Activity Stream

From Radio Online: "Passing the Mantle," a new weekly podcast from LAist Studios, puts Larry Mantle behind the microphone in a way listeners have never experienced before. Host of KPCC (LAist 89.3)'s "Air Talk," the longest-running daily talk show in Southern California, Mantle is joined on the podcast by his son and co-host More...

From Radio Online: On July 27, 1996, a domestic terrorist's bomb shattered the safety of the Summer Centennial Olympic Games held in Atlanta, GA. The FBI's flawed search and the media's fixation on the wrong man have been the focus of this moment in history for nearly 30 years. But the story didn't end there. Eric Rudolph, More...

From Radio Online: For the twelfth edition of the Podcast Download series, Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights retained MARU/Matchbox to conduct an in-depth study of 603 weekly podcast consumers from April 19-24. Two studies are conducted annually. The Spring 2024 Report highlights trends from prior studies and More...

From Radio Insight: Midwest Communications AC “Mix 92.9” WJXA Nashville has announced the addition of Deanna Marie as new host of their evening show “Real Life”. Deanna joins WJXA from Beasley Media Philadelphia where she has been serving as a weekend and fill-in host at Rock 93.3 WMMR and Classic Rock 102.9 WMGK along with sister AC “Magic 98.3” WMGQ New Brunswick NJ since the demise of AC “Mix 99.5” WJBR Wilmington DE last October. She co-hosted mornings at WJBR for two years after spending three years in middays and mornings at Reno Media Group CHR ?Alice 96.5? KLCA Reno NV. Operations Manager Barbara Bridges stated, “We took our time with the search and found the perfect person to take nights to the next level. She’s the right fit for our audience and her warm upbeat delivery and talent for connecting to the target audience will be an ideal complement to our successful brand.” Marie commented, “I’m so excited to join this legendary brand and create something new and exciting at night.” “Real Life with Deanna” will air Sundays through Thursday from 7pm-12am taking over the slot that had been hosted by Anna Marie de la Vega and Karyce Garcia until they ended their show at the end of March. de la Vega moved to part-time with the station in semi-retirement. more

From Radio Online: Midwest Communications taps Deanna Marie for nights on AC WJXA (Mix 92.9) in Nashville, effective July 15. She was previously part of mornings at CHR KLCA in Reno, NV. From there Marie became the host of "Deanna and Justin in the Morning" at WJBR (Mix 99.5) in Wilmington, DE. Most recently, she hosted More...

From Radio Online: WCBS-FM/New York midday host Race Taylor inks a contract extension with Audacy Classic Hits outlet. He'll continue to be heard weekdays from 10am-3pm ET as he rings in 25 years on the air in New York City. Taylor joined WCBS-FM in 2019 after spending nearly 20 years at WPLJ-FM (95.5 PLJ). He also spent More...

From Radio Online: Cox Media Group welcomes the Tad, Drex andamp; Kara Show to mornings on Hot AC KRAV-FM (Mix 96.5) in Tulsa, effective July 8. The show features radio veterans Tad Lemire, Drex Rener and Kara Wilson and will air weekdays on Mix 96.5 from 6-10am. The addition marks a homecoming for Lemire, More...

