XPost: alt.radio.broadcasting

RadioInsight

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Country Countdown USA Moves To Compass Media Networks

Posted: 20 Jul 2022 03:47 PM PDT https://radioinsight.com/headlines/234043/country-countdown-usa-moves-to-compass-media-networks/



After Westwood One announced it would cease distribution of Country
Countdown USA at the end of this month as part of its recent cutbacks, the
Lon Helton helmed show will move to Compass Media Networks starting August
1.

Launched in 1992, the three hour weekly countdown features Helton and a
guest Country artist each week to count down the top 30 songs of the week.

Country Countdown USA with Lon Helton enters its 30th year in Syndication
with Compass Media Networks. The three-hour weekly show recorded each week
from Music Row in Nashville with host Lon Helton has been a staple on
heritage Country radio stations since its inception in 1992. Each week Lon
is joined by a different country star co-host while they count down the week’s Top 30 hits.
Lon is a prominent figure in Country Radio as host of Country Countdown
USA, publisher of Country Aircheck and editor of the Mediabase Country
Chart. Lon is a member of the Board of Directors of the Country Music Association and the Country Music Hall of Fame. Lon has been named CMA
National Personality of the Year an astounding 11 times in the awards
22-year history (winners are not eligible to be nominated 2 years in a row)
and the Academy of Country Music has bestowed its’ equivalent award 6 times in the last 12 years. Lon was inducted into the Country Radio Hall of Fame
in 2006.
Lon Helton comments, “Country Countdown USA has had an amazing run of more than 30 years and more than 20 major awards with Westwood One. Many thanks
to everyone there- present and past- for everything. Having worked with
Peter in the past, I know that Compass Media Networks and the great team he
has assembled is the perfect place to continue the legacy of Country’s most listened-to and most unique Country Countdown.”

“With open arms, humility, and much excitement, we welcome Lon Helton, his team, his audience, and his affiliates to Compass Media Networks,” says
Peter Kosann, CEO Compass Media Networks. “This is a homecoming in that Lon and I had the pleasure of working together years ago — it is an absolute thrill to be reunited together again.”
Country Countdown USA joins Compass Media Networks established roster of Country programs including The Big D & Bubba Show, Taste of Country Nights, Honky Tonkin’ with Tracy Lawrence, The Original Country Gold with Rowdy Yates, The Country Club with Dee Jay Silver, and Y’all Access with Kelly Sutton.
Affiliates of the show and those interested in finding out more are
encouraged to contact Doug Ingold dingold@compassmedianetworks.com (310) 904-3864. The show will transition without a hitch and Lon’s first three co-hosts for August are Kane Brown, Maren Morris, and Chris Young!




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Neuhoff Communications Promotes Mike Hulvey To CEO; Beth Neuhoff To Step
Down As Trustee

Posted: 20 Jul 2022 10:18 AM PDT https://radioinsight.com/headlines/233997/neuhoff-communications-promotes-mike-hulvey-to-ceo-beth-neuhoff-to-step-down-as-trustee/



Neuhoff Communications has announced a leadership change as Beth Neuhoff
will step down as both CEO and corporate trustee.

Chief Operating Officer Mike Hulvey will rise to CEO. Hulvey has been with
the company since 1992 and in his current role since 2012. He previously
served as General Manager of the companys Danville IL stations and Vice President of Operations. Neuhoff Communications owns 20 stations across Bloomington, Danville, Decatur and Springfield IL and Lafayette IN.

Julian Hickman and Makena Neuhoff will succeed Beth Neuhoff as corporate trustees. The duo are the grandchildren of company founder Roger Neuhoff
and the nephew and niece of former President/CEO Geoff Neuhoff, Beths late husband.

In a memo to staff today, Beth Neuhoff wrote,

Today is an exciting day for the future of Neuhoff Communications. It gives
me great pleasure to announce Mike Hulvey will become CEO of Neuhoff
effective immediately. I have been transitioning from my role as CEO over
the last few months in anticipation of this day. Though we’d all hoped to give you more notice, it has been a matter of corporate governance that precluded its earlier announcement. The Neuhoff family has been extremely gracious in working through this transition with me and remain committed
and faithful to the company and its employees. In the next few months, I
will be transitioning my governance role with the family to Makena Neuhoff, Geoff’s niece, and Julian Hickman, his nephew.

This transition is the result of a thoughtful process dating back a few
years. In fact, it likely would have happened sooner, but with the global pandemic and devastating impact it had on our company and industry- plans
were delayed. While there is still work to do and business isn’t 100% back
to normal, our recovery is well underway. Now is the right time to make the move. Mike has earned it.

