About 11 people were laid off Friday at Cumulus Media Inc.’s seven Toledo radio stations.

Calls to Cumulus management locally and to their Atlanta, Ga. headquarters have not been returned.

In addition to the reported layoffs, part-time employees were told Feb. 5 that their hourly pay would become equal to minimum wage, according to Tom Watkins.

Watkins had been the host of “Toledo Today” on WTOD-AM 1560 in a part-time capacity. He opted to end the program, which ran for two years, rather than taking a pay-cut.

“Homey don’t work for nothin’,” Watkins said.

“I’m glad I’m on this end of it, 40 years in the business and I can sit back and not worry about it so much, as to being at the other end where you might need the job in order to feed your family,” he said.

The changes come from a corporate level, and it is not fair to blame the Toledo management, Watkins said.

“They had cut so far down, they’re down to the bone now. They had no choice but to nail a few good people that really shouldn’t have been let go,” he said.

Cumulus laid off nine full-time staff members in November. During his final show, Watkins said traffic reader Kelly Carter, a Toledo Free Press contributor, and board operator Tod Crabtree were among the layoffs.

In the past few months, nearly every major media outlet in Toledo has dealt with layoffs including Cumulus, The Blade, WNWO, WTOL and WUPW.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 6th, 2009 at 3:40 pm and is filed under Arts and Life, Breaking News, Media.
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