Headlines

Reuters is reporting iHeartMedia has brought in restructuring advisory firm Millstein & Company "to help it evaluate options for its debt, including buying some of it back." The company previously brought on investment bank Moelis & Co. as a financial adviser. iHeartmedia has $21 billion in debt. iHeart, then Clear Channel, was taken private for $26.7 billion in 2008. iHeartMedia had no comment about the Millstein & Company report in Reuters.

On Friday The FCC issued a public notice that June 24 is the date radio stations must begin uploading documents to the online public file. This applies to stations in the Top 50 markets with five or more full-time employees. You will not be required to place your political file in the online public file. For all the details, for all stations, check out the FCC's public notice HERE.

(By Stephanie Winans) Twitter was founded in 2006, has 310 million monthly active users today, and is the social media darling of TV. So why is radio still confused about how to use it? I blame the 140-character restriction. It’s scary. Kind of like when Randy Lane tells you that every sentence out of your mouth on the air needs to drive toward your story’s payoff…

The New York Daily News writes up a nice profile on Martinez, highlighting how important she is to the New York City Hip Hop scene. Martinez has a new book out called My Voice. A big part of the News story is the revelation that, in 2012, Martinez decided to jump from Emmis' Hot 97, where she'd been for two decades as "The Voice of New York," to work for iHeartMedia's Power 105.1, about which the News reports "her roster of celebrity fans flew into a frenzy." Martinez, now approaching 50, started out as an intern at Hot 97 at age 18.

And the Premiere-syndicated country radio personality confesses he spent thousands of dollars of his own money on negative billboards in Nashville to get people to like him when he first made the transition from pop to country radio several years ago. The Times excerpts Bones' book where he admits, “I launched a massive negative PR campaign against myself to garner sympathy.” Bones spent $13,000 for the billboards in Nashville, where he took over for radio legend Gerry House on WSIX.

College students have been accepted into the Institute from UGA, as well as other schools in the state, including: Piedmont College, Georgia Southern University, Clayton State University, Fort Valley State University, Georgia College and State University, Georgia State University, and Kennesaw State University.

The Maney, Roy and LauRen Morning Show on Beasley’s Top 40 WNKS in Charlotte hosted a marathon broadcast on May 12. Beginning at 6 a.m., the jocks vowed to stay on the air until they raised $51,000 for Levine Children’s Hospital.

(by Editor-in-Chief Ed Ryan) So many of us can remember getting that Chickenman cassette in the mail and playing it over and over as soon as it arrived. The creation of one of radio's most brilliant minds, turns 50 this year. Dick Orkin was born in Williamsport, PA, in 1933, and by age 16, he was ready to tackle radio.

This goes back to a story we reported on March 25. Cumulus filed a lawsuit against Amanda Rollen and Hoosier AM/FM, which operates five radio stations in Marion and four in Kokomo.