News

As a result of the long-term deal, Nielsen will provide ASCAP with expanded U.S. radio airplay data along with metadata and unique identifiers for recordings. ASCAP says this will allow it to provide members with, "unprecedented transparency as ASCAP brings together the verified recording information with its authoritative data on the underlying works."

Ken Roberts is the new VP of Sales for Cumulus' Washington, D.C. stations WMAL-AM/FM and WRQX-FM. Roberts was previously Senior VP of Sales for iHeartMedia’s D.C. and Baltimore stations. Prior to that, he was D.O.S. for Bonneville in Phoenix. He's also been the GSM for Susquehanna/Cumulus in Dallas.

Mark Anderson has been promoted to VP of Programming for CBS Radio in Pittsburgh. He moves up the ladder from his role as Pittsburgh Operations Manager and PD of WBZZ-FM and WDSY-FM. The market includes four radio stations: KDKA-AM, KDKA-FM, WBZZ-FM, and WDSY-FM.

iHeartMedia New York has hired Seattle radio personality Brady as its new 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. host and Music Coordinator at Z100. He starts January 9 and said he can't believe this is real life.

MasterCard jumps from 40th to 1st on the Media Monitors chart of advertisers after airing over 47,300 commercials on radio stations across the country last week. GEICO was pushed down to a distant second with 38,907 spots. Walgreen's came in third for the second week in a row airing 36,708 commercials, followed by Macy's (35,137) and Burger King (29,582).

It's called Univision Deportes, a new national sports radio network. The network will launch in 10 markets and will include sports commentary, live games, original content, and other programming beginning the first quarter of 2017.

Cumulus has announced the replacement show on WLS for The Jonathon Brandmeier Show. The husband and wife team of Bob Sirott and Marianne Murciano will host a new 10 a.m. to noon show starting January 2. The duo last hosted a show together from 2013-2015 on WGN.

In tandem with Bruce Dye and Brigadoon Fitness, and King of Carts, WOWO-AM/FM raised an impressive $171,904 during its annual Penny Pitch Radiothon. That total will be matched by a local sponsor to $343,808 and split between the Community Harvest Food Bank's program Hope for Heroes, and Super Shot.

In a letter to Irving Azoff, the band Anthrax says including its songs in GMR's repetoire of music "presents a skewed and unjust misrepresentation of the complete facts." Anthrax has recorded and released more than 150 songs over 35 years. And the band says it does not want radio programmers to think that they cannot play any of those songs because Azoff has included them in his fight against the RMLC. Here's the full Anthrax letter to Azoff...