Headlines

In a week that saw Geico hold its lead as radio's biggest advertiser (38,647 spots), according to Media Monitors, Burger King leapt from #17 all the way to number two with 26,585 commercials aired. Close rival McDonald's was #3.

Intelligence For Your Life with John Tesh, Connie Sellecca, and Gib Gerard has renewed its partnership with Westwood One in a new multi-year agreement. Westwood One has represented the program for 15 years. The show airs on over 280 radio stations.

And it's not the iHeartRadio Music Festival party we're referring to. KPLV-FM's Party format is history. iHeart flipped the station from a Top 40 format called "The Party" to an Adult Hits format called "The Mountain." The new format will feature songs from the 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s.

Reuters is reporting that CBS Radio, which the CBS mothership is planning to shed, is preparing to take on $1.5 billion in debt ahead of its IPO and use the proceeds to pay CBS Corp. Reuters reports that CBS's debt offering will be split between bonds and loans, and could happen this year.

He's had about a year of downtime since he was replaced at Cumulus and the former Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey spent eight months of that year writing a book about the media business.

(By Wayne Ens) In the days when consumers had to drive all over town to search for businesses and product information, it was often said the three keys to success were “Location, location, location.” Today, businesses and competitive product information can be found from the comfort of your home in seconds, with the click of a mouse.

(By Ronald Robinson) I have only occasionally thought of myself as sporting anything even slightly close to a sadistic personality, especially when I’m not appropriately dressed for the part. Very few in the audience saw me on the radio. I wasn’t brandishing a riding crop and I wasn’t ordering anybody around. I wasn’t contagious, either. But, as partial full disclosure, I might yet be an assertive carrier.

In one of the final sessions at the Radio Show last week in Nashville, Gordon Borrell hosted a presentation called "Radio – the Local Media Company of the Future." Borrell said whether or not your salespeople understand digital will be a big driver of your success, especially understanding Facebook, which he says a lot of advertisers are turning to. And, Borrell said, "In a lot of cases, your salespeople are not very bright."

(By Bob McCurdy) The RealityMine 2016.1 USA TouchPoint data has just come out and it again confirms AM/FM’s audio dominance. The data is a combination of fieldwork conducted March-November 2015 and January-April 2016.

(By Roy Williams) The reason most radio people write poorly is because they read too many blogs, tweets, news stories, and Facebook posts. As you read, so will you write.