Headlines

91.9/91.5 and 88.5 The Family is pleased to announce the final results of their 24th annual “Help for the Homeless” hygiene drive. More than $300,000 dollars’ worth of new hygiene and cleaning products were donated to 82 local crisis programs in 15 communities in their listening areas.

(By Deborah Parenti) Every year, Radio Ink salutes America’s best program directors. It’s a major undertak­ing, headed by Editor-in-Chief Ed Ryan and a board of dedicated programming professionals. For weeks, they cull through and carefully evaluate hundreds of nominations, finally determining the 50 who are “the cream of the crop.” I, however, have a very important question to ask...

Our conversation with Adams Radio President Ron Stone sure was lively yesterday, so in case you missed it, we encourage you to read what Stone had to say about Digital as well as all the comments that followed. Stone is part of the upcoming Independent Warrior Special Report in the May 23 issue of Radio Ink Magazine.

Nielsen does not want radio stations learning the identity of its PPM panel participants. They are crystal clear on that. A contest Cumulus Atlanta Top 40 station WWWQ ran was leaning in that direction and Nielsen flagged the station for doing so. Nielsen notified subscribers about the incident under the heading "Ratings Bias/Ratings Distortion." Here are the details...

MySA.com is reporting that the upcoming May 16 court showdown between iHeartmedia and some of its bondholders will remain in Bexar County, Texas. A state district court judge has denied a motion by the bondholders to change the jurisdiction of iHeart’s lawsuit.

Thanks to Dennis Wharton at the NAB for sharing this article written by music industry executive Iving Azoff in recode. Azoff slammed YouTube for its double-speak on how the company values music, yet pays artists a pittance of what they should be paid.

Online radio imaging service Phantom Producer has announced the issuance of a U.S. Patent for its Web-based application for managing and combining syndicated imaging audio with local station jingles and IDs. The invention allows radio stations to access radio imaging services covering nine different formats.

Jeremy Leahy is the host of a program called Standing Ground. He has quite an interesting story after being let go by CBS Radio back in 2008. Leahy spent around 10 years in the radio business as a producer and on air talent. He thought he had shut the door on radio forever after being let go, then he says, something wonderful happened

(By Ryan Wrecker) Tow Center for Digital Journalism project leader Vanessa Quirk studied why podcasting matters to the future of digital journalism, and she had the same questions you have: “Are people actually familiar with podcasts? Are they viable now, and are they sustainable in the long term?”

The Home Depot (47,622) and GEICO (43,753) remain at the top of the Media Monitors weekly spot chart for the week ending May 6. Lowe's moves up one spot to number three airing 34,969 commercials on radio stations all across the country. McDonald's also moved up one position to number four with 27,226 spots and ProFlowers moved from 9th to round out the top five, with 23,580.