Univision Radio is experiencing an exodus of some of its top sales executives. In just the last week, it has lost 3 key members of the corporate sales and entertainment team.
All of them have left to join Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS).
Last Sunday, Stephen Hobbs resigned from his job as VP of Entertainment at Univision Radio, to follow older brother Jack over to SBS. Stephen has just been named VP of Entertainment at SBS.
His brother Jack resigned after 28 years helping build the company into today’s Univision Radio.
On Thursday night, Bill Shadorf quit his job as Vice President of Corporate Sales at Univision Radio. He’ll be taking over as VP and Regional Manager for SBS.
And Dave Boretti left his job as SVP Strategic Initiatives, Univision Radio Corporate Sales on Friday night.
It had been initially reported that Boretti had been hired at SBS, but in an email statement to Media Moves, he wrote: “For the record, I did resign from Univision last Friday, but have not joined SBS and am considering several different options, SBS being one of them.” He added that he “will be committing shortly to new job.”
“All these guys worked for me in corporate sales at Univision Radio,” says Jack Hobbs. “It’s a great thing for SBS. They have some power house guys coming to them.”
Jack Hobbs says he didn’t recruit any of the execs who decided to jump ship. He says they all independently approached SBS after he left.
“There was a loyalty factor and an environmental factor. They were looking at new challenges and the ability to think outside the box more than what was corralled at Univision, which is probably one of the bigger issues that had people starting to think about what was going on in the company,” says Hobbs.
When asked if there are institutional problems at Univision Radio, he would only say that “there’s now such a multi-layered decision making process that it’s starting to affect risk-taking.” But he insists, “It’s still a great company with a lot of potential in the market.”
Hobbs is confident he’ll be able to bring new ideas and help SBS become a leader in the industry. “I’ve got four good guys with me. We’re going to kick it. It’s going to be a challenge, but we have a lot of people who want us to succeed….We’re going to tear it up in 2013.”
Hobbs says SBS is in a great position to grow: “The company has four delivery channels – television, radio and digital delivery as well as the personal, in-touch concert delivery, where we can reach the consumer. We’re going to build it out to be competitive in the market and be #1 in the market, and the advertising community will see we’re shooting for that. We’ll also be building new relationships with other partners in the TV and radio world to extend the delivery.”
Although radio is the main delivery, Hobbs says having the “four tiers” was the most attractive “hook” for him and his team. “We have the sales know how and we have the routes. Now, its about building up the programs and the distribution system.
Raúl [Alarcón] has made a considerable investment in upgrading the programming, but also bringing in new people to sell, bring in new ideas and just an overall positive outlook to the community that he’s in it for the long haul.”
SBS has experienced its share of financial difficulties over the past few years. The company is scheduled to release its fourth quarter and full year 2012 financial results after the close of market today and will host a conference call to discuss them on Tuesday, April 2, 2013 at 11:00 am ET.
Correction: April 3, 2013
An earlier version of this article stated that Dave Boretti had immediately joined SBS after his resignation from Univision Radio. In an email statement to Media Moves sent on April 3, he wrote that wasn’t the case and that he is currently considering several job options, including one at SBS.