News

Debtwire senior credit analyst Seth Crystall tells MySA.com the reason for the early look at the revenue numbers is to help convince lenders and bondholders to agree to a debt-exchange offer iHeart has been working on. The debt-exchange offer expires today for lenders and April 28 for bondholders. There have already been two extensions. The good news is the radio side of the business was up. Here's what iHeart reported.

The SEC filing by iHeart Thursday points out that a substantial amount of the company's cash goes toward debt service obligations. The company says it will continue to incur net losses and generate negative cash flow from operating activities given its debt and interest expenses. All of this has lead to "substantial doubt as to our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of 12 months following the date the first quarter 2017 financial statements are issued."

iHeartMedia has named Jeff Wyatt Senior VP of Programming for Baltimore. He also picks up the PD gig at WPOC-FM and JACK-FM. Wyatt moves to Baltimore from iHeart's Virginia-Carolina Region where he was VP of Programming and PD for 96.9 The Kat in Charlotte.

The iHeartMedia Washington, D.C., station has brought in Tommy Chuck to be Program Director for 97.1 WASH-FM, “Washington’s Variety of the 80s, 90s and Today.” Chuck has spent the last two years programming sister stations HOT 99.5 and 93.1 WPOC in the D.C. region. He joined iHeartMedia in 2000 at WKXJ Chattanooga, TN.

The co-host of Valenti and Foster on WXYT-FM/97.1 The Ticket, Detroit, has retired from the station. Foster suffered a stroke and was on medical leave for much of the second half of 2016. He returned to the show in January but has now decided to refocus his time on his health and his family. 

The Lombardi Award winner, two-time All-American, and Super Bowl champion will team up with Anthony Rothman every Monday during the summer for Off-Season with AJ Hawk, airing noon – 1 p.m. The show will feature talk about the Ohio State Buckeyes, NFL, as well as other hot sports topics and opinion.

FM translators are now blanketing the country. There are thousands either rebroadcasting an AM signal, an HD signal, or (despite the FCC's rules not to) airing original content. With all those translators comes the possibility, and probability, that some will interfere with existing full-power FM radio stations. The NAB wants to help resolve those interference problems and has filed comments with the FCC to do so. Here are the details...

On May 1, WWXT-FM in Washington, D.C., will become part of the Radio One family, and in Richmond WXGI AM ESPN 950 will also become part of the Radio One family. Red Zebra is selling the two stations to Radio One and CEO Alfred Liggins is quite happy about the purchases.

CBS Radio has signed an agreement with live traffic video company TrafficLand for use of its video management technology. The service provides access to real-time video from over 20,000 state and local D.O.T. traffic cameras across the U.S. CBS radio stations can now monitor rush-hour patterns, traffic bottlenecks, and how incidents affect traffic conditions.

The Mentoring & Inspiring Women in Radio group has selected four mentees that will participate in the 2017 Mildred Carter Mentoring Program. The program matches up-and-coming women in the radio industry with female professionals recognized as leaders in radio. So far the program has mentored 39 woman. Here is the 2017 class...