News

Bryan Cooke, an assistant of Steve Harvey's co-host, Kier “Junior” Spates, was found dead at a hotel room in Atlanta on Sunday. Spates asked hotel staff to check on Cooke after he was unable to get a hold of him.

iHeartMedia and entertainment creative house Einhorn’s Epic Productions announced a new partnership to produce Lethal Lit -- an iHeartRadio Original six-episode mystery podcast series for teen audiences. The show will launch this fall.

After an 8-year run, Randy Falco is retiring as CEO of Univision. He'll stay with the company as an advisor until the end of 2018 so the company can make a smooth transition to its new leadership. Vincent Sadusky (pictured), former Chief Executive Officer of Media General, has been hired to succeed Falco. Sadusky will take over this Friday.

High 5 Media is the parent company of YEA Networks. It has acquired a majority interest in podcast company Spoke Media, which creates podcasts in narrative journalism, serial fiction, and interview/chat shows. Spoke Media was founded by audiobook director Keith Reynolds.

The Sports Broadcast Journal interviewed former CBS Radio CEO Dan Mason this week and asked him about Mike Francesa unretiring at WFAN in New York. WFAN was a CBS Radio station before the company merged with Entercom. We learned several things from the Mason interview.

The changes continue at Entercom's KWFN-FM in San Diego, the home of the San Diego Padres. Adam Klug will take over as Program Director on June 11. It was back in April when Entercom moved completely toward sports and away from a combination of talk, sports, and rock, called "The Machine." You may also recall it as the station of the infamous Kevin Klein bridge tweet.

WNYC Studios and Roger Bennett of the sports show Men in Blazers have announced American Fiasco — a 12-episode podcast series chronicling the U.S. men’s soccer team and their disastrous bid to win the 1998 World Cup.

“Elvis” Dan Lay has joined ALT 105.3, KITS-FM/San Francisco, as morning drive host. “We’re thrilled to welcome Elvis to the Entercom team,” said Gregory Nemitz, Senior Vice President and Market Manager, Entercom San Francisco.

Joe D’Ambrosio will join Mornings with Ray Dunaway on 1080 WTIC-AM/Hartford, CT, from 5 a.m. to 9 a.m. ET,  beginning on Thursday, May 31. D’Ambrosio is an award-winning sportscaster who has been with WTIC for 27 years.

On Wednesday, Nielsen announced it had been granted accreditation by the Media Rating Council for five additional PPM markets: Columbus, Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, and Salt Lake City-Ogden-Provo. Nielsen now has 30 of its 48 PPM markets accredited by the MRC. Nielsen also lost a market.