News

Cumulus Media has announced that the longtime on-air host of Grand Rapids’ heritage Classic Rock station 97 LAV-FM, Ed Buchanan, died Thursday in Grand Rapids. He was 69.

Gary Sommer has been named General Sales Manager for Entercom Portland, effective July 2. Sommer has over 20 years of experience in the media and marketing industry, and was formerly a Senior Account Manager at SagaCity Media, Inc. in Portland.

We hear it a lot. The biggest challenge for managers is hiring. We also hear how difficult it is to hire strong talent from the upcoming generation. Radio needs young blood oozing up and down the halls of its radio stations to keep things exciting, fresh and innovative. We turned to the 2018 MIW Group mentees for answers.

Veteran broadcaster Bobby Mitchell is set to take a seat next to Stacy McKay as co-host of the Sunny 95 (WSNY/Columbus, OH) morning show. Mitchell’s resume includes stops at Detroit, Dallas, and Miami, and stations like WHYI-FM, KPLX-FM, and WOMC-FM.

It's not often you see a newspaper giving high-fives to radio. Lynn Petrak, writing for the Chicago Tribune, did just that. For years, we've heard radio executives say, "We need to tell a better story." This may be a column you want to send to the printer, then the copy machine. Petrak does an excellent job telling radio's story for you.

iHeartMedia Miami’s TÚ 94.9, Donde Viven Tus Hits, announced Thursday that Walo Dávila has been named Program Director, effective July 9. Dávila is a 20-plus-year radio veteran.

Radio Ink's 2018 MIW Legend, and highly successful radio and Television broadcaster, Rita Cosby was nice enough to show off her profile in Radio Ink Magazine at the Gracies Awards Luncheon this week in New York City. Cosby, picture here with Radio Ink Publisher Deborah Parenti, said "Thank you again so very much for this tremendous honor and fantastic story, seeing it brought me to tears."

(by Ron Schadt) Back when I was in 8th grade, which was about two months before rocks were formed, I sat in geography class, and as usual was paying no attention to where Egypt or Mesopotamia were located. Instead, I was drawing out a schematic of the class B modulator with a pair of 6L6’s that I wanted to build for my 40 meter CW rig. 

Twenty-year veteran Chuck Poet is the new Market Manager for Cumulus' five-station cluster in Erie, PA. Poet joins Cumulus Media from Results Radio in Parkersburg, WV, where he was Sales Manager. Prior to that, he was Market President for iHeartMedia’s Parkersburg, WV, and Wheeling, WV, radio stations for 15 years.

Inside JAWS is a tale of a modest thriller that became an ordeal and then a disaster and then a phenomenon and then a classic. Steven Spielberg, a fresh-faced, inexperienced director nearly wrecked his promising career, but became the most important filmmaker of our era. On Tuesday, day one of the series’ release, Inside JAWS hit the Apple Podcast chart at #2.