From Radio Insight: I was eager to see the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 this week. Last week?s chart was the one that radio veteran Gene Baxter correctly identified as ?The Best Billboard Top 10 in Ages.? That’s because last week’s top 10 was populated by radio hits, not by outlier songs whose story depended entirely on first-week streaming numbers (although a few of them had started out that way). This week?s Top 10 is all radio hits as well, although how that happened is telling. Eminem?s ?Houdini,? his biggest radio record in years, fell 8-12, while Benson Boone?s ?Beautiful Things? rebounded 11-8. On Top 40 radio, ?Beautiful Things? is still the No. 3 song, proof of the difficulty that new songs have in reaching power rotation. (I think of ?Million Dollar Baby? and ?I Had Some Help? as well past the ?confirmed hit? point, but they?re not consensus powers at CHR at this writing, which is another discussion.) The excitement about what?s happening now at Top 40 has dragged me away from other things I planned to write about for the past three weeks now. This week, that?s just not about the chart, it?s about the emergence of a new possible core sound in the uptempo female pop that includes the rises of both Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, but goes beyond them. Despite this, each week, I try to be realistic. There are still a lot of asterisks: May?s PPM ratings winners were often in the high four-share range ? not something that would have been impressive a few years ago.* Nothing in the June ratings is promised. Few CHRs have been winning month after month after month. This week, there are only two songs that are bigger at CHR than the five-month-old ?Beautiful Things.? (That is, however, an improvement over songs lingering in power after 9-12 months in release, ?Calm Down? or ?Flowers?-style.) The Thursday night/Friday-morning new-release excitement has been inconsistent in the three weeks since Sabrina Carpenter?s ?Please Please Please,? now the Billboard No. 1. Top 40 is working its way back from a particularly scary moment, with May showing record lows as well as rebounds. When veteran consultant Alan Burns revived the ?What Women Want? study, he found surprisingly concrete dissatisfaction with the state of hit music, as he discusses here. Whether those numbers would be different today is interesting to ponder, but Burns?s numbers show the depths from which CHR has to rebound. For decades, consultant/veteran programmer Guy Zapoleon has been the creator/arbiter of the theory of top 40 cycles, although that theory has been tested recently by some music that seemed to typify his ?extremes? and ?doldrums? simultaneously.* Zapoleon says he will be willing to declare an up cycle for the format ?when we see great-looking Top 10s most weeks for months on end.? Even then, he notes, Top 40 up cycles used to be typified by a consistently great top 20. The CHR resurgence of 1983-85 is memorable because even the ?turntable? records ? the songs below the top 10 with airplay but no sales ? were great, too. These days, with fewer records being promoted to CHR, the opportunity for memorable turntable hits is a lot less available. It?s also hard to imagine getting to the point where there are so many hits that other great songs can?t find room at radio. The ?consistently radio-friendly Top 10? will have to survive the next time a superstar releases a new album and floods the Hot 100 with album cuts (although that served us pretty well with Billie Eilish?s ?Birds of a Feather?). Both Top 40 and the Hot 100 will have to make it through another December dominated by 30-to-60-year-old holiday songs. (We could plan for that one now. Labels could resolve to keep the product flowing; AC stations could crossplug their CHR sisters as the place to go when you want something else this season.) As for a ratings comeback, is it when we start having more discussions about stations in the high-5 share range? Is it when some of the market-exclusive CHRs in the 2-3 share range finally rebound? Country is as successful as any format dependent on current music, and yet even its numbers remain erratic from market to market. The proof of its rebound is most visible when you look at numbers at the national level, and so likely will it be for CHR. About