News

WGN Radio announced the seven honorees in the 2016 Walk of Fame class during the Steve Cochran Show. On Friday, May 27, voices of agriculture, entertainment, and news, along with behind-the-scenes staff including producers, engineers, and management, will be honored with a ceremony and live broadcast from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Tribune Tower at 435 North Michigan Avenue.

iHeartMedia announced Friday the lineup for the Daytime Village at the iHeartCountry Festival on Saturday, April 30 from 3-6 p.m. CT at Frank Erwin Center's North Box Office Plaza. The free daytime event will feature live performances by Bobby Bones and The Raging Idiots, Granger Smith, LoCash, Chris Lane, and Maren Morris. Bobby Bones will host the main stage.

Change stations 22 times every time they commute, according to data from a new study called "Hacking The Commuter Code" from Edison Research. Edison did not detail why listeners change the station so many times but more detail into the research, provided by Pandora, would lead you to believe it could be the number of commercials you play (see previous story).

When programmatic buying was first announced about a year ago, it was mainly being done by advertisers via exchanges. An advertiser would speak to salespeople at an exchange and execute an order. Jelli's new platform, called SpotPlan, is cloud-based technology that gives advertisers and agencies the ability to buy radio advertising in real-time on a self-service, automated basis. In other words, rather than going through an exchange, buyers will now have a self-service portal.

(by Radio Ink Chairman Eric Rhoads) This is an industry littered with programming stories, but few have had the impact of Top 40, and it has been the basis of the music part of the radio industry for decades now. Todd Storz was taking a giant chance with his father’s radio station. He could have killed the golden goose that paid for his college tuition. Instead the move bolstered Storz Broadcasting.

KHOU-TV is reporting that country station KXAX in Livingston was hacked and broadcast a sexually explicit Podcast for four early morning hours one day this week. The Podcast, called Furcast is an adult program produced out in New York.

The Alliance for Women in Media Foundation will present WABC's Joan Hamburg with the Gracies Lifetime Achievement Award at its 41st Annual Awards Luncheon June 21st in New York City. The Gracies recognize exemplary programming created by women, for women and about women in all facets of media.

iHeartMedia has shared the latest social media engagement data it compiled from the April 3 iHeartRadio Music Awards. The company says the event generated 115 billion social media impressions in the United States throughout the promotional period of the show.

Benztown has partnered with technology company ENCO to launch an automation system that is fully integrated with Benztown’s 13 production and imaging libraries.

GatesAir plans to augment its 2016 NAB Show exhibition presence with a series of educational presentations, and its second annual GatesAir Connect NAB customer event. The efforts will focus on education and interactive discussions involving the current and future over-the-air broadcast landscape, covering both business- and technology-related topics.