News

The NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder have renewed their partnership in a multi-year agreement that will keep WWLS-FM (The Sports Animal) as the official radio broadcast home of the Thunder Radio Network.

Charese Fruge joins RadioNOW 100.9 (WNOW) Indianapolis and RadioNOW Houston (KROI) as the new CHR Format Captain and Program Director for both markets. Fruge has over 20 years of experience in the radio business and has worked in Nashville, New York, Los Angeles, and most recently as VP of Programming for the six-station Entercom cluster in Houston.

Those were the words of Cumulus CEO Mary Berner and CFO John Abbot, who reported the company’s quarterly earnings to investors and employees Monday — the first such call since Cumulus' emergence from bankruptcy on June 4. Berner said the Cumulus business model is solid.

That is quite a jump from the $100,000 the Cumulus CEO says the company took in before this year. There is no doubt Berner sees podcasting as a major source of new revenue for the company as it grows the Westwood One Podcast Network, which Cumulus says reaches a quarter of a billion people each week.

Fresh out of bankruptcy and back on the phone with investors, CEO Mary Berner reported on Monday that Q2 revenue was down from $290.5 million to $285.2 million, a decline of 1.8%. For the first six months of the year, revenue was off 1%, declining from $554.6 million to $549 million.

Cumulus executives told investors Monday that the USTN financial situation cost the company about $5 million in revenue in the second quarter, and it already has a long-term deal with a new provider. That provider is iHeart’s Total Traffic & Weather Network. Reports from TTWN will begin on Cumulus' 441 stations in September.

Bonneville’s KOSI-FM in Denver is adding crosstown KWOF-FM morning personality Jenny D to its morning show as a co-host to Sean Henry. It’s a return to the cluster for Jenny; she worked as an air talent in the past at KYGO-FM.

Beasley Media Group is the first company we’ve seen putting people specifically in charge of podcasting. The company plans to unveil a company-wide podcasting strategy later in the year. And on Monday, four of Beasley’s current employees were given the added title of Podcast Captain.

iHeartMedia San Francisco has secured multi-year contracts for weekday morning hosts Marcus & Sandy on STAR 101.3 (KIOI-FM) as well as hosts of “The Morning Breeze” Jack Kulp and Carolyn McArdle, heard on 98.1 The Breeze (KISQ-FM).

It’s a brand new 43,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility for iHeartMedia Boston’s WRKO-AM, WKAF-FM, and the recently acquired WZLX-FM and WBZ-AM. The company says the innovative space is designed to invoke collaboration and to embody the iHeartMedia brand.