When iHeartMedia announced this month it would fire hundreds of workers across the country, the radio conglomerate said the restructuring was critical to take advantage of its “significant investments … in technology and artificial intelligence.” In a companywide email, chief executive Bob Pittman said the “employee dislocation” was “the unfortunate price we pay to modernize the company.”
But laid-off employees like D’Edwin “Big Kosh” Walton, who made $12 an hour as an on-air personality for the Columbus, Ohio, hip-hop station 106.7 the Beat, don’t buy it. Walton doesn’t blame the cuts on a computer; he blames them on the company’s top executives, whose “coldblooded, calculated move” cost people their jobs.
It “ripped my [expletive] heart out,” Walton said. “The people at the top don’t know who we are at the bottom. They don’t understand the relationships and the connections we had with the communities. And that’s the worst part: They don’t care.”
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Best guide to hip hop, soul, reggae concerts & events in San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles & New York City + music, videos, radio and more
Bonobo
Saturday, Nov 14 @ Fox Theater, Oakland
Pretty Lights
Thursday-Sunday, Nov 19-21 @ Fox Theater, Oakland
Ozomatli
Saturday, Nov. 21 @ UC Theatre, Berkeley
Kamasi Washington
Saturday, Dec 5 @ UC Theatre, Berkeley
Steel Pulse
Thursday, Dec 31 @ UC Theatre, Berkeley
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