Headlines

Friends of 88.5 FM, a nonprofit community organization formed to preserve local National Public Radio affiliate KPLU, announced the official and final closing of the sale of KPLU. The new, community-owned station is 88.5 KNKX.

Warren Zimmerman is withdrawing as co-counsel for Bubba The Love Sponge in the ratings tampering case Nielsen has filed against Bubba. The Todd Foster Law Group is representing Bubba and Zimmerman is no longer an associate at that firm.

The radio imaging, voiceover, programming and jingles has launched Behind the Song, a series of 30-second audio documentaries that give radio listeners a look at the stories behind the biggest songs of all time.

Back in March, Westwood One promoted Kelli Hurley to Vice President of Digital Sales. Hurley now oversees all sales efforts for the company’s portfolio of digital products, including streaming audio, on demand, and podcasting. We recently spoke to Hurley in depth about radio's challenges of selling digital without losing focus on the most important radio revenue stream, spot sales.

Earlier this year, three articles about texting were published in Radio Ink. In the wake of these articles, many stations sought legal advice or contacted their texting provider for best practices. Thankfully, it isn’t all doom and gloom for stations interested in continuing their current texting programs or for those interested in the benefits of texting.

It could be curiosity because the format is new, it could be the market needed a Throwback Hip Hop station and Greater Media nailed it. Time will tell. For now, "105.1 The Bounce" in Detroit finished first in the ratings in every important demo according to Greater Media.

(By Dick Kalt) How many times have you hired people for positions, thinking they’d do a great job, only to find that it’s not working out as well as you’d hoped or expected? Either they just didn’t get it together, didn’t get along with others, or simply didn’t deliver a good work product. So you sent them packing.

Law360.com reports that Cumulus has, for now, won a lawsuit against former WAOA Melbourne, FL. DJ David Vickery who accused the company of failing to pay overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio Group announced it has formed an alliance with Marketron to establish the “MIW Rising Star Award,” in honor and memory of Renée Roth, Marketron’s long-time VP of International Sales. The award will go to the top scoring scholarship recipient from the Rising Through the Ranks program. Beasley Tampa GSM Erika Beasley (pictured here) will take home the inaugural award.

The San Diego Radio Broadcasters Association has merged all of its membership into the Southern California Broadcasters Association. The SCBA’s new combined membership of 168 radio stations now covers 56,000 square miles of Southern California, reaching 15.5 million radio listeners every week.