that second core sound. The first was the emergence of a distinct Triple-A/acoustic flavor reminiscent of 1995 (Hootie, Sheryl Crow, Melissa Etheridge). I became considerably more excited about that possibility when Noah Kahan’s hits or Hozier?s ?Too Sweet? added some tempo to the equation. And the mid-’90s singer/songwriter sound turned out to work pretty well for CHR, as it happened, especially when there were other sounds (dance, teen pop, more R&B and Hip-Hop crossover) between them. I wonder if we’re seeing that moment now in the sudden rush of smart, uptempo pop from female acts: the surge of Sabrina Carpenter, the return of Billie Eilish and the possible comeback of Charli XCX, the breakthrough of Chappell Roan and the other potential hits beyond ?Good Luck Babe? on her debut album. If Taylor Swift?s ?I Can Do It With a Broken Heart? becomes a single, it will qualify as well. It?s a category that goes deeper than what CHR has tapped into. Last fall, I thought it could be the UK?s Maisie Peters and Canada?s Charlotte Cardin that filled that need. I still think the latter?s ?Confetti? ? worked only to Hot AC and a midcharter there ? could be the worldwide hit that it was in Canada, but Cardin has more on the album if it isn?t. Or it?s Remi Wolf, whose “Cinderella” I heard on the radio this week at Triple-A WNRN Richmond, Va.* Roan?s success and Charli XCX?s reemergence are often cited as the surfacing of a decade-old pop underground. But I also hear the new movement as informed by a diverse group of the female singer-songwriters of recent years. The common thread for those acts is a strong fan base and some radio support at Triple-A or Alternative (Claro, Phoebe Bridgers, Maggie Rogers, Sharon Van Etten, Caroline Polachek, Courtney Barnett, Beabadoobee) with music that was hooky and mid-to-uptempo, but nowhere near where Top 40 was at the time. In certain ways, “Good Luck, Babe!” is the crossover pop hit from the Boygenius album. Girl in Red was also on that list. Her new album, I?m Doing It Again Baby, is determinedly more poppy, and has 3-4 songs that would sound great at CHR. One of them is a duet with Carpenter, who has also emerged over the last three months as a core artist that radio helped develop. I’ve encountered some grumbling about “Espresso” being silly. “Please Please Please” has its own links to singer-songwriter world (and Abba) and makes her hard to pigeonhole. The most recent wave of punchy female pop is almost the inverse of the sometimes-severe streaming-driven male singer/songwriter music that has powered Country?s resurgence, also with its own connections to Triple-A. The newest incarnation of female pop is self-aware but not self-lacerating. Both are proving therapeutic for the audience in their own ways. I wanted to avoid the glibness of characterizing it as “I’m a loser” for the Country guys vs. “you’re a loser” for the pop women, but a lot of songs do fit that way. The new female pop is also coming along after the Triple-A crossovers in the same way that ?Wannabe? did in 1996-97. There?s no exact parallel ? that song was an established UK hit just waiting for America to notice ? but ?Espresso? is similarly confectionary. So is Roan?s ?Hot to Go,? which SiriusXM Hits 1 and KMVQ San Francisco are already playing. (In the music?s lyrical assertiveness, you could also make a case for cutting straight to the Alanis Morissette comparisons.) The new female pop, like Lady Gaga and Katy Perry in the late ?00s, has the advantage of being uptempo, slightly edgy but mainstream hit music that CHR and Hot AC could own. Like Country crossovers, or Country/dance-hybrid novelties, it would certainly be possible for radio to overindulge, and as with Country crossovers, the best way to combat that is by playing more than 14 currents and having a strong variety of everything. That?s something you can hear on this week?s Big Hits Energy playlist. The real test of a CHR resurgence is when the comeback is stronger than the throwbacks. Top 40 bottomed out because there was a moment where ?Everybody (Backstreet?s Back)? and ?Toxic? beat all comers. We are now at a place where I feel decisively that there is new music worth hearing. What?s missing now is depth and consistency, and even that is more attainable with a little radio and label enterprise.* more

