News

The focus of the new podcast series is on the future of radio in the connected car. It will include backstage interviews recorded at last fall’s DASH Conference by Jacobs Media’s Digital Dot Connector Seth Resler. A new episode will be released every week for the next three months.

Tom Joyner, along with Allstate Insurance, has announced the dates for the 2016 Allstate Tom Joyner Family Reunion. Labor Day weekend, September 1 – September 5, families from all over the country will join Joyner and his celebrity friends for a weekend filled with concerts, passes to Universal Studios, seminars, and endless activities. The event will be held at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Kissimmee, Florida.

Alpha Media WNGY-FM (Energy 102.3) will now be airing Brooke & Jubal in afternoon drive. The show also airs in Portland and San Antonio. Brooke has worked in morning radio for over 12 years and has hosted Top 40 radio’s first all-female morning drive show. Jubal Flagg is a standup comedian, radio host, television personality, and comedy writer.

Patrick Pendergast is the new Director of Sales of the Milwaukee Radio Alliance stations in Milwaukee. Pendergast will oversee sales for FM 102/1 (WLUM-FM), B93.3 (WLDB-FM), and Milwaukee’s True Oldies Channel (WZTI-AM).

Start the bidding! More than a hundred items are going on the block for ESPN Radio’s 12th Annual ESPY Day Auction to benefit The V Foundation for Cancer Research. They include tickets to prime sporting events, autographed memorabilia, unique experiences with athletes, celebrities and behind-the-scenes experiences.

AdsWizz, in partnership with National Public Media, has launched Podwave, a marketplace for podcast-specific advertising. The company announced that Podwave will provide its publishers with ad creatives specifically tailored to podcast content, and creates a dedicated venue for advertisers targeting the in-demand audiences of premium podcasts while providing them with detailed metrics.

United Stations Radio Networks has signed a deal with producers the Baka Boyz to handle the advertising sales in all the programs created, hosted, and distributed by the Baka Boyz. The programs airing now are the Baka Boyz All Star Hit Mix which is geared toward CHR and Rhythmic CHR, and the Baka Boyz Hip Hop Master Mix which is a more Urban program.

Sometimes-controversial political talk jock William J. Kelly’s The Citizen Kelly Show has been expanded to middays on AM 1590 WCGO. The Emmy award-winning producer and commentator starts his noon to 2 p.m., Monday through Friday, shift this week in the Windy City.

In June, and for the fourth consecutive month, ESPN Audio broke its record for the number of podcast impressions with 47.6 million. That's an increase of 63% over the previous June (29.2 million) and it breaks the record set in May (41.2 million). From the ESPN Radio Talk lineup, the Dan LeBatard Show was number one with 5.9 million impressions.

NextRadio is now live in the Google Play store in Canada, allowing over a million consumers with FM radio-compatible smartphones to download the app. NextRadio President Paul Brenner said, “This expansion was a natural next step as many handset makers provide the same phones in Canada, making it easier for them to turn on the FM chip for both countries at the same time.”