News

On Monday, May 2, Red Zebra Broadcasting will drop Mike and Mike for Chris Cooley and Kevin Sheehan from 7AM to 11AM weekdays. The station will also add “The Morning Blitz” with Al Galdi from 5AM to 7AM. And, “The Sports Reporters” returns to the station with Steve Czaban and Andy Pollin. The changes take the station to 17 hours of live and local programming every day.

Our Friday story on Edison Research's latest in-car study caused quite a stir around the industry. What really hit everyone's hot button was how Pandora quickly flipped the data into a White Paper the company will show advertisers. Radio Ink was denied access to the full Edison study (they told us it was proprietary for clients) so the most specific detail we had was what Pandora pulled from the research to use in its White Paper presentation. But now we see more...

Radio executives were quick to react to Pandora's Friday white paper which quotes a recent Edison Research study that says consumers switch radio stations 22 times during their commutes. Of course, the automobile is extremely important to radio because it's where most listening is done. Cumulus/Westwood One CMO Pierre Bouvard was the first to strike back at Pandora in his latest blog. Bouvard says Pandora is clueless about listening in the car and barely anyone listens to them while driving.

It was less than two weeks ago many of you were part of a very lively discussion about how many commercials you should be playing on your radio station. We also debated just how successful an ad campaign could really be when a commercial is 6th or 7th in a long commercial pod. It appears Pandora has just been handed a wealth of data that contributes to the very real belief that you're playing way too many commercials.

Curtiss Johnson has been named Senior VP of Programming for iHeart's Sacramento cluster which includes B92.5, 93.7 JACK FM, V101.1, Talk 650 KSTE, NewsRadio KFBK, and 107.1 The Brew. Johnson has 30 years experience under his belt and most recently served as PD for 97.1 The Drive WDRV-FM in Chicago.

The NAB says it will add additional security to the week-long convention that begins this Saturday in Las Vegas.

An 8K filed with the SEC by Saga, Friday, revealed the salary of Saga CEO Ed Christian to be $860,000. Saga is a public company. Every June the Saga compensation committee will decide on Christian's raise, which will not be less than 4%. Christian is also eligible for bonuses, he gets six weeks paid vacation and the company will pay to have his taxes done.

KOST 103.5 and morning show personality Ellen announced a partnership, Friday, with Thrive Causemetics, a cosmetics company dedicated to supporting women with cancer. As part of the partnership, KOST 103.5 and Thrive Causemetics will offer female listeners undergoing cancer treatment complimentary makeovers to improve their confidence and self-esteem.

Molly Paige will co-host afternoon drive on FM News 101 KXL Portland, Oregon. Her start date was April 4, 2016. Paige has experience as an anchor, writer, producer, and on-air personality for nationally syndicated newscasts. She most recently worked in Washington D.C. as an anchor/writer and producer for NBC News Radio and alternate host on America in the Morning.