From Radio Insight: The “Tad, Drex & Kara” morning show at Cox Media Group AC “B98.5” WSB-FM Atlanta is expanding to Tulsa as it debuted this morning of Cox Hot AC “Mix 96.5” KRAV. The move marks a return to Tulsa for host Tad Lemire, who hosted mornings at KRAV from 2013 to 2016 before moving to Atlanta. The show also features Kara Leigh and P.J. ?Drex? Rener. The show fills the opening created by the exit of KC Lupp in Cox’s layoffs last month. more

From Radio Insight: Audacy Classic Hits 101.1 WCBS-FM New York has announced the signing of midday host Race Taylor to a contract extension. Taylor is marking his 25th anniversary in New York. He spent twenty years at Cumulus Media Hot AC 95.5 WPLJ from 1999 until its sale in May 2019 and then joined WCBS-FM in July of that year. Prior to his arrival in New York, Taylor worked at WKRQ Cincinnati and KDMX Dallas and previously tracked shifts for Audacy Classic Hits stations in Dallas, Detroit, and Philadelphia. WCBS-FM Brand Manager/morning host John Foxx stated, “It?s been incredible to work alongside Race and watch him make meaningful relationships throughout the Tri-State for decades. He is a one-of-a-kind talent, and we?re thrilled to create many more memories with him as he continues to entertain our loyal listeners.” Taylor added, “I am elated to remain at Audacy surrounded by the infectious sound of these legendary stations and celebrate 25 years in New York City. The first note of thanks belongs to my wife, Patty, whose dedication to our family has been the very foundation of any success that has found me. I?m also grateful to Workhouse Media?s John McConnell for the friendship and guidance that has helped me navigate my career. I?m looking forward to the journey ahead supported by Chris Oliviero, Jim Ryan, John Foxx and the Audacy team in New York, who have made this achievement more special than I ever imagined.? more

From Radio Online: Beasley Media Group in New Jersey elevates Dan Mann to Digital Sales Manager, effective July 8. Mann, who joined the company in 2020, most recently served as a Client Services Manager at Beasley's Boston-based cluster. Prior to that, he worked as an Account Executive for WJBR-FM in Wilmington, DE before More...

From Radio Online: Podtrac has released the top U.S. and global publishers andamp; networks and top U.S. podcast rankings for May. U.S. UMA was up for two of the U.S. ranking participants (PodcastOne and Lemonada) in June over May. One of the U.S. ranking participants was up on U.S. Downloads month-over-month (Lemonada). Two of the More...

