Cumulus Media

Cumulus is dedicated to providing choices to both listeners and advertisers. We develop and manage each Cumulus station as its own brand with its own programming content and personality, its own inventory of radio spots, and its own pricing levels. Each station has its own team of on-air talent to serve listeners and its own team of professionals to serve advertisers. Key Dates: Cumulus Media, Inc. is founded in Milwaukee by Lewis W. Dickey, Jr., and Richard Weening, with financial backing from institutional investors. Following the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which changed radio stations ownership rules among other things, Cumulus Media, Inc. was founded in 1997 in Milwaukee by Lew Dickey, Jr., and Richard Weening. They received financial backing from a group of institutional investors that included the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, NationsBank Capital Corporation, Heller Equity Capital Corporation, and Quaestus Management Corporation. Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co. subsequently joined the investor group. The company was established for the purpose of acquiring and developing radio station clusters in medium-size and smaller cities across the United States. Operations commenced on May 22, 1997. Weening, on the other hand, helped establish Cumulus through Quaestus, a private equity investment and advisory firm of which he was chairman and CEO. He had prior experience as a CEO and investor in book and magazine publishing, radio broadcasting, online services, and electronic commerce software and services. Before launching Quaestus in 1989, he had established two successful information and publishing companies. In March 1998 he assumed the role of executive chairman at Cumulus, with Dickey as vice-chairman. In November 1999 Cumulus paid $26.5 million to Duke Broadcasting for three radio stations in Jonesboro, Arkansas, including the market's two largest FM stations and a full-service news/talk AM station. Jonesboro, located near Memphis, Tennessee, was a newly ranked market at 271st in the United States. The acquisition also included Duke's Southern Outdoor Advertising, marking Cumulus's first venture in outdoor advertising. In January 2000 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced it had flagged for public comment Cumulus's pending acquisition of Connoisseur Communications. The agency was especially concerned with markets in Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Iowa; Flint, Michigan; Evansville, Indiana; the Quad Cities; and Rockford, Illinois. In March Cumulus acquired The Advisory Board, Inc., which conducted sales training programs for the radio industry under the name The Lytle Organization. However, Cumulus's stock took a tumble in the first quarter of 2000, losing about two-thirds of its value. Affecting the stock price were rumors of accounting improprieties over the company's annual audit after it restated its earnings for the first three quarters of 1999. As a result, class-action lawsuits were filed against Cumulus charging the company with artificially inflating revenue and profit in 1999. In March vice-chairman Lew Dickey took over the job of president of Cumulus Broadcasting, the company's primary operating subsidiary, from William Bungeroth. It was also disclosed that chief financial officer Richard Bonick, Jr., had left the company in January 2000. The company's stock fell below $9 in April. After its accounting firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, resigned on April 24, Cumulus needed to restore the confidence of Wall Street analysts and investors. The company was also in the process of expanding and training the advertising sales staffs at its more than 300 radio stations. In May it hired a new CFO, Martin Gausvik, as well as a new auditor, KPMG LLP. Gausvik had previous experience as a financial executive at Jacor Communications and Latin Communications Group. In June 2000 Lew Dickey was named president and CEO of Cumulus Media. His brother, John W. Dickey, was promoted to executi