Headlines

It's now official. After nearly 30 years as an Alternative Rocker, iHeart is flipping that format in Dallas to a Mainstream AC and will call it "Star 102.1." The new station blasted off Thursday evening with commercial-free Christmas music.

Warm 106.9/KRWM in Seattle will keep listeners jolly through the holidays according to Hubbard Seattle Market Manager Marc Kaye. Kaye said the station also will be aligned with many of the area's biggest holiday events, including My Macy’s Holiday Parade/Westlake Tree Lighting/Redmond Lights/Kent Winterfest and the Great Figgy Pudding Caroling Competition!

San Francisco-based Alien Imaging has a new, subscription-based sound effects service, AI-FX Monthly. The service delivers monthly sound effects packages to radio stations of all formats and market sizes for barter.

(By Ronald Robinson) After swapping a few very cordial emails with a well-known and credible sales-man/copywriter, it was confirmed: He and I are operating, generally, from polarized models-of-communication for radio. Besides being an impressive, creative talent, he is very much a copywriting traditionalist. But then, so is everybody else.

It was the 4th annual Share the Warmth Coat Drive for Alpha Media, North Dallas-Sherman-McKinney, October 3 to November 4. More than 3,000 coats were collected at over 50 locations for those in need. The coats were cleaned and repaired by Texas Laundry and Dry Cleaning.

Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins was at the podium at Forecast 2017 Wednesday when his mother, Radio One Founder Cathy Hughes, accepted her Lifetime Achievement Award from Radio Ink. Humble as always, Hughes thanked everyone in the audience for their help when she first started out in the radio business. Pictured with Ms. Hughes here are Liggins, Radio Ink Publisher Deborah Parenti, Radio Ink Chairman Eric Rhoads, and Dan Mason.

In his Forecast 2017 keynote address Wednesday, Borrell Associates CEO Gordon Borrell gave the radio industry five issues they should look out for in the year ahead. Here's what they are...

That's what The Tennessean is reporting. The paper says it’s all part of the company's upcoming spin-off from CBS Corporate and the jobs would be mostly back-office functions. The paper reports CBS Radio would invest $5 million in two possible downtown locations being considered.

The exclusive data partner of the Broadcaster Traffic Consortium, HERE, which produces mapping and location technology, announced that its HD+ Traffic service will be available in select 2017 Hyundai cars sold in the U.S. and Canada. HERE HD+ Traffic is a distribution mechanism that offers drivers real-time traffic information by combining broadcast and connected vehicle technology.

WAMU's (American University Radio) new show 1A is all about changing America. The live two-hour daily national program will be hosted by Joshua Johnson (pictured), "leading a daily conversation about the most important issues of our time."