Maybe this is why Glenn Beck is smearing his face in Cheetos dust. The Blaze empire is crashing, and the Beckster had to take out a loan. He had plenty of money to pay for those teddy bears and soccer balls for illegals, but he doesn’t even enough money to pay 40 employees of The Blaze who were recently laid off.
| Cheetos face Glenn Beck lays off 40 |
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Sources estimated that nearly 40 people are being laid off—including about 20 in New York, a dozen in Washington, five in Ohio and two or three working out of the LA office suite of former Blaze CEO Kraig Kitchin—in order to satisfy the requirements of a multimillion-dollar bank loan taken out recently to keep Beck’s revenue-challenged enterprise running.
Ironically, the mass layoffs are occurring shortly after the company hired CNN alumnus Matt Frucci, former executive producer of the cable network’s New Day morning show, to run The Blaze’s television operation in New York—which apparently will no longer exist.
New York-based radio and television personality Buck Sexton will remain with Beck’s operation, according to an informed source, although at least some of Sexton’s production staff are losing their jobs.
Radio industry guru Kitchin, a longtime mentor and business associate of the talented but erratic, radio performer and former Fox News personality, quit as CEO of The Blaze last February as turmoil reigned at the company’s suburban Dallas headquarters.Kitchin was replaced by digital startup entrepreneur Stewart Padveen, who sources said has been orchestrating the layoffs for the past several weeks.
Padveen was recruited to the company by Jonathan Schreiber, a mysterious figure nicknamed “Voldemort” by staffers, after the Harry Potter villain.
Schreiber, another digital industry denizen who showed up in the fall of 2014 as a consultant, worked his way into Beck’s confidence and was eventually named president of Mercury Radio Arts, Beck’s privately held umbrella company.