News

At a meeting of the Cumulus Board on Monday Cumulus founder Lew Dickey, who was Vice Chairman of the Board, resigned. The reason given was "to pursue other professional interests." In their 2011 agreement the Dickey family is entitled to designate one member of the Cumulus Board. Lew informed the Board that he was designating his brother John Dickey to replace him.

This week, J. Anthony Brown announced that as of April 17 he'll be a permanent member of the Steve Harvey Morning Show. Harvey is syndicated by Premiere, which did not confirm what Brown announced. Brown was part of the Tom Joyner Morning Show for 20 years until November 2016 when it was announced he would no longer be part of the show. In January of 2016, Brown walked off the Joyner show and said he was quitting.

Mark Wildman has been promoted to EVP for Strategic Partnerships at Westwood One. Wildman will now lead the company’s new business development initiatives for both the network and spot sales. Wildman joined Westwood last October from William Morris where he was responsible for selling media, sponsorship, and content programs.

It didn't take long to find out where Doug Gottlieb was headed after leaving the CBS Radio Sports Network. On Wednesday, Fox Sports Radio announced Gottlieb would be taking over the afternoon drive slot as of April 24. He replaces the Jay Mohr Show which ended back in January.

J.J. Ryan is headed to Oklahoma City from his current base of Sacramento to take up the role of PD for Hits station KJ103, and 96.1 KXY Country. Prior to Sacramento, Ryan also had stops in Tulsa and Fayettville.

Richard Schmaeling will become the new CFO for Entercom on April 18. Schmaeling will succeed Steve Fisher, who is stepping down on April 30, after 18 years with the company.

Next Wednesday, at the Radio Ink Hispanic Radio Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Entravision's Angie Balderas will host a panel called "Old School/New School: Bridging the Gap between Gen X Managers and Millennial Sellers." These two groups have different ways of doing things, they are motivated differently, and they have very different ideas about marketing and selling radio. Next Wednesday, it will all be on the table for managers to hear and learn.

Albany, Georgia's first-ever radio station, WGPC-AM, is gone for good. The station went dark on January 2 after a big storm came through town twisting its tower to pieces and depositing three trees in the studio. WALB-TV reports that Cumulus has surrendered the license back to the FCC. WGPC signed on in 1933, and was Albany's only radio station until 1941.

It only took six months for former City Council president Monica Conyers to lose her weekday afternoon hosting job on WDFD-AM in Detroit. The Detroit Free Press reports that Conyers was fired for violation of corporate policy. Conyers disputes what the radio station claims and says she left on her own and did not want to be associated with the station any longer.

14 Representatives and 2 Senators have joined as cosponsors of a resolution the NAB has been pushing that opposes "any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge" on local radio stations. The Local Radio Freedom Act now has 156 cosponsors in the House and 17 in the Senate. Here are the latest Washington lawmakers that are now on your side...