News

SRN's Tom Tradup informed us that long-time New York broadcaster Ralph Howard died Tuesday. Howard worked for WMCA-AM and WINS-AM in New York. From 1982 to 1985, Tradup was Executive Producer of the Ralph & Ryan morning show on WMCA — then owned by Ellen & Peter Straus of Straus Communications. Ralph was paired with NBC-TV newsman Bill Ryan.

KYW Newsradio 1060 (KYW-AM/Philadelphia) Community Affairs Reporter Cherri Gregg  has been recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists with a Salute to Excellence Award at the 2018 NABJ Salute to Excellence Gala in Detroit.

The Wolfman Jack Radio Show is doing an encore on KWML-AM 570/104.5 FM Las Cruces, WOCQ-HD2 (105.1 and 104.3 FM) Salisbury, and WQTL-FM/ 106.1 FM Tallahassee. The Adams Radio Group stations will be the exclusive affiliate in these markets to air the original show. 

Christian was talking about how Internet advertising has figured out how to follow users around the Web after that person shows interest in a certain product. From website to website the ads follow you if you showed any interest in purchasing that product. Christian said Brooks Brother is stalking him. And, here's how he brought it all back to radio.

Scripps Radio, Springfield Operations, has hired Tom Oakes as Operations Manager for the five-station cluster of KTTS-FM, KSGF-AM/FM, KRVI-FM, KSPW-FM, and Program Director for KTTS-FM. Since 2015, Oakes worked in Anchorage, AK, as General Manager for Ohana Media Group’s six radio stations.

Sacramento’s 98 Rock (KRXQ-FM) will host a concert featuring the Pat Martin All Star Band in honor of the lead member’s 30th anniversary with the station. 98 Rock’s midday show featuring Pat Martin is currently the longest consecutive running radio show in Sacramento history.

The Saga CEO says this year (though mid-October) will be his final year as Chairman of the Radio Music Licensing Committee. The RMLC represents the interests of radio on music licensing matters and Christian has played an important role on that committee for a very long time.

After Saga CEO Ed Christian reported net revenue in Q2 was down 0.6% to $30.1 million, he said he and CFO Sam Bush were out looking for more radio stations to add to their portfolio. Christian said they had four opportunities on the table, two of them were still possibilities.

Scripps has cut a deal to sell its radio stations in Boise and Tucson to Lotus Communications for $8 million. The eight stations California-based Lotus will pick up are KMXZ (94.9 FM), KFFN (1490 AM and 104.9 FM), KQTH (104.1 FM), and KTGV (106.3 FM) in Tucson, and KJOT (1051. FM), KQXR (100.3 FM), KRVB (94.9 FM), and KTHI (107.1 FM) in Boise.

(By Steven Goldstein) Podcasting’s most important event, Podcast Movement, took place this summer in Philadelphia. Four years ago at this same event, I counted six radio people in attendance. This time, among the 2,000 attendees were hundreds of people from virtually every major commercial radio company.