Cummings has been associated with Emmis and founder Jeff Smulyan in the early 1980s, and at one time was the president of Emmis Radio. In March 2009, he took the President of Programming post and last year accepted a deal that calls for automatic renewals every year. His 2010 base salary was $446,500 plus bonus, if certain benchmarks were hit. This year’s renewal is at the base rate of $455,000, again with a bonus compensation target worth 60% of the base. That would be as much as another $273,000. Cummings gets an automobile allowance, up to $5,000 a year to pay premiums for life insurance or other insurance, plus participation in the Emmis benefits program. His new contract states that if he is “not offered substantially similar employment upon the expiration of the [one-year] term and his employment terminates”, he gets severance of $470,000. He is also then entitled to a “four-year part-time programming role with total payments over the four years of $530,000.”