XPost: alt.radio.broadcasting

RadioInsight

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KNET Flips To Classic Hits

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 03:13 PM PDT https://radioinsight.com/headlines/223181/knet-flips-to-classic-hits/



Tiffany and Kristy Spearman’s Zula Com has closed on its $300,000 purchase
of Conservative Talk 1450 KNET/95.7 K239AM and Country 98.3 KYYK Palestine
TX and with the deal closing comes adjustments at both stations.

98.3 KKYK has moved to a playlist of mostly Classic Country and Texas/Red
Dirt Country from its previous mix of currents and gold.

The bigger change comes at KNET, which drops its former Conservative Talk programming for Classic Hits. The station is featuring music from the 1970s through early 2000s, while retaining local news and sports elements.


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Alpha Media Columbia SC Promotes Bryan Hendry To VP/Market Manager

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 01:20 PM PDT https://radioinsight.com/headlines/223182/alpha-media-columbia-sc-promotes-bryan-hendry-to-vp-market-manager/



Alpha Media has announced the promotion of Bryan Hendry to VP/Market
Manager for its stations in Columbia SC.

Hendry has been with the cluster since 2006 as Director of Sales and then VP/Station Manager. He has also served as an Account Executive for Clear Channel Columbia and General Sales Manager for Clear Channel Augusta GA.

Alpha Media is pleased to announce the elevation of Bryan Hendry to
VP/Market Manager of it’s Columbia, SC cluster where he will oversee some legendary brands in The Big DM, Fox 102.3, Hot 103.9, Live 93.5, Alt 99.7,
and 94.9 The Palm, plus a very robust Digital Sales and Marketing
operation. Bryan has held a leadership position with the group for the
last 16 years as a DOS and most recently as VP, Station Manager which makes this a very seamless move.

Bryan commented on the promotion, “I am privileged to have the opportunity
to lead Alpha Medias Columbia cluster. I look forward to guiding our
talented team as we continue to find ways to improve serving our valued listeners, advertisers, and community at large.”

Alpha Media’s Chief Revenue Officer and Regional President Mike Hartel also added, “It has been such a pleasure working closely with Bryan, and I have
so much respect for the way he leads and the way he treats his teams and
our community. We have so much talent and so much opportunity in the
Columbia market and there is not a better person to lead that team than
Bryan Hendry!”



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Bruce St. James Departs Mornings At WLS

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 12:20 PM PDT https://radioinsight.com/headlines/223176/bruce-st-james-departs-mornings-at-wls/



Cumulus Media Conservative Talk 890 WLS Chicago has cut ties with morning
host Bruce St. James.

St. James joined WLS in November 2020 following a decade co-hosting late mornings on 92.3 KTAR-FM Phoenix. Prior to making the shift to Talk hosting
in 2010, St. James spent the majority of his career in music programming
with stints as Music Director of KPWR Los Angeles, thirteen years as PD of Rhythmic CHR “Power 92” KKFR Phoenix and PD of Rhythmic CHR “101.5 Jamz”
KZON and Country 107.9 KMLE Phoenix.

Robert Feder reports that Ramblin Ray Stevens will join incumbent
contributor Judy Pielach in the morning slot until they find a permanent replacement. Stevens previously co-hosted mornings at WLS from 2016 to 2018
and had been co-hosting a weekend show for the station. He is best known in
the market for his 26 years (22 in mornings) at Country “US 99” WUSN.


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Jon Hein Rises To Howard 101 Executive Producer

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 12:07 PM PDT https://radioinsight.com/headlines/223173/jon-hein-rises-to-howard-101-executive-producer/



SiriusXM has announced that it has promoted John Hein to Executive Producer
of its Howard 101 channel.

In his new role, Hein will be responsible for expanding shows complimenting Howard’s amazing, decades-deep content library. Hein has been with the
Howard Stern Show since 2006 most recently serving as Senior Producer. He
also co-hosts the Howard Stern Wrap Up Show that follows Sterns show.
Before joining Sterns show, Hein created the website television website JumpTheShark.com. He is also an author and has hosted shows on Destination America, VH1 Classic, and SportsNet New York.


