News

From baseball to football, basketball to motor sports, Hispanic consumers are “major league” fans, representing huge opportunity for sports teams, their merchandise, venues — and on-air sponsors. Still, many stations are unsure how to connect with, or fully tap into, the growing Hispanic sports market and its potential.

With nearly 38,200 commercials on radio stations across the country last week, GEICO was once again radio's top advertiser according to Media Monitors. Walgreens was number two (30,404), followed by JC Penney (29,350), Indeed.com (27,510), and The Home Depot (25,692).

Salem Media Group has been recognized as one of the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the country. Salem was evaluated by the National Association for Business Resources, an independent research firm, which reviewed several key measures

The 20th annual Have-A-Heart Wishathon, hosted by Saga Communications’ Jonesboro Radio Group (KDXY, KEGI, KJBX) and Raycom Media’s KAIT-TV (ABC/NBC), raised $421,843. It was the largest total in the event’s 20-year history.

Programmatic is something both iHeartRadio and Spotify already offer advertisers, however, Pandora says it brings more to the table with its 73 million monthly active listeners. A pilot program will be launched with Volkswagen. Pandora will make its audio inventory available through deals with The Trade Desk, AdsWizz’s AudioMatic and MediaMath.

Brian Wilson will host Nashville’s Morning News on Nashville News/Talk station SuperTalk 99.7 WWTN-FM, airing weekdays from 5 a.m.-9 a.m. He heads to Nashville from Washington, DC.

Live365 and a company called Empire Streaming announced late Monday that they are both now a part of a newly formed holding company called Media Creek, Inc. As part of the acquisitions, Media Creek has hired Rockie Thomas and Sean Lozensky, both formerly with AdsWizz. Thomas becomes the company's Chief Revenue Officer and Lozensky is named Chief Technology Officer.

Buffalo native, broadcaster and longtime journalist, Steve Cichon is joining WECK-AM/FM (AM 1230/FM 102.9) as News Director. He will anchor news , and co-host with Tom Donahue and Gail Ann Huber on WECK’s weekday morning show.

Vice President of Programming for Power 106 and 93.5 KDAY-FM, Jimmy Steal, has announced new hosting duties on the Los Angeles stations for female trio Cece, Krystal Bee (pictured), and Bryhana.

Lee Cagle has been named Operations Manager of SummitMedia/Louisville’s four-station radio group. Cagle, an Arkansas native, will be in charge of Country Q-103.1 (WQNU 103.1 FM), Classic Country the Hawk (103.9 FM), Adult Contemporary Play (WVEZ 106.9 FM), and Classic Rock Eagle 107.7 (WSFR 107.7 FM).