From Radio Online: Audacy and KWCH-TV, a CBS Wichita affiliate in Wichita, ink a partnership to launch a video simulcast of KFH-AM andamp; FM's morning show "Sports Daily" on the station's 12 News streaming service, 12 News Connected, beginning July 8. The show, which features co-hosts Jacob Albracht and Tommy Castor, airs weekdays More...

From Radio Online: Classic Rock WZBA (100.7 The Bay) in Baltimore appoints Michael Juliano as the new Vice President of Sales. He joins from Denver, CO, where he served as the General Sales Manager for Audacy's cluster there. Before his tenure in Denver, Juliano served as Market President and Chief Revenue Officer for More...

From Radio Insight: The Waters Group has launched Classic Hits “Sunny 106.5” 540 WGOP/106.5 W293DN Pocomoke City MD. Positioning as “Nobody Plays More 80s”, WGOP had been simulcasting Vinco Media’s “B106.1” WBBX Pocomoke City since returning to operation last year after its facilities were destroyed in a fire in August 2022. WBBX shifted from Classic Hits to 60s/70s Oldies in June upon the start of an LMA to Steve Clendenin’s Maryland Media One. The Waters Group acquired WGOP/W293DN in April 2023 from Birach Broadcasting. more

From Radio Insight: Radio Results Network has flipped two of its three Conservative Talk stations on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Oldies. 1320 WDMJ Marquette and 1450 WMIQ Iron Mountain are both running Local Radio Networks’ 1960s/70s based “Superhits” network. The Talk programming remains on 600 WCHT/93.5 W228DQ Escanaba. more

From Radio Insight: FCC ActionsThe FCC has released its quarterly station count. The number of licensed AMs continues to drop as fourteen were lost this quarter after going down by seventeen in the first quarter. Commercial FMs were down by 43 licenses lost this quarter, which was countered by non-commercial FMs rising by 36. This includes both licenses cancelled, new sign-ons, and commercial licenses reallocated as non-commercial. AM FM Commercial FM Educational Total Radio LPFM FM Translators Boosters Total Broadcast Jan 1970 4269 2083 399 6751 0 n/a n/a Dec 1990 4987 4392 1440 10819 0 1866 19939 Dec 1995 4909 5296 1815 12020 0 1541 22683 Sep 1999 4783 5766 2066 12615 0 3237 24575 Dec 2003 4794 6217 2552 13563 0 3834 26613 Dec 2008 4786 6247 3040 14253 859 6120 29832 Dec 2013 4727 6612 4019 15358 776 6054 30432 Dec 2018 4619 6754 4135 15508 2172 7952 33342 Dec 2019 4593 6772 4135 15500 2169 8182 33513 Dec 2020 4551 6699 4195 15445 2136 8420 33564 Dec 2021 4509 6676 4204 15389 2069 8866 33467 Dec 2022 4484 6686 4207 15377 2015 8950 33517 Sep 2023 4452 6670 4263 15385 1978 8928 33447 Dec 2023 4444 6663 4286 15393 1967 8927 33428 Mar 2024 4427 6663 4320 15380 1960 8913 33344 July 2024 4413 6620 4356 15389 1965 8906 33326 WP Data TablesThe FCC has stated that its recent reinstatement of the FM duplication rule will take effect on Friday, August 2. Any license that exceeds the duplication allowance will be given a six month grace period until February 3, 2025. Any station that is planning to apply for a waiver are encouraged to submit the request by October 31. If done, that station will be allowed to continue duplicating programming until the waiver request is denied, but the FCC may give the station up to six additional months to come into compliance. Pine City Radio has been issued an Order to Show Cause for failing to pay regulatory fees for 2020 through 2023 for their Classic Country “Bama 106.1” WBMH Grove Hill and Variety Hits “Smash Hits 94.5” WHOD Jackson AL. WBMH owes a combined $5536.37 and WHOD owes $6378.06 plus additional interest with the commission deducting a previous overpayment of $105.40 from what is owed upon written request. Silent Notifications UM Enterprise LLC’s 1110 WTOF Bay Minette AL (Tower work commencing) Dockins Communications’ 92.1 WPRY-FM Perry FL (Damaged coaxial cable) Legend Communications’ 96.5 KLGT Buffalo WY (Intermittent power loss) Legend Communications’ 98.3 KZZS Story WY (Intermittent power loss) FM ChangesPress Communications’ 99.7 WBHX Tuckerton NJ applies to increase power from 650w/178m to 1kW/174m. WBHX simulcasts Classic Rock “107.1 The Boss” WWZY Long Branch. Starlite Broadcasting Hot AC “96.5 The Beach” KLTG Corpus Christi proposes to relocate to the tower utilized by Malkan Interactive Communications’ 92.7 KKBA and 95.5 KZFM with 100kW/241.8m. The Marconi Broadcasting Foundation’s CP for 88.5 WQNP Narragansett RI applies to amend its CP to operate with 130w/51m. Translator Changes Station Owner Freq City ST Power/HAAT Rebroadcast 94.5 K233DV Draper UT Hi-Line Radio Fellowship 94.5 Draper UT 99w vert/-1556m 1320 KNIT Salt Lake City 94.5 K233DI Provo UT Sanpete County Broadcasting Co. 94.5 Provo UT 150w vert/-1508m 105.1 KUDD American Fork 103.7 W279AR Jesup GA Shanks Broadcasting 103.7 Brunswick GA 250w/114m 790 WSFN Brunswick 100.7 W264CH Tomahawk WI Albert Broadcasting II 97.7 Tomahawk WI 250w/80m 810 WJJQ Tomahawk WP Data TablesPrimary Station ChangesStu-Comm Inc.’s 95.3 W237DF Lexington VA will continue to carry the AAA programming of 91.9 WNRN-FM Charlottesville, but changes parent signal to their 94.3 WTON-FM Staunton. Butte Broadcasting Company’s 104.5 K283AR and 105.7 K289CH Chico CA are swapping primary signals. K283AR will now be fed by 104.9 KYIX-HD2 South Oroville while dropping its rebroadcast of Christian Preaching 930 KKXX/103.9 K280GL Chico to instead carry EMF’s “K-Love” Christian AC network. Classic Hits “Sunny 105.7” K289CH moves to KYIX-HD3. Call Letter Changes91.1 NEW Fox AR -> KVGF (effective 7/11) 104.1 KCGK Lutesville MO -> KQLS (effective 7/12) 1570 WFTU Riverhead NY -> WBZO (effective 8/17) more

