Headlines

The application window is now open for the Mentoring & Inspiring Women in Radio 2019 Mildred Carter MIW Group Mentoring Program. Currently in its 18th year, the program pairs up-and-coming women, who currently work in the radio industry, with female professionals recognized as leaders. The deadline to apply is Wednesday, February 20, 2019.

SiriusXM CEO James Meyer detailed them in the company conference call on Wednesday. He said the number one challenge was active users and listener hours. And then there's that little bugaboo about actually making money. SiriusXM is expected to close on its purchase of Pandora tomorrow.

SiriusXM CEO James Meyer says he quickly made the decision to consolidate the G&A functions and have the Pandora business units report directly to him. "My goal is to streamline decision-making, increase the speed of integration, and manage the businesses holistically from day one."

There's certainly no doubt that SiriusXM is a player in the vehicle. The company reports it now has 34 million people who pay for their service. They also report that 117 million vehicles now on the road are equipped with their radio service. So that's at least 83 million vehicles with inactivate satellite radios, compared to 100% activation of traditional radios, of course.

Over the past several months there's been a lot of reporting that President Donald Trump has been listening to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter when it comes to funding a border wall. Former House Speaker John Boehner added more fuel to that fire this week.

It happened to Boswell Media's tower in Kosciusko, Mississippi, after a line of storms rolled through town. The tower was hit by lightning and Johnny Boswell's stations were off the air for days. They are back up now but with "somewhat diminished coverage," Boswell told Newscenter 11.

The headline in The Sun Sentinel reads, "Listeners outraged after Paul Castronovo radio show tweets photo of crucified iguana." It's obviously hard to know exactly how many listeners were outraged but one thing you should know is that Castronovo did not crucify an iguana.

The FCC is back at full capacity after the Wednesday swearing in of Commissioner Geoffrey Starks. The former FCC staffer said he's deeply honored to serve as FCC Commissioner. "Throughout my entire career I've focused on protecting the most vulnerable and holding wrongdoers accountable. I’ll continue to pursue those goals in my new job."

The Nebraska Radio Network and The South Carolina Network were both shut down Tuesday. A statement from Learfield spokeswoman Jennifer Duncan to several regional newspapers said the two networks underperformed for several years and showed little opportunity for growth.

iHeartLatino head Enrique Santos gives us a peek inside how iHeart has taken on the Latin music lover and Spanish-language audio content consumer.