News

(By John Garziglia) Rolling Stone recently published an article on payola titled “Want to Get on the Radio? Have $50,000?” alleging that pay-for-play remains rampant in our radio industry. Is it really so common? And what exactly constitutes payola, anyway? Let's take a look.

Stephens Media Group has named Jessica Foster as Director of Sales for its Tulsa cluster. Foster makes the move from the local ABC television affiliate.

Independent radio and podcast company YEA Networks has promoted media executive Shawn Nunn to President. In the newly created position, Nunn will oversee YEA Networks’ popular nationally syndicated radio programs.

Country radio veteran Deidre Ransdell has been a Lexington, KY, Country radio fixture for 18 years. She joined WLXX in 2001.

Under Murphy’s leadership, Colorado Public Radio plans to add three full-time investigative reporters and a data specialist to fully staff the investigative team.

After our Payola story Thursday, the FCC Commissioner retweeted our link with the following text: "To start, I plan to reach out to music & record industry to determine whether this practice is happening on their end. Payola is against the law." Hopefully everyone reading this is following the rules.

CEO Mary Berner says the company is on its way to becoming an audio entertainment company. With 69% growth in Q2, digital now makes up 7% of Cumulus' overall revenue. That's up from 5% a year earlier.

According to Cumulus CEO Mary Berner, podcasting is now a meaningful contributor to Cumulus' top and bottom lines. She says Cumulus podcasts are now being downloaded 67 million times per month and the profit margin for podcasting is better than some of Cumulus' core business products.

CEO Mary Berner was asked a question about ratings during the company earnings call. During the first part of the answer, Berner said Cumulus has gained back most of the ratings shares that were lost from 2012. It was the second part of her answer that needed a little more analyzing.

Backyard Broadcasting has signed a new multi-year agreement for Nielsen's audio measurement. Backyard, based in Williamsport, owns WILQ-FM, WLMY-FM, WWPA-AM, W267BJ, Williamsport; WZXR-FM, South Williamsport; WCXR-FM, Lewisburg, PA; and WBZD-FM, Muncy, PA.