News

The Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council has sent a letter to the new administration called "Twelve Imperatives to Close the Digital Divide and Advance Multicultural Media and Telecom Ownership and Procurement in the First 100 Days of the New Administration." Point number 12: Create a “Glide Path” for the Short-Term Survival and Long-Term Humane Decommissioning of the AM Band in a Manner that Preserves Minority Ownership.

That's the conclusion of the folks at consulting firm Paragon Media, ten years after the NAB commissioned the company to study millennials. In their latest blog post, Paragon says in the ten years that have gone by, what has not changed is radio's shocking lack of response to the wants and needs of younger listeners.

Entercom's WEEI has hired Rich Keefe to co-host with Dale Arnold and Michael Holley, weekday afternoons (2:00-6:00 p.m.). He replaces Jerry Thornton, who left the station in mid-November to join Barstool Sports as a senior columnist.

Deke Copenhaver served as Mayor of Augusta from 2005 to 2014. Beasley has hired Copenhaver to host a 9 a.m. to noon talk show on News/Talk WGAC in Augusta.

According to Zenith’s new Advertising Expenditure Forecasts out Monday, global advertising expenditure in social media will grow 72% between 2016 and 2019 (from $29 billion to $50 billion).

Brewer has been on the air for over 40 years. He teamed up with Paul Castronovo in 1990 on WSHE-FM in South Florida before moving over to WZTA-FM in 1995. They've been hosting mornings on iHeart's Big 105.9 in South Florida since 2004. They are also heard on WZZR in West Palm.

The Milwaukee AM News/Talk station will debut The Dan O’Donnell Show, January 3, 2017, to air weekdays, 9-11 a.m. O’Donnell, a local on-air personality, will offer a humorous take on pop culture, national news, and current events, as well as reports on local news, traffic, and weather.

More from the new Zenith report (read it here) which says online video advertising is growing almost as quickly as social media, at 18% a year. Zenith predicts that by 2019 online video will total $35.4 billion across the world, edging out radio which Zenith pegs at $35 billion.

No, not the movie star (his spelling is Hoffman). This is the KLGR Redwood Falls, MN, Farm Director, who has been honored with two farm reporting awards. On November 19, the Minnesota Farmers’ Union named Hoffmann the 2016 Agriculture Communicator of the Year for excellence in agricultural reporting for the television, radio, print, and Internet media.

Republican FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai has again voiced his concern with Chairman Thomas Wheeler. Pai isn't too happy that Wheeler continues to move forward with his agenda, despite Congress' call "to avoid complex, partisan, or otherwise controversial items." Pai issued the following statement about what Wheeler is doing...