News

(By Ronald Robinson) Radio owners have washed their hands of any responsibility to address future potentials of the medium and have, instead, hunkered down to polish only that propaganda that reinforces their firmly held, vacuous and unbelievably debilitating positions.

The U.S. Senate passed the Music Modernization Act by unanimous consent Tuesday evening. This Senate version will go back to the House where it needs to be voted on again because of the changes the Senate made to the bill.

Apparently a modified version of the Music Modernization Act was circulated on Capitol Hill Friday, September 14 with a fast-tracked vote possible this week. And, the bill could be approved without any of the changes SiriusXM has been asking for. And that''s good for radio. 

Skyview Networks is expanding its West Coast sales team with new Network Audio Sales Manager Kelly Bitter. Bitter comes to Skyview with a background in radio sales and familiarity with the Skyview Networks sales after working at Skyview Traffic from 1994 to 1997. For the past 16 years, Bitter has been with USTN.

Radio syndicator MannGroup Radio and app company VoiceByte have joined forces to bring VoiceByte to radio in North America.

Christine Brennan and former professional tennis player Rennae Stubbs have signed with SiriusXM to host a new weekly show that will air nationwide on the Dan Patrick Radio channel (channel 211). 

Alissa Pollack has had her role as EVP of Global Music Marketing expanded to now include creating music strategies. Pollack will now work closely with iHeart's Brand Managers and National Programming team to oversee and create custom data-focused roadmaps for artists, brands, and advertising partners.

FOX News Channel will debut a four-episode midterm election series hosted by The Daily Wire’s conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, announced John Finley, SVP of Development and Production.

Joe Johnson has been named Program Director and afternoon drive on-air personality for Classic Rock 100.7 WRDU/Raleigh, NC, effective September 24.

As we've been hinting for over a week, Entercom will carry New York Mets baseball on WCBS-AM starting with the 2019 season. iHeart had been carrying the games on WOR-AM. The new Mets deal with Entercom runs through the 2025 season.