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The National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation is accepting entries for the 2018 Celebration of Service to America Awards, given for outstanding community service by local broadcasters. Winners will be recognized at the 20th annual Celebration of Service to America Awards gala held Tuesday, June 12, at the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, DC.

KFI-AM 640's seventh annual KFI PastaThon raised over $462,000, December 8. The proceeds from the 17-hour live broadcast will benefit Caterina’s Club, a charitable organization that feeds 3,500 underprivileged children five days a week in over 15 cities in Los Angeles and Orange County. All KFI-AM 640 on-air personalities were on site at the Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove.

SportsRadio 1310/96.7 The Ticket (KTCK-FM) in Dallas/Ft. Worth raised over $540,000 for the Austin Street Center during the Normathon series of events from December 7 through December 26. Normathon began with Twelve Days of Christmas leading up to the 18-hour broadcast on Tuesday, December 26.

Cumulus’ San Francisco stations KFOG, KGO, KNBR, KSAN, KSFO, and KTCT have raised $500,000 for the Bay Area Fire Relief Fund, bringing much-needed relief to victims of the massive Northern California wildfires.

106.5 KWHL/Alaska collaborated with the U.S. Marines to raise over $43,000 and received thousands of donated toys during their 25th Annual Toys for Tots toy drive. During the three-day event, December 13-15, the 106.5 KWHL on-air team broadcast live from 7a.m.-7 p.m.

It took quite a bit of research, however, according to WTOP's chief engineer Dave Garner, CBS took control of WJSV (the predecessor to WTOP) on October 20th, 1932. That would have made the station a CBS affiliate for just over 85 years. As of January 1st, ABC News became the primary news source for WTOP.

Our friends at The Skyview Network tell us that at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, Skyview successfully transitioned all 450 CBS News Radio’s affiliates to its distribution and inventory management platform. CBS News Radio made the announcement it was leaving Westwood One in August of 2017.

Kagan reports that mergers and acquisitions volume reached $748.8 million in the fourth quarter of 2017 and closed the year at $8.24 billion. It was the highest annual deal volume since 2014 and the third-highest since 2008. Radio deals in Q4 accounted for $248 million while TV hit $500 million. The biggest radio story of the year was...

(Bob McCurdy) Late last week I was on MSN.com and came across a banner ad for Pandora’s 2018 Definitive Guide to Audio. I clicked. As one would expect, there was a whole lotta skewing going on. The following looks to set the record straight.

(Buzz Knight) Scott Brown is the Senior VP for Engineering and Strategic Relations at Nielsen. His responsibility involves insights relating to impending changes to the media landscape, the impact of new technology, and the path of new advertising models. I talked to him about what to expect at CES 2018.