Being CEO of Neuhoff is the best job in broadcasting. March Forth Mike will fill the role exceptionally well. Mike and I have communicated daily for
nearly ten years. In fact, July will be ten years since my late husband
Geoff died and I assumed the reins. Mike has been my partner every step of
the way and has a bold vision for where this company is going. He is an excellent team builder and knows what it takes to make Neuhoff the most important and community- focused local media operation in every market we serve. With his deep understanding of our operations and ability to lead
both at our company and industry level, I cant think of a better person to
lead you through the continuing recovery, making sure our teams are
respected and supported as you keep this company moving forward.

I want to take a moment to thank you all. I have been fortunate to be your colleague for nearly ten years and am incredibly proud of all we have accomplished.

Throughout it all, your friendship, support, professionalism, and
dedication have meant the world to me. I will never forget how you rallied around me in the most difficult time of my life and gave me so much to look forward to every day. The core values we established together- innovation, community, grit and excellence- are a legacy we share and one I will always carry with me.

Im extraordinarily excited about the future with Mike as our next leader. I have no doubt the best is yet to come for Neuhoff, and no one will be
cheering louder for all of you than I.

Please join me in congratulating Mike and welcoming Makena and Julian as
they join the team. And thank you again to each of you- for all you have
done for me, the communities we serve, our customers and teammates.



It was announced today, Mike Hulvey, long time COO of Neuhoff
Communications and industry leader, will be immediately promoted to the
role of CEO.

“Mike has a bold vision for where this company is going. He is an excellent team builder and knows what it takes to make Neuhoff the most important and community-focused local media operation in every market we serve. With his deep understanding of our operations and ability to lead both at our
company and industry level, I cant think of a better person to take the
reins of this very special company,” said Beth Neuhoff, immediate past CEO.

“It is my distinct honor to assume the reins at Neuhoff Communications” said Hulvey. “We’ve worked hard to build this award-winning organization. I’m ready to build upon our firmly held values of community, innovation, grit, and excellence as this business evolves and grows into the future”

Also announced was a governance transition. Beth Neuhoff will be
transitioning her role as corporate trustee of the company to Julian
Hickman and Makena Neuhoff, grandchildren of the late broadcaster, Roger Neuhoff, over the next few months. “It is exciting to see the next generation of Neuhoff’s take an active role in the company’s future,” said
Beth. “Their enthusiasm and breadth of experiences in business will be of tremendous benefit.”


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The Return of the Screaming Contest Winner?

Posted: 20 Jul 2022 08:00 AM PDT https://radioinsight.com/blogs/233089/the-return-of-the-screaming-contest-winner/



More than 15 years ago, I wrote a column called When Contest Winners Will
Not Scream. It was prompted by daily radio listening where, on station
after station, I could count on hearing a frustrated DJ try to cajole a recalcitrant winner into showing more excitement, even if they were at
work. Even I those pre-Pandora days, it made stations sound desperate, plus even those listeners who did scream appreciatively were a throwback to an
era of high-energy radio that no longer existed in any other way.

When Contest Winners Will Not Scream was one of the best read, most
circulated Ross on Radio columns and instantly prompted dozens of reader comments. In the intervening years, the problem has “solved itself,” sort of. The draconian on-air tightness of the early PPM ratings measurement era meant fewer and briefer listener calls. Then it became harder to get
callers for anything. Now we have imaging packages that supply the
enthusiastic callers for us. The sweeper with the canned “you guys are great” or “it’s all I ever listen to” is the new cliché—as irritating now
as “I can’t scream; I’m at work.”

There are also fewer on-air winners because radio has switched to one major contest with no on-air payoff. “Text-the-national-codeword-to-win” contesting is hour after hour of multiple station on the dial doing an
almost identical execution of a promotion with no entertainment value for
the casual listener. Sometimes there might be a recorded promo of national winners. Mostly, the contest disappears into the ether until the next hour. Big-money group-wide contesting has been heralded over the years as the
best of what nationalized radio could offer, but if it’s done anything to benefit us, I shudder to think about what time spent with radio would look
like otherwise.

Recently, I had an epiphany. 

We could have screaming contest winners again, if we wanted. More than
ever, working listeners are not all at the office. Yes, that situation is fluid. Yes, many listeners were never able to stay home. But “I’ve got to keep it down, I’m at work” is indeed less of an issue now. It could, I suppose, have been replaced a few years ago by “I’ve got to keep it down, the kids are remote learning,” but there was nothing to give away then anyway. I’m surprised that it took so long for this to occur to me, but it just shows how contesting is less top-of-mind now.

I asked Twitter followers and Facebook friends if they had heard a
screaming winner call or promo recently. “To have that, you have to have callers, and someone to answer the phone, which are both in decreasing supply,” posted Will LaTulippe. (I also asked who had heard any clever promotions lately. “My last station had callers tell them why Limp Bizkit sucks—to win Limp Bizkit tickets!” he said.) 

