People in the News

The Daily Post in Palo Alto is reporting that former late-night KGO host Bill Wattenburg has died from cancer at the age of 82. Wattenburg was also a former nuclear weapons designer who would answer a wide range of listener questions, from car repairs to helping kids with their homework. He was on the air at KGO for nearly 40 years.

93Q 3-7 p.m. afternoon drive personality and MD Rick Roberts has been promoted to APD and Digital Content Manager for the station. Meanwhile, Production Director Joey Walker has been promoted to the 93Q 10 a.m.-3 p.m. midday slot, and the role of Digital Content Manager for sister stations WAQX and WXTL.

Danny Bortnick has been named iHeartMedia’s SVP of Sales for Washington, DC. He will report to Aaron Hyland, Region Senior Vice President of Sales for iHeartMedia Washington, DC, and Market President for Baltimore. Bortnick joins the DC Market from Entercom.

SRN's Tom Tradup informed us that long-time New York broadcaster Ralph Howard died Tuesday. Howard worked for WMCA-AM and WINS-AM in New York. From 1982 to 1985, Tradup was Executive Producer of the Ralph & Ryan morning show on WMCA — then owned by Ellen & Peter Straus of Straus Communications. Ralph was paired with NBC-TV newsman Bill Ryan.

KYW Newsradio 1060 (KYW-AM/Philadelphia) Community Affairs Reporter Cherri Gregg  has been recognized by the National Association of Black Journalists with a Salute to Excellence Award at the 2018 NABJ Salute to Excellence Gala in Detroit.

The Wolfman Jack Radio Show is doing an encore on KWML-AM 570/104.5 FM Las Cruces, WOCQ-HD2 (105.1 and 104.3 FM) Salisbury, and WQTL-FM/ 106.1 FM Tallahassee. The Adams Radio Group stations will be the exclusive affiliate in these markets to air the original show. 

Scripps Radio, Springfield Operations, has hired Tom Oakes as Operations Manager for the five-station cluster of KTTS-FM, KSGF-AM/FM, KRVI-FM, KSPW-FM, and Program Director for KTTS-FM. Since 2015, Oakes worked in Anchorage, AK, as General Manager for Ohana Media Group’s six radio stations.

Sacramento’s 98 Rock (KRXQ-FM) will host a concert featuring the Pat Martin All Star Band in honor of the lead member’s 30th anniversary with the station. 98 Rock’s midday show featuring Pat Martin is currently the longest consecutive running radio show in Sacramento history.

Premiere Networks has promoted Casey Silcock to VP of Affiliate Relations/Morning Shows from Director of Affiliate Relations. Based in New York, Silcock will continue to report to Peter Tripi, SVP of Affiliate Relations/Talk and Morning Shows.

88.5 KNKX/Seattle-Tacoma, WA, has hired Northwest Jazz radio veteran Carol Handley as its new Director of Music Programming, starting August 20. Handley comes to KNKX with decades of music programming, management, and on-air experience in the Seattle market.