From Radio Online: Shanks Broadcasting of Macon, GA has agreed to acquire translator W279AR (103.9) in Jesup, GA from NIA Broadcasting of Kingsland, GA for $20,000. Shanks Broadcasting is a sports network headed by Managing Partner Bill Shanks. The company owns nine stations in Macon, middle Georgia More...

From Radio Online: iHeartPodcasts will launch a new weekly podcast entitled "Politickin"' with hosts California Governor Gavin Newsom, Super Bowl champion Marshawn "Beast Mode" Lynch and agent Doug Hendrickson. Listeners can hear the premiere episode's debut on July 15. The trio of hosts will have compelling and enlightening More...

From Radio Online: Philadelphia sports radio host Howard Eskin has been suspended from attending Phillies home games for the remainder of the season. This decision follows investigations by Audacy, which revealed that Eskin kissed an employee of Citizens Bank Park's food service provider Aramark without consent. Audacy, More...

From Radio Online: In 2017, The Atlantic ran a story entitled "Podcasting is the new Talk Radio." It argued that podcasting takes the "codes and crafts" of radio but adds "flexibility and chronicity -- whenever and wherever you want, but you'll hear from us again next week." While the intervening years are proving this More...

From Radio Insight: Each year SiriusXM?s Yacht Rock Radio reignites some ongoing, mostly playful skirmishes among radio people and music fans. Is ?Yacht Rock? what the term?s creators define it as ? ?70s/early-?80s soft rock with some element of R&B/jazz/disco fusion? Is it what SXM plays ? a wider version of soft pop from the late ?70s/early ?80s? Why are we canonizing this music from pop music?s doldrums in the first place? But if you?re eager to play along with that discussion, SXM has just launched Yacht Soul,as a pop-up format currently appearing on SiriusXM?s channel 105 through July 8, after which time it will remain available on the SXM app. The channel is hosted by George Benson, whose reminiscences about songs and artists are interspersed several times an hour. The new channel is a reminder of R&B?s place at the center of yacht rock. However much weight you want to put on them at a fraught time for pop music, I?d rather hear Benson?s ?Give Me the Night? or ?Turn Your Love Around? than a lot of other hits from the same period. In turn, Benson, Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau, and George Duke & Stanley Clarke were chief among the artists who were able to cross over during the worst moments of the ?disco backlash? that kept other great things happening in R&B away from pop radio in 1980-82. Like SXM?s Yacht Rock Radio, Yacht Soul is a broad mix of mellow R&B from the same era. The hook promos include some things that seem defining (Dennis Edwards? ?Don?t Look Any Further,? Bobby Caldwell?s ?What You Won?t Do for Love,? Chaka Khan?s ?Through the Fire?) and others that feel less likely (Evelyn King?s ?Love Come Down,? Diana Ross? ?Love Hangover,? Natalie Cole?s ?Sophisticated Lady?). Chances are you just disagreed with at least one of my characterizations. Such is the discussion. Here?s Yacht Soul at 9:30 a.m. on July 3: Fourplay, ?101 Eastbound? ? early ?90s instrumental that seems like more of a fit for Smooth Jazz Brothers Johnson, ?Strawberry Letter 23? Quincy Jones f/Patti Austin, ?Something Special?* Kool & the Gang, ?Too Hot? ? preceded by a vignette of George Benson talking about witnessing the band?s ascent Brenda Russell, ?New York Bars? ? her hits (?So Good So Right? and ?Piano in the Dark?) were nearly a decade apart, in 1979 and 1988; this is from a 1983 album Bill Withers, ?Lovely Day? Patti Labelle, ?New Attitude? Manhattans, ?Shining Star? Average White Band, ?School Boy Crush? L.T.D., ?Love Ballad? ? Benson talks about hearing the original for the first time: ?One of the best songs I ever heard.? Later, he would have a 1979 hit with his own uptempo version Atlanta Rhythm Section, ?So Into You? ? It did crack the R&B chart (No. 93) in 1977. Not the hit single, but what sounded like a longer album version William DeVaughn, ?Be Thankful for What You Got? ? 1974 hit that seems prescient in this context Bee Gees, ?How Deep Is Your Love? Lionel Richie, ?All Night Long (All Night)? El DeBarge, ?Someone? George Benson, ?This Masquerade? ? Benson talks about not knowing the Leon Russell original, or Russell, when the song was brought to him, and his initial reluctance to cover it, or include a vocal on the Breezin? album more

From Radio Insight: ‘Jeff Jacobs’ Huffman’s Jacobs Radio Programmings purchases Classic Hits “Radio Clatsop” 840 KSWB/98.1 K251CD Seaside OR from John Chapman’s KSWB Productions for $50,000. With an LMA starting on July 1, KSWB becomes Jacobs’ third property in the northwest corner of Oregon joining Rock “93.3 The Rock” KEUB Gearhart and Country “C96” 96.5 KCYS Seaside. Northeast Digital and Wireless sells 1420 WRSA St. Albans VT to Kalani Bowles’s Sky Radio & Press LLC for $25,000. Bowles most recently worked as a news reporter for iHeartMedia Cape Cod and has also held positions at television stations in Albany NY the Quad Cities. WRSA currently simulcasts Hot AC “Mix 102.3” WIXM Grand Isle/Burlington. Batten Communications’ WCHM Radio Inc. sells Conservative Talk 1490 WCHM/94.3 W232DU Clarkesville GA to Catherine Cleiman’s Cleiman Communications LLC for $450,000. Batten retains three other station in North Georgia: 1230 WJUL/97.5 W248BJ Hiawassee, 1300 WJBB/107.1 W296CX Winder, and 95.1 WJRB Young Harris. Bott Radio’s Community Broadcasting acquires a pair of Construction Permits in Arkansas. Community Broadcasting buys 91.1 in Fox AR from Meadowcreek Inc. and 91.9 Clarksville from Johnson County Community Radio Inc. for $750 each. Translator SalesShanks Broadcasting buys 103.7 W279AR Jesup GA from Neal Ardman’s NIA Broadcasting for $20,000. The translator is licensed to rebroadcast Augusta Radio Fellowship’s 88.3 WLPT Jesup. more

From Radio Insight: Following the move of WKIO-FM to 105.5 along with a flip from Classic Hits to Classic Rock, Central Illinois Multimedia Group has flipped 107.9 WDWS-FM Arcola/Champaign IL to Country “107.9 The Rooster“. Rimshotting Champaign from the south, the station is featuring Premiere Networks’ Bobby Bones Show in mornings and Audacy’s Katie & Company in afternoons. The station becomes the third Country station in the market joining Saga’s 100.3 WIXY and Stevie Jay Broadcasting’s “US 105.9” WGKC. more