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Alt 92.3 New York Adds Elliot In The Morning

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 10:07 AM PDT https://radioinsight.com/headlines/223159/alt-92-3-new-york-adds-elliot-in-the-morning/



Audacy Alternative Alt 92.3 WNYL New York has announced the addition of
Elliot In The Morning starting Monday, April 11.

The move of the DC 101 WWDC Washington based show marks a return to New
York for host Elliot Segal. Segal previously co-hosted mornings at Z100
WHTZ New York with Elvis Duran from 1996 until his move to Washington in
1999. iHeartMedia Talk 710 WOR very briefly ran his show in 2013.

The addition of WNYL continues the rapid syndication growth of Elliot In
The Morning, which has expanded beyond WWDC and Audacys Alt 102.1 WRXL
Richmond VA to add Audacys Alt 96.5 KRBZ Kansas City and Cumulus Classic
Rock Rock 100.5 WNNX Atlanta in recent weeks.

Elliot in the Morning fills the vacancy at WNYL created by the firings of
Cane, Corey B, and Riley Lassin in December.

Audacy adds Elliot Segal to the weekday programming lineup for ALT 92.3 (WNYL-FM) in New York. Segal, whose morning show “Elliot in the Morning” is also heard on Kansas City sister station ALT 96.5 (KRBZ-FM) and Richmond
sister station ALT 102.1 (WRXL-FM), will now also be heard on ALT 92.3
weekdays from 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. ET, beginning April 11.

“Morning radio listeners in New York expect personalities who can entertain and stand out, and that is exactly what ‘Elliot in the Morning’ does each and every day,” said Chris Oliviero, Senior Vice President and Market Manager, Audacy New York. “When you add this to the fact that Elliot is no stranger to New York City, we know the show will become a daily habit for
many looking to jump start their mornings on ALT 92.3.”

“This is a tremendous opportunity and I couldn’t be more energized,” said Segal. “I have really enjoyed growing my relationship with Audacy. Thank
you to Jeff Sottolano and Mike Kaplan for their continued belief in the
show. The more time I spend with Kaplan, the more I realize we have a
shared vision of the future. Also, thank you to Chris Oliviero for all of
his input and insight in helping welcome me back to New York. When I came
to DC/101 in Washington, I was very aware of the history of the frequency.
The same holds true for ALT 92.3 in New York. That history is very
motivating. Thank you again to Audacy for trusting me with it.”

In a career spanning more than three decades, Segal’s love of radio took
him from his hometown of Houston out west to Los Angeles and across the
country to New York. In 1999, he lit the on-air lamp in Washington, D.C.,
where he first broadcast the “Elliot in the Morning” show alongside co-host Diane Stupar. The show’s focus has always remained the same: connecting
with listeners. Whether its to newsmakers via interviews or just to
everyday people who are making life interesting, “Elliot in the Morning” wants to talk about it all with its listeners. Segal was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2021.


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KGGI Moves Tino Cochino Radio To Mornings

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 10:00 AM PDT https://radioinsight.com/headlines/223163/kggi-moves-tino-cochino-radio-to-mornings/



iHeartMedia Rhythmic CHR 99.1 KGGI Riverside CA is moving the syndicated
Tino Cochino Radio from nights to mornings starting Monday, May 11.

With the move, current morning co-host Evelyn Erives will move to middays
from 10am to 1pm. Letty B will move to 1-4pm, and afternoon host Kid Jay
from 4-7pm. The station has not unveiled plans for the evening slot.

Exiting the station is morning co-host Robert ODM Gutierrez. ODM had been
with KGGI since 2000 rising from nights to afternoons and then mornngs and
also served as Music Director. During his stint with the company, he also previously hosted late nights at sister CHR 102.7 KIIS-FM Los Angeles from
2004 to 2008.

