News

Connoisseur Media CEO Jeff Warshaw called the FCC's embedded rule dumb and said it needed fixing...so the FCC fixed it. The embedded rule only affects New York and Washington, DC, however it’s important enough to Warshaw that he’s been providing the FCC with data and meeting with staff to get the rule changed. And, he operates on Long Island. The embedded market rule lumps stations in a market like Long Island in with New York City.

KABC morning news anchor Leann Tweeden said in a post on KABC-AM's website that she felt "disgusted and violated" after Al Franken, back in 2006, forced a kiss on her as they prepared for an appearance on a USO tour. She writes that Franken, then a comedian and now a U.S. senator, insisted on rehearsing a kiss he'd written into a skit for Tweeden and himself.

After spending the morning saying goodbye, Classic Rock KSWD (The Sound)/Los Angeles left the airwaves at 1 p.m. PT Thursday. The station was sold to Educational Media Foundation in the runup to the Entercom/CBS Radio merger, and has flipped to EMF's Christian Contemporary programming as K-Love 100.3 FM.

Continuous Christmas music starts Friday at 9:00 a.m. on Today’s 101.1 MORE-FM/WBEB, "Philadelphia’s Official Christmas Station." The station is the highest-rated Christmas music station in the nation’s major media markets, owning the top four slots. This the 14th consecutive year WBEB has aired holiday music.

Starting Friday, Seattle's STAR 101.5 flips to Christmas music for the holiday seasn. The station will play 20 Christmas songs in a row every weekday from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., plus afternoon show hosts Curt & Corine will feature the top five Christmas songs of the day at 5 o’clock every weeknight.

iHeart San Antonio's Q 101.9 has caught the Christmas bug and begun broadcasting around-the-clock festive music from artists including Wham!, Nat King Cole, and Mariah Carey, leading into the holiday season.

ABC Radio is kicking off the holiday season with a three-hour country music special, My Kind of Christmas Countdown, hosted by Grammy Award-winning country superstar Reba McEntire, and a three-hour special titled America Gives Thanks. Both specials will be available over the Thanksgiving weekend.

Make no mistake about it, Wells Fargo analyst Marci Ryvicker has been a big supporter of the Entercom/CBS merger. She's always been a big fan of Entercom CEO David Field and how he's run the company, and his consistently positive attitude about the radio industry. At Radio Ink's Forecast 2018 event Wednesday, her opinion hadn't changed. However, Ryvicker did disagree with one aspect of what Field predicts.

Last week at the Harvard Club in New York City, Radio Ink celebrated The 40 Most Powerful People in Radio with a special cocktail reception. Each member of Radio Ink's power list received a special plaque from Publisher Deborah Parenti and Chairman Eric Rhoads.

Some time this morning, a press release will be distributed across the country announcing the Entercom/CBS merger, that was first announced in February, has finally closed. CEO David Field will address the troops, and although we have not seen his speech, he will most likley tell his new employees how excited he is to now have them, and some of the radio industry's most recognizeable brands, under the Entercom ownership umbrella.