From Radio Insight: Townsquare Media relaunched Classic Hits 98.7 WFGR Grand Rapids MI as “98.7 The Grand“. Now focusing on Rock leaning artists from the 1970s and 80s, the station is positioning as “Timeless Hits of the 70s, 80s and More.” Core artists are noted as including Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Billy Joel, The Eagles, John Mellencamp, Bob Seger, Steely Dan, REO Speedwagon, the Steve Miller Band and Tom Petty. Townsquare Media Michigan VP/Content Eric Meier will host middays on the station. Cluster Production Director and Rock 97.9 WGRD midday host Janna Hoke will follow in afternoons. The station’s morning show will be jockless outside of news and weather updates from WXMI-TV. WFGR ranked ninth in the Grand Rapids market with a 3.2 share in May 2024 Nielsen Audio ratings where it trailed iHeartMedia’s Oldies “101.3 Big-FM” WBFX’s 4.5 share. more

From Radio Insight: The on-air staff cuts across Alpha Media reached Anchorage AK today. While not a near-complete purge like we have seen in other markets. a number of staffers have exited the cluster including the entire staff of “Classic Country 100.9” KAYO Wasilla. The company will also close its offices in Wasilla that housed KAYO and consolidate all operations into its Anchorage facility. Among the staffers exiting are: Kathy Mitchell, morning host at KAYO and midday host at Country “K-Bear 104.1” KBRJ. Mitchell joined KAYO in 2009 after two long stints at sister Rock 106.5 KWHL where she was also Music Director. Steve ‘DJ Lefty’ Franklin, APD/afternoon host at KBRJ and cluster Production Director. He previously has worked in the market at “Movin 105.7” KMVN. Eric Price departs as afternoon host at Classic Hits “Kool 97.3” KEAG and midday host at KWHL where he used the on-air name ‘Generic Eric’. Norman Bouchard is out as midday host at KAYO after less than a year. Bouchard joined the station in August 2023 after retiring from his 29 year career as a high school teacher and coach. Roxi Lennox exits as Brand Manager and afternoon host at KAYO. She previously also hosted middays on KEAG during her most recent stint with the company. Lennox also spent four years in sales and co-hosting mornings at iHeartMedia Country 107.5 KASH-FM from 2010 to 2014 and served as PD/morning co-host at Morris Communications (now Alpha) Hot AC “Mix 103” KMXS from 1997 to 2008. more

From Radio Insight: As part of cutbacks last week, Paramount Global deleted the digital archives of MTV News, CMT, Comedy Central and many other cable networks. Gone are over two and half decades of news stories about artists, clips of historical significance from The Daily Show and Colbert Report, and even things like lists of the Greatest Country Albums of All Time. The archives include years or decades of work of writers and hosts that are now mostly gone (Archive.org has archived over 460,000 stories from MTV News at least). When a host or show are let go from a radio station, the first thing most do is delete their entire existence from their digital platforms. Blog posts, podcasts, anything that shows the content they created for the station. And the same goes for internal archives. When a format changes, there goes everything that existed on the frequency previously. How many stations still have any audio recorded on analog devices that have to be digitized or even have archives of any sort for their station’s legacy? And that doesn’t include how many assets of a station have been lost in studio moves and downsizing. Now what happens when the guy who hosted weekend shifts in college becomes the next Ryan Seacrest and you have nothing to show for it? Or when the local kid who sang on your morning show becomes a #1 artist a decade later? Who will have the archives? How many on-air talents are allowed to take their content archives with them when they get caught in a layoff? We can’t rely on just Art Vuolo or one of the few remaining vocal aircheck collectors out there to provide any content forever. A couple of years ago I was visiting a station and noticed a computer with a bumper sticker for a defunct brand in the engineering room. The engineer goes, “Oh this is all that remains of that. Last week we cleaned out our storage area and threw out all remaining materials for it”. Not even six weeks later that brand was resurrected. While it may be hard to consider at the time, I bet there were super-fans of the defunct brand who would’ve loved to have come by to get some mementos from their station, or if the leftovers were put up for sale on eBay to raise money for charity? There are stations that do consider how much their brand assets matter. And because of that their brand legacies are enhanced. Some like Ryman Hospitality’s WSM Nashville have decades of success behind it. As WSM prepares its move into their new studio location at the Acuff House later this month, Chief Engineer Jason Cooper recently spotlighted the almost completed construction with a station museum in the lobby. During a recent trip to St. Louis, we visited Gateway Creative Broadcasting’s “99.1 Joy-FM” KLJY and “Boost Radio“. Despite not existing until after the turn of the century, the organization has built such a loyal following that the lobby of their studios features a massive retail store and occasional pop-ups across the market. The brand equity in having archived content and materials is not something that will make a real impact to a station’s bottom-line, but fanaticism for a brand is the difference between a station that has a few core listeners and one that your audience will dedicate their dollars to support. “99X” Atlanta and “Live 105” San Francisco were able to return and become even bigger ratings successes because they were stations that had personality archives and legacy to build off of. more

