Headlines

WSOY News/Talk 1340AM/103.3 FM has been named “Community Partner of the Year” by the Kroger Central Division at their Vendor and Community Partner of the Year Awards Ceremony in Carmel, Indiana, on Tuesday, March 28.

ESPN Radio reaches another milestone April 2, when they throw out the first pitch on their 20th Major League Baseball season. The network's coverage of 71 games will include multiple appearances from several "gun" teams, including the defending World Series Champion Chicago Cubs.

To nail it down to the last buck, the station (aka WXLC-FM) raised $18,719 for St. Baldrick’s during their annual "Hair for Hope" event, March 19 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Green Town Tavern in Waukegan.

Alpha Media’s Mankato (Minnesota) cluster – KYSM, KRBI, KEEZ, and KMKO – raised $63,885 with their St. Jude Cares for Kids Radiothon. The radiothon was held March 23-24 and was the 16th for the Mankato group.

Speaking at the Radio Ink Hispanic Radio Conference on Tuesday, FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly told attendees this new FCC, under the Chairmanship of Ajit Pai, would be paying a lot more attention to issues that affect the radio industry. And it sounds like this FCC will be dealing with those issues in a very positive way for you. One of the issues O'Rielly spoke about was the FCC's outdated media ownership rules.

Getting pirate radio broadcasters off the air has been a pet peeve of FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly for a very long time. At Radio Ink's Hispanic Radio Conference in Fort Lauderdale, O'Rielly's tune didn't change on the issue. In fact, he said it's still a huge problem in South Florida and has a disproportionate impact on the Hispanic radio community. But he went even further.

Things might be different today, according to a panel at the Radio Ink Hispanic Radio Conference on Tuesday. The panel was entitled, "What We Learned From the Election & Where We Go From Here." The NAB's Dennis Wharton pointed out that Donald Trump won a higher percentage (29%) of the Hispanic vote in 2016 than Mitt Romney (27%) did when he ran for President.

During our panel on the 2016 political election, former CBS Radio VP Harvey Nagler said the mood of the country is polarized and there is no leadership to bring it together. "It's a sad situation," he said, adding he's never seen people so mad at the state of the country. He also had an opinion about the President saying the media was the enemy.

The winners of the annual Medallas de Cortez (sponsored by vCreative) awards for excellence in Hispanic Radio were announced Tuesday at the Hispanic Radio Conference in Fort Lauderdale. Prestigious Broadcaster of the Year ho nors went to SBS EVP/Programming and Multi-Platform Coordinator Jesus Salas, while, as previously announced, Frank Montero of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth received the Distinguished Leadership Award.

The 7th Annual Meggan Morency Wild West Night, recently held at Alligator Ron Bergeron’s Green Glades Ranch in Weston, Florida, was attended by over 700 people; $80,000 was raised, which will go to equine-assisted activities and therapy programs at Bit-By-Bit Medical Therapeutic Riding Center.