I don’t know that I really want the screaming contest winner back, but it would be novel again, at least for a minute. “Brilliant at the basics” is something I hear less and less these days, and I’m always happy when I encounter it. In that regard, I’m easily impressed, and I wish I were more often impressed that way. The effectiveness of on-air contesting is indeed
tied up in a lot of issues including budgets, staffing, the ability to externally market our efforts, a lack of showmanship, and our own fatalism about whether radio can ever generate a listener reaction again.

I do know that I want to hear more contest creativity again—both in terms
of generating new promotional ideas and executing the old ones with more
gusto. Country programmers are genuinely excited about the ability to give
away concert tickets again. I recently heard Country WIVK Knoxville, Tenn., packaging concert, amusement park, and other contests as the “Summer of
7,000 Giveaways.”

When I asked readers what radio contesting they’d liked recently, there
were a lot of old standbys—“guess the secret sound”; AC CHFI Toronto’s “Name the Celebrity Voices”; Hits Radio UK’s Cash Register—a “cash call
variant”; Heart UK’s “Make Me A Millionaire 2022.” These aren’t surprising
examples because the U.K., Canada, and Australia have all shown more
commitment to contesting and promotional creativity over the last two
decades. It was also Canada where I recently encountered what I only half-jokingly called “the greatest radio stunt ever.”

I also want to hear listeners on the air again, even though I’m fully aware of the challenges, because it creates community and proves to listeners
that their peers are still engaged with radio. Talking to and not at
listeners is a key tenet of radio; now it’s the thing that separates us
from both playlist and podcast. We have seen that listener interaction is a valuable commodity, particularly for BBC Radio 2 and Canada’s CKNO (Now 102.3) Edmonton, Alberta, and the stations inspired by it.

A good caller is different these days. I recently heard an “impossible contest” variant on CKRY (Country 105) Calgary, Alberta, where the winner knew that 20% of people would consider a nude vacation. The jock asked if
he would. “Not anymore,” said the caller. These days, good sportsmanship and just being able to return the host’s serve is as important as the
volume at which they do so. 


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Ernie Brown Moves To Mornings At WBAP

Posted: 20 Jul 2022 06:10 AM PDT https://radioinsight.com/headlines/233963/ernie-brown-moves-to-mornings-at-wbap/



Cumulus Media News/Talk 820 WBAP Fort Worth/Dallas has announced that
9-11am host Ernie Brown will move to co-anchor WBAPs Morning News alongside
Hal Jay.

Brown had moved to the late morning slot on WBAP earlier this year from afternoons at sister Conservative Talk 570 KLIF. He previously served as a
news anchor at 1080 KRLD, KOGO San Diego, and KOMO Seattle and has worked
in markets including Austin, Cleveland, Houston, and Las Vegas as well as America’s Radio News Network.

He will succeed Brian Estridge on the morning show. Estridge, who also
serves as the football play-by-play voice of Texas Christian University,
has co-anchored with Hal Jay since 2009.

Cumulus Media (NASDAQ: CMLS) announces that it has appointed Ernie Brown
as On-Air Host of Cumulus Dallas-Fort Worth’s News Talk 820 WBAP’s Morning News. Brown takes the morning mic with Co-Host Hal Jay and can be heard
Monday through Friday from 5:00am-9:00am. Brown moves from his previous
on-air slot on WBAP from 9:00am-11:00am.

Brown brings deep experience in radio news to Mornings on WBAP, and has
been a popular voice on DFW stations, as well as in markets including
Seattle, Houston, Austin, Cleveland, and Las Vegas. Brown began his career
as a newscaster and anchor on a nightly news radio show which aired across Texas. He continued in news radio with KOMO in Seattle, where he anchored
both the morning and afternoon shows, and was the host of America at Night,
a nationally syndicated, late-night talk program.

Bruce Collins, WBAP Program Director, said: “Ernie is exactly what we were looking for. He’s the ultimate professional broadcaster that knows how to relate to the audience and understands the biggest stories of the day that resonate with our target audience. We’re excited to have him as our new morning show leader.”

Brown commented: “We’ll talk about the issues that matter to WBAP listeners: inflation, gas prices, grocery prices, supply chain shortages,
your money, covid, and of course the Cowboys!” He noted: “I’ve worked at great stations and organizations all over the country including KOGO in San Diego, Americas Radio News in Washington, D.C., Western Journal Phoenix,
and KOMO in Seattle and hosted a national late night talk show called
America at Night. This is an incredible opportunity to get to work with Hal Jay and the talented WBAP morning team. I want to thank Cumulus DFW
RVP/Market Manager Dan Bennett and PD Bruce Collins.”   

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