From Radio Insight: University of Northwestern – St. Paul’s Northwester Media has announced a number of promotions at its stations in Kansas City and Omaha. The moves start with “Life 88.5” KJNW Kansas City General Manager Dave Gordon and “Life 100.7” KGBI-FM Omaha Station Manager Suzanne Happs rising to Senior Directors of Media Markets for the company. Gordon has led KJNW since 2013 after previous stints as Executive Director for Bethesda Christian Broadcasting and APD/afternoon host of KXOJ Tulsa. Happs joined KGBI in 2018 after roles as Assistant Operations Director and afternoon co-host at WCIC Peoria IL, Operations Director at WPFF Sturgeon Bay WI, and Station Manager of WMSJ Freeport ME. Succeeding Gordon at KJNW is Adam Hannan in the role of Station Manager. Hannan joined KJNW last October as Operations Director after previously serving has Station Manager for “Life 101.9” KNWS Waterloo IA. In Omaha, Operations Director/Program Director Jeremy Tracey rises to Station Manager and APD Lindsay Martin rises to Program Director. Underwriting Director Nick Kalina has been named Assistant Program Director. more

From Radio Insight: iHeartMedia Hot AC “Mix 96.9” KMXP Phoenix has made a noticeable music shift over the past couple of weeks into a much more Pop/Alternative lean. The move give more musical separation between KMXP and co-owned AC “99.9 KEZ” KESZ and CHR “104.7 Kiss-FM” KZZP, while more directly targeting Hubbard Alternative “Alt AZ 93.3” KDKB. The move sees the station drop artists such as Ariana Grande, Bruno Mars, Justin Bieber, and Justin Timberlake and add currents from Zach Bryan, Good Neighbors, Royel Otis, and Mark Ambor. The 5pm hour on Tuesday, July 2 featured: Luke Combs – Fast Car Green Day – Holiday Taylor Swift ft. Post Malone – Fortnight Blues Traveler – Run Around Eddie Vedder – Save It For Later Jimmy Eat World – The Middle Zach Bryan ft. Kasey Musgraves – I Remember Fall Out Boy – Uma Thurman Benson Boone – Slow It Down Sublime – Santeria Post Malone ft. Morgan Wallen – I Had Some Help O.A.R. – Shattered (Turn The Car Around) Rosa Linn – Snap INSTANT INSIGHT: KMXP ranked fifteenth in the Phoenix market with a 2.6 share in the May 2024 Nielsen Audio ratings. It was the only iHeartMedia station not to place in the top five in Women 25-54 as it was sixth. The aforementioned KDKB was third. more

From Radio Insight: The first of two possible format changes in Asheville NC took place this morning as Saga Communications flipped ?Pure Oldies 97.3? W247BV/96.5 WOXL-HD3 Asheville to Spanish CHR “La Pantera 97.3“. The station is utilizing the branding and programming designed by Spanish language programming consultant Gerardo Lopez with a mix of Regional Mexican and Spanish pop music. Lopez also is President of Programming for Costa Media with the brand heard on stations in markets including Boston, San Antonio, and Washington DC as well as Dick Broadcasting stations in New Bern NC and Hilton Head SC. Lopez stated, “I’m very excited for La Pantera radio network to continue to grow now in Asheville. We are grateful for our partnership with Asheville Media Group to give us the opportunity to serve our growing Hispanic community.? Saga Asheville Market Manager Tom Davis commented, ?Our team felt it was time to launch Asheville?s first Spanish language radio station and mentioned the idea to friends at Hola Carolina. Hola Carolina builds bridges between cultures and embraces the diversity of our community. They were excited to hear our vision for this brand and offered valuable insight and advice. t?s been hard to keep this exciting news to ourselves, but we?ve had overwhelming support from clients who will have an opportunity to reach a portion of the population they have been unable to reach until now. We?re thrilled that La Pantera 97.3 is on the air in western North Carolina.? Local programming will be added in the near future. more