News

As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, Rythmic Oldies was out and Soft AC was in for iHeart's 98.1-FM in San Francisco. The station is called The Breeze and iHeart promises relaxing favorites. The new format was kicked off with 10,000 songs in a row and the playlist includes Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Whitney Houston, Michael Bolton, Vanessa Williams, and others.

Emmis and ABC Radio will be working closer together. ABC Radio programming will now be available on Emmis NY’s WQHT-FM (Hip Hop), WBLS-FM (Urban Adult Contemporary/R&B), and WLIB-AM (Praise and Inspiration). The stations will begin to integrate ABC content that includes celebrity interviews, features, and programs. Some content will be on the radio stations, some on the station websites.

Thomas Mancusi will run AudioBoom's new ad sales unit as VP of Sales and Development. AudioBoom is a platform that hosts, distributes, and monetizes content. AudioBoom works with broadcasters, content creators, and podcasters hosting almost 8,000 content channels with over 35 million listens per month.

The Hollywood Reporter reports, according to an interview with Francesa, that he wants to try something new. Francesa says he's looking into uncharted territory.

Kudos to Jason Garte (pictured) and all of our friends at The Mix Group. In less than a year, the company has grown its client roster from 625 stations to over 1,000. Recent stations to join the Mix family include Boom 107.9 WPHI-FM Philadelphia, 95.5 The Mountain KYOT-FM Phoenix, and 99 JAMZ WEDR-FM Miami.

Alpha will use the Mr. Master AIM software for the Alpha Media network of 249 stations in 52 markets.

Energy 102.3 (WNGY) Peoria’s Lucky The DJ (Chris Stewart) will run 102 miles in 102 hours in order to create awareness for child abuse. The run will begin on April 25, 2016 at 9 a.m. CT from Chik-Fil-A in Peoria. The route of the run is TBD but will end on April 29, 2016

iHeart creates a new position called Country Content Bureau Chief for its Nashville-based team. Zack Massey gets the gig and he'll report to Senior VP of Digital Content Strategy for iHeartMedia Dan Shelley. Massey will oversee the new Digital Content Bureau for iHeartMedia's Country stations which will produce content for iHeartCountry.com and iHeartMedia's more than 140 Country radio station websites.

Legend Communications announced that Mark Crump has been appointed to Executive VP and GM of the Big Horn Radio Network. BHRN is a nine-station radio group comprised of six FM and 3 three AM stations, and three translators in Cody, Wyoming. Crump will move to Wyoming from St. George, Utah, where he's the Market Manager of Cherry Creek Radio’s Southern Utah stations.

Cumulus' Rocker KFOG in San Francisco has hired Matt Pinfield to host mornings as of Wednesday. Pinfield works at SiriusXM’s Lithium channel and hosts the long-running nationally syndicated classic rock weekend show Flashback. Current morning man Mike “No Name” Nelson shifts to afternoon drive to make room for Pinfield.