People in the News

Rex Long will be the new PD and on-air talent for 98.9 Magic FM in Colorado Springs. Long joins Magic from Cumulus in Montgomery where he has been PD for the past seven years at WHHY-FM. He was also PD for KCDD-FM in Abilene. Long started his radio career in Dallas as on-air talent and producer at KISS-FM. He starts his new job Monday, June 26.

The Todd Starnes Show (12-3 p.m./ET) begins Wednesday, July 5. It replaces The John Gibson Show. Monday, July 10 will see the debut of The Tom Shillue Show (3-6 p.m.) which replaces The Tom Sullivan Show.

Sun Broadcast Group has signed a multiyear extension with Chief Operating Officer Julio Aponte. Under the agreement, Aponte will continue to head the daily operations of Sun’s New York City and Boca Raton offices as well as oversee the company’s sales department. He's been COO since 2014.

The Beasley station is bringing in Erin Vermeulen to join Big Jim O’Brien on the WCSX-FM morning team. Her start date is Monday, July 10. Vermeulen began her career at the former 1310 WYUR in Detroit, and was most recently heard on the air as a member of the Bill Handel Morning Show at KFI AM 640 in Los Angeles.

Peter Thiele is the new PD for Cumulus' Newsradio 102.9 KARN in Little Rock. Thiele has programmed spoken-word stations in New York City, San Francisco, Minneapolis, San Antonio, Greenville/Spartanburg, SC, and Huntsville.

News correspondent Steve Kastenbaum has won two silver awards from the New York Radio Festival international competition. One was for reports during the presidential campaign on how some votes of dead people were counted. The other for Westwood One News’ breaking coverage of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando.

She's one of radio's strongest and loudest proponents. Mary Beth Garber was hired by Katz back in 2011 as the EVP for Marketing Strategy. Radio Ink has learned that Garber is no longer with Katz as of last week. She can be reached at [email protected]

iHeartMedia's SportsTalk 790 in Houston will shuffle its lineup next month. Josh Innes, who's been holding down afternoons since October 2016, will move to mornings as of July 17. From 2013 until he was fired last year, Innes hosted a very popular afternoon show on CBS Radio's WIP in Philadelphia.

Rickey Smiley will host the NAB Marconi Radio Awards Dinner and Show on September 7 at the 2017 Radio Show in Austin. Smiley last hosted the Marconi Awards back in 2015 in Atlanta.

WXRT's Wendy Rice is retiring from the CBS Chicago station. Rice is the host of the popular Saturday Morning Flashback program. Her final show will be this Saturday. She's been at WXRT for 35 years. Rice began her career at XRT as an intern in 1978; she later made a stop in Peoria, at WWCT-FM before returning to Chicago and joining the WXRT air staff in 1982.