99.1 The IE’s Hottest Hit Music Station (KGGI-FM), announced today the
debut of the new “The Tino Cochino Radio Morning Show,” effective Monday, April 11. “The Tino Cochino Radio Morning Show” will broadcast weekdays from 6 – 10 a.m.

“Tino Cochino Radio Morning Show” is the definition of personality-driven radio. Tino got his start in radio at the age of 13 and has since turned
TCR into the #1 English-speaking Latino-hosted radio show in America. The
show is cohosted by Serina Perez, DJ Nicasio, and executive producer Matt.

“The graduation from nights to mornings on KGGI is one of those moments I’ll forever remember and appreciate,” Tino says. “The call letters are heritage and the team is full of all-stars. There are, without a doubt, big shoes to fill, but my team and I have never been afraid of hard work and can’t wait to connect even deeper with The IE.”

“Tino Cochino and his crew will bring energy, passion and new excitement to the Inland Empire! Not to mention, Tino is a social media beast, checking
all boxes that listeners are looking for in a morning show,” says Kid Jay, Senior VP of Programming for iHeartMedia Riverside.

As part of the lineup changes, Evelyn Erives, long-time morning show host
and a 99.1 KGGI staple, will move to the mid-day slot and broadcast from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Letty B moves to the 1 – 4 p.m. slot and Kid Jay will broadcast from 4 – 7 p.m.


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Finding A New Home for Heritage Brands

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 09:00 AM PDT https://radioinsight.com/blogs/222188/finding-a-new-home-for-heritage-brands/


Note: This column was written before Alpha Media flipped AC 94.5 KBAY San
Jose to Country to fill the hole created by KRTYs upcoming departure. See
below for an update.

It’s eerily coincidental that the sale of Country KRTY San Jose was
announced a day after WAMO Pittsburgh became part of the local Audacy
cluster. WAMO was a heritage Urban station that had barely recovered from a 1996 move to a lesser signal when it was sold outright to religious broadcasters in 2009. WAMO was so important to Pittsburgh’s
African-Americans that its sale was a plot point in August Wilson’s last play, Radio Golf. Then it was sold (along with two AM sisters) for only $9-million and disappeared. 

Pittsburgh went nearly two years without another R&B/Hip-Hop station. In
2011, Martz Communications returned the WAMO calls to an AM/FM translator combo. Two years ago, that FM frequency became the FM home of Audacy’s N/T KDKA and WAMO’s format moved to a second FM translator. Recently, WAMO has been in the 1.0-1.3 share range. By contrast, WBLK Buffalo, WDKX Rochester, N.Y., and KPRS Kansas City have similar heritage and full signals; they
have remained among the mainstream R&B format’s most vital stations. I’m cautiously hopeful about what a new owner will bring WAMO.

I’ve been sorry about most of the heritage brands lost in station sales to EMF, a quality broadcaster whose expansion I don’t otherwise begrudge. But for all the regret I feel about KSWD, WRQX, WPLJ, WROZ, WLUP, and so many others, the KRTY sale has been more dismaying to me than any since WAMO. As with WAMO owner Sheridan Broadcasting in 2009 radio dollars, KRTY’s sale price of just over $3-million was late owner Bob Kieves lifetime of
stewardship being cashed out for not much cash, even after vaulting to a
7.5 share and a market lead.

More typically, KRTY was a 4-share radio station over the years, but it was always a viable market franchise in San Jose, even as the Country format struggled in San Francisco. Other stations complained about available
product. KRTY championed new music and found its own hits. Other stations badgered listeners to “download our app” and then burdened the user experience with unlistenable stopsets. KRTY ran testimonials from streamers worldwide and had a tenable spotload. KRTY had refused to participate in
the format’s downturn, but it couldn’t resist the gravitational pull of the industry overall.

As a favorite station, I hope KRTY finds a new home with its staff and stationality intact. There are three FM stations in San Francisco under a two-share. There are only two rated FMs in San Jose below KRTY’s usual four-share threshold, although that doesn’t reflect several FMs that have already been taken out of the mainstream commercial radio fray through
sales to non-comm or specialty broadcasters. The fear is somