News

As President Trump continues to shed members of his administration, he has found a job for syndicated Westwood One radio host Larry Kudlow. Kudlow has been drafted as Trump’s new director of the National Economic Council.

Cleveland station Q104 (WQAL-FM) has named Jack Freeman co-host for The Jeremiah Show. Freeman joins current host Jeremiah Widmer beginning March 19. The morning show airs weekdays from 5:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. ET. Previously, Freeman was at WKQI-FM in Detroit on Mojo in the Morning.

Westwood One has worked with Amazon and development partner XAPPmedia to offer Alexa and Westwood One consumers access to Westwood One Sports’ exclusive live audio coverage and post-game recaps of the 2018 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai is not a fan of pirate radio stations. Under his leadership at the FCC there has been an increased effort to shut down pirates all across the country. However, Pai has also voiced his frustration that stopping these illegal operations is akin to the game of Whack-A-Mole -- you shut one down, another pops up. That could be changing soon.

Also at the Radio Ink Hispanic Radio Conference in Miami, FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel spoke about her trip to Puerto Rico last week. Puerto Rico was hit hard by Hurricane Maria six months ago and is still recovering. Rosenworcel said she took some time to visit several radio stations. And, she walked away saying this: "Radio is remarkable."

Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan was a keynote speaker at Radio Ink's Hispanic Conference on Wednesday in Miami. Smulyan was interviewed by RBR/TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam Jacobson and the topic was "Securing Your Station's Smartphone Space." Smulyan's first statement was: "NextRadio is on just about every Android phone. We don't have Apple and that's our last mission."

At the Radio Ink Hispanic Conference, Wednesday, Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan told the sold-out crowd in Miami that the car of the future will have an embedded tuner that may appear to the driver as a simple screen of apps. His question is: Will radio be there?

Can a radio station, or a group of stations, in an emerging Hispanic market succeed? How does one attract listeners? What about bringing in the necessary ad dollars to keep the operation going? What about local talent versus a full schedule of syndicated shows?

As it reported its Q4 and full-year 2017 earnings, Entravision cited digital, and in particular the acquisition of Headway, a data and digital marketing provider, for a net revenue increase of 5 percent in the fourth quarter, to $73.4 million from $70.3 million in Q4 2016.

United States Traffic Network President Ivan Schulman led the effort to buy out the broadcast-traffic provider, whose products are used by more than 1,100 TV and radio stations, and which has 260 full- and part-time employees. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.