In Case You Missed It
Earlier in the week, Demetri Ravanos wrote about Tom Brady the announcer and Tom Brady the part-owner of the Las Vegas Raiders. Yes, they can get in each other’s way and some believe Brady will never be able to be great at both until he gives one of them up, but in the end who cares. Certainly not the NFL.
That is what Demetri’s column is about, the NFL doesn’t care. The NFL cares about money and being king. Everything else is just noise or things they have to show the public they care about. It’s a business – a BIG business.
Demetri wrote about the NFL and the Raiders, “All either of them wants from Brady is star power, and he has that in droves.”
So, criticize all you want and know that what you are saying is probably right, it’s just that nobody really cares.
Read the full column by clicking here.
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