Headlines

The radio industry surely would not mind if a war of radio ads broke out in the insurance industry. Liberty Mutual wasn't even on the Media Monitors chart two weeks ago, but last week, the insurance provider came in at number seven.

AdLarge Media has signed the Weather Channel to an exclusive network radio ad sales agreement. As part of the arrangement, the Weather Channel radio network will join the AdLarge ROI Network. The Weather Channel’s weather services are heard on more than 100 radio stations.

Grace Broadcast Sales has released a new series of :45-second audio features on the lives and times of America’s first 40 presidents, entitled Presidential Portraits. The 40 produced features are designed for sponsorship by local advertisers and market exclusive. To hear a sample of these new features GO HERE.

WHCU Ithaca's popular radio show All Things Equal has received the "Serving New York Award" from the New York State Broadcasters Association. The award recognizes the extraordinary efforts of New York State’s broadcasters in serving their public interest every day. All Things Equal features in-depth conversations on race, class, diversity, sustainability, and other important issues.

That's the opinion of Community Broadcasters co-owner Bruce Mittman who we recently spoke with about how his company performed in Q3. We also asked Mittman about how he finds good salespeople, political advertising, his thoughts on 2017 and what he believes radio needs to do better in the coming years to compete with all the media choices in the marketplace today. One of the things Mittman says radio needs to improve on is building local stars. "We are not producing personalities as we have in the past given all the voice tracking and syndication." Here's our interview with Bruce Mittman

NJ.com has a very nice profile piece on WSOU in New Jersey. The station was awarded a Marconi award last month in Nashville. It's run by GM Mark Maben who tells the paper, the win was a reward for the university's philosophy, which is that the station needs to be entirely operated by students.

James Briggs of The Indianapolis Star writes that even though some investors were trying to sabatoge Jeff Smulyan's attempt to take the company private, they are happy he's still the person leading the company. And, at least one investor believes NextRadio is the technology that will change radio.

iHeart's V103 in Chicago made the announcement over the weekend that Herb Kent died Saturday night. "No words can express our great sense of loss. Herb was an iconic talent, who for nearly 70 years entertained millions of listeners in Chicagoland and around the world."

The former Boston Red Sox pitcher will be heard weekdays from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Eastern at the Conservative website starting today.

(By Roy Williams) The biggest mistake made by modern media buyers is that they pay too much of a premium for targeting. We live in an age that worships data, but what I’m about to tell you is the truth nonetheless.