News

It’s America’s first Southern Gospel FM High-Definition (HD) radio station, and it’s just been launched by the LifeFM Network. LifeFM’s Southern Gospel format is now serving all of the East Central Indiana region, broadcasting from Muncie, Indiana, on WLBC 104.1 FM HD-3.

Britt Waters is to be the new nighttime host for 94.7 Fresh FM (WIAD) effective Wednesday, October 5. Her show will air weekdays, 7:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m., in the Greater Washington, D.C./Baltimore, MD area. Waters started her career on the nationally syndicated Russ Parr Morning Show where she served as on-air talent and producer for three years.

Larry (Big Red) Wnorowski has reunited with Adams Radio Group as the new PD and afternoon host for WKHI – Salisbury-Ocean City. Wnorowski most recently served as PD of Adams owned KGRT FM in Las Cruces, NM.

In order for podcasting to seriously compete with all other forms of audio in the marketplace today, podcasters need to start generating serious revenue. To do that, there needs to be reliable third-party measurement that advertisers can rely on and trust. It needs to be more than, "Here's how many downloads we had this month."

ESPN Senior VP Traug Keller says we're experiencing a seismic shift in how consumers take in their audio. What he was talking about is the explosion in podcast listening. And he certainly has the numbers to back it up.

And if that happens, with the popularity of the iPhone, the sky is the limit for NextRadio. And Emmis CEO Jeff Smulyan will certainly keep pushing until he gets Tim Cook to flip that FM chip switch. NextRadio was the sponsor of the Wednesday lunch at the Radio Show in Nashville, Wednesday. That meant an opportunity for Smulyan to keep the pressure on broadcasters to continue to support and push NextRadio to their listeners.

That question was answered by Wells Fargo analyst Davis Hebert during his detailed economic presentation Wednesday morning at the Radio Show in Nashville. Hebert also said he expects radio to see a 1-2% increase in advertising revenue this year, and in 2017 he expects radio to give back about 1% because of fewer political dollars. So what do investors want? Here's Hebert's list.

It's clear many people in and around the radio business believe the debt issues both iHeartMedia ($20 Billion) and Cumulus ($2 Billion) are facing is a drag on the entire industry. At the Broadcast Finance Forecast panel at the Radio Show Wednesday morning, the issues facing those two companies came up several times during the 90 minute session.

Don Benson was first hired into the radio business in Nashville by the great Scott Shannon to answer phones. He would go on to become the CEO of Lincoln Financial from 2008-2015. On Wednesday, he received accolades from radio CEOs, former employees, and close friends as he accepted the 2016 NAB National Radio Award for his more than 40 years of commitment and service to broadcasting. In 2014, Benson was named Radio Ink's Radio Executive Of The Year. He's pictured here with his wife Martha after accepting the award Wednesday.

Myra Ellison has been promoted to the role of Director of Marketing, Promotions & Web for the cluster. Ellison was most recently the Promotions Director for WNTR 107.9 THE MIX in Indianapolis.