News

Far East Bay, CA, stations KKIQ and KKDV hosted their 3rd Annual Wayne Coy’s Toys Radiothon on Friday, December 2. Over 850 toys and $4,050 were donated for Sleep Train Foster Kids. Hometown Morning’s Wayne Coy, along with KKIQ and KKDV’s Mel McKay, broadcast live for 12 hours from the local Toys R Us.

Bringing in $173, 253, the 6th annual radiothon held by The FAN (KFXX/KWJJ-FM HD2) will be a great boon for Special Olympics Oregon. The radiothon was anchored by The FAN’s afternoon-drive hosts Isaac Ropp and Jason Scukanec of Primetime with Isaac and Suke.

KRRO-FM has hired Denzil Bursey as its new PM driver and APD. Bursey joins Midwest Communications from iHeartradio in Detroit. He's also worked in the Atlanta market. Bursey said, "I'm glad to have found a new home in Sioux Falls and start a new chapter in my broadcasting career. I'm excited to get started, even though it's cold as hell and the wind doesn't seem to stop blowing."

The two companies announced on Wednesday that Slacker Radio's audio ad inventory in the U.S and Canada is now part of Triton Digital's a2x programmatic audio advertising exchange. Triton's a2x enables programmatic buying of targeted online and mobile audio ad inventory.

Brad Polston is the new Market President for iHeartMedia's four station cluster in Indianapolis. Polston most recently served as General Manager for Comcast Spotlight in Indianapolis. He's also held a number of sales management positions in Colorado, Utah and the Baltimore region. Polston replaces Rick Greene.

Shortly after the Azoff lawsuit was filed, the Radio Music License Committee (RMLC), which represents about 10,00 radio stations in music licensing matters, fired off a statement in response. RMLC Executive Director Bill Velez said, "The RMLC will not roll over in the face of the baseless, bullying lawsuit filed yesterday by Global Music Rights." Here's the full statement...

David Honig is the President Emeritus at the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC). Following Wednesday's column written by Broadcast Attorney John Garziglia, Honing sent Radio Ink a rebuttal piece. His point: The MMTC is not asking the FCC to decommission the AM band.

Thom Callahan is the President of the Southern California Broadcasters Association. He's been following the discussion about the AM band, specifically the MMTC's letter to the Trump transition team to create a “Glide Path” for the short-term survival and long-term humane decommissioning of the AM band in a manner that preserves minority ownership.

Back in early November, Cumulus CFO John Abbot said, "We have too much debt." He's been on the job for six months and has said Cumulus' debt problem is what he was spending the majority of his time on. Since she took over as CEO, Mary Berner has also stressed the importance of reducing debt. She's repeatedly pointed out that Cumulus' over-levered capital structure was "real and will continue to limit our turnaround potential.” So here's what Cumulus announced on Wednesday to reduce debt and extend debt maturity...

CNBC has a follow-up to its report that SiriusXM was interested in purchasing the company. CNBC's David Faber reported on Wednesday that Pandora is looking at potential acquirers beyond SiriusXM to give it leverage if SiriusXM does pursues a deal. Faber reported last week that the music streaming service was open to selling itself and was willing to engage with SiriusXM. MORE HERE