News

Cumulus has hired 35-year radio vet John Dimick as VP of Programming Operations. Dimick officially joins Cumulus June 1 and reports to Senior VP of Content and Programming Mike McVay. Before retiring, Dimick was Senior VP of Programming and Operations for Lincoln Financial Media.

ABC 8 has the details about 43-year old Amos Ayers, known on the air Ron James on Wild 102.9 in Reno. Police arrested Ayers Thursday for allegedly sexually assaulted an 18-year-old who had been drinking in 2015

Our latest podcast features Paul Weyland. The topic is "How to Avoid Surprise Cancellations and Triple or Quadruple Your Local Direct Billings." Paul details how each sales rep can hit the streets with specific knowledge on how to calculate R.O.I. for every client you're selling radio to. Sales managers across the country will have enough information to fill 10 sales meetings. Listen to our podcast HERE.

Northern Star Broadcasting is selling WCKC-FM in Cadillac, Michigan to Up North Radio, owned by Dom and Jennifer Theodore. According to broker Jason James of Patrick Communications the station will be sold for $180,000 cash at closing.

Although he has many other things going on in his life now, Sumner Redstone is on board with the plan to spin off the CBS Radio stations. That's what CBS Chairman and CEO Les Moonves told shareholders Thursday, according to Variety.

AdWeek has the details from Bryan Moffett, GM of National Public Media, NPR's corporate underwriting division, who says NPR will double its podcasting revenue in 2016. It tripled in 2015.

In his latest blog post, Amplifi Media CEO Steve Goldstein, after reviewing the data presented in a webinar by Edison and Triton, says the growth of Podcasting is eye-popping. "In a relatively short period of time, Podcasting has gone from an arcane and difficult download to a computer followed by an upload to an iPod, to a mainstream media choice which 21% of Americans used last month."

The battle to woo advertisers to new forms of audio continues. On Thursday, Spotify announced that, for the first time ever, brands can now sponsor Spotify’s owned and operated playlists. Spotify has over 400 of them. To start, 25 will be open for sponsorships.

One of radio's bigger deals in quite some time will come from Northern Michigan where Black Diamond Broadcast is purchasing eight stations from Northern Star Broadcasting for $1.95 million. Here are the details of the deal brokered by Jason James of Patrick Communications...

Dave Ramsey hosted one of his EntreLeadership Summits recently in Dallas. The event featured a lineup of well-known speakers such as Seth Godin, Jim Collins, Pat Lencioni, Dr. Henry Cloud, Chris Hogan, and Christy Wright. Ramsey was also joined on stage by special guest, former President George W. Bush. The event provides attendees with knowledge on leadership, building company culture, communication, work/life balance, and organizational health.