People in the News

Don Dalesio will join the company as its new Chief Operating Officer and Market President. He will have complete oversight of Press’ marketing, sales, promotions, programming, and digital sales efforts as well as overall general management of the day-to-day operations.

The country music will flow this Thanksgiving with the four-hour, commercial-free CMT Thanksgiving Special with Cody Alan. Premiere Networks announced the Thanksgiving special for Country stations, Thursday. The special will feature country hits as well as holiday-themed songs, hosted by CMT personality Alan.

iHeartMedia's KLOU-FM in St. Louis has named Jules Riley PD at the "Greatest Hits of the '70s and '80s" station. Riley has over 15 years experience, including Ops Manager, Brand Manager, PD, and host. She moves to St. Louis from Tulsa where she was Operations Manager for Scripps' KVOO-FM. From 2005 until 2008, Riley was PD for WARH-FM and KMVN-FM in St. Louis, where she was named one of Radio Ink’s Best Program Directors in America in 2007.

News Director Rob Graham is retiring after 32 years with WINA Charlottesville. Graham joined WINA in 1982 and was there until 2000 when he went into public relations, returning to WINA two years later.

iHeart's "Variety" station WASH-FM in DC is bringing back Jenni Chase to host middays. Chase held down that slot until a family move took her to Dallas this past spring. She's also worked the midday position for iHeartMedia’s WMZQ-FM, and has more than 15 years of experience in Washington, DC, as an on-air talent. Sabrina Conte will segue to host 97.1 WASH-FM’s afternoon drive.

Justin Cole is the new Senior Vice President of Programming for iHeart Chattanooga, effective immediately. Stations in the cluster include US101, 103.7 KISS FM, and ROCK 105. Cole will work with radio station personalities and PDs to oversee on-air content and music programming for all five stations in market.

Late last week ESPN Radio's Dan Le Batard went off on management in his local Miami hour when someone -- who was not named on the air -- told Le Batard to stop talking about a story that was in the Miami Herald. Le Batard made it clear that was not going to happen.

At its recent Board of Directors meeting, the Radio Advertising Bureau elected a new slate of officers, including Hubbard Radio CEO Ginny Morris who takes over as board chair after a two-year run by iHeartmedia's Hartley Adkins. Newly elected directors include Brian Beasley from the Beasley Media Group, Cherry Creek Radio CEO Jonathan Brewster, Mike Tarter, CEO of Forcht Broadcasting, and Univision Radio's Sabina Widmann.

Former Greater Media Market Manager Dan Finn is staying with Beasley Media. Beasley closed on the purchase of Greater Media last week, which includes three New Jersey markets Finn was running. His new title will be Senior Vice President and Market Manager for the Beasley Media Group.

John DiModica (right) becomes PD for WQQO-FM (Q105.5) and Russ Ryder takes over as APD. DiModica will keep his shifts as Afternoon Drive host on WQQO and as Midday host on sister station WMIM (98.3 NASH Icon). In addition to his new role at WQQO, Ryder will host the Midday show on WQQO.