News

For what seems like years now Entercom CEO David Field has said radio is undervalued. He's never bought into the radio naysayers who say that flat revenue is the new up. He's consistently stated that radio is the most undervalued and least disrupted media. And he has always said you can reach more people, get better results for far less money, using radio, and "we should act like it." David Field is doing more than just talking the talk.

Reach Media and Hughley announced a new deal for Hughley's nationally syndicated radio show. Hughley said he's happy to continue with Reach. “I'm excited that my radio show continues to grow on a national basis, but the honesty and interaction with my audience make it the biggest local and personal show in radio." The length of the deal was not disclosed.

On Monday, Beasley Media Group unveiled George Toulas as its new Market Manager in Tampa replacing Kent Dunn who moved back to Augusta to run the Beasley cluster in that market. Beasley owns six stations in Tampa, including WHFS-AM 1010, WPBB-FM 98.7, WLLD-FM 94.1, WQYK-FM 99.5, WRBQ-FM 104.7, and WYUU-FM 92.5.

Mike Preston has been named Senior VP of Programming for iHeart in Baltimore. He will also program WPOC-FM (Country) and JACK-FM (Hits). Preston most recently spent time as PD of KKWF and KHTP in Seattle. Early in his career he was the APD at ABC Radio’s WPLJ in New York.

WKYS 93.9 FM has a new night show host: Khalia “Little Bacon Bear” Canty. Effective Monday, November 16, Little Bacon Bear will bring a new sound and style weeknights from 7:00 p.m. to midnight, and weekends from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Long-time Kansas City radio personality Kelly Urich has been recruited to anchor mornings on Classic Hits station 94.9 KCMO-FM. Kelly Urich Mornings debuts on Tuesday, December 26, and will air weekdays 6-10 a.m.

WXPN of the University of Pennsylvania has brought in Stephen Kallao as contributing host for the NPR-distributed daily music program World Café. In this role, Kallao will assist in producing the program’s radio and digital special features and conduct interviews with a wide variety of musicians.

It dropped down a couple of notches on the Media Monitors weekly chart, however Amazon still aired 36,387 commercials on radio stations across America last week. That was strong enough to place third on the list.

The new call letters for Entercom's WBMX-FM (HOT AC) are now WWBX-FM. Entercom says after twenty six years as WBMX-FM the station will return the call letters back to its original station in Chicago. WJMK-FM (104.3), a Classic Hip Hop station in Chicago Entercom picked up in the CBS merger, will take over the WBMX call letters. The format at WWBX-FM in Boston will stay the same.

iHeartMedia Chicago is bringing back heritage station brand 93.9 LITE FM, when the station ends Christmas music after the holidays. The company is dumping the MYFM moniker, which it switched to in 2013. The format will stay the same (The Best Variety of the 80s, 90s and Now). Kristina Kage, Robin Rock, and Mick Lee will continue to host the station’s programming.