RBR-TVBR has learned that many headquarters staffers were pink-slipped this week at the former Regent Communications, now known as Townsquare Media. Some operations have already moved from Covington, KY to Greenwich, CT, where new investor FiveWire Ventures has its HQ.
New CEO Steven Price hasn’t yet returned a phone call from RBR-TVBR. He was in the Connecticut office when we called, apparently, but we understand that he and new CFO Stuart Rosenstein have been spending quite a bit of time in the former Regent offices in the Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati.
Apparently some new people from Connecticut have been working in the Kentucky offices as Price and Rosenstein rework operations to their plan. Accounting and Human Resources operations have already moved to Connecticut. Not all former Regent employees were dismissed, though. We understand that Sr. VP of Operations John King remains on the payroll along with a small cadre of former Regent HQ employees.
RBR-TVBR observation: Price and Rosenstein may not be familiar names to broadcasters, but radio is not entirely foreign turf for them. Steven Price is the son of Bob Price, whose Price Communications was once a major radio station group owner (back when there were severe limits on the number of stations that one company could own). Steven later headed the successor company, which owned cellular telephone assets until it was sold in 1998 for $1.4 billion. Rosenstein also worked for the cellular company. We would note that Regent was headquartered in the Cincinnati area, where it owned no stations, only because that’s where co-founder and money-raiser Terry Jacobs lived. It’s hardly surprising that the new corporate execs would want to have key operations where they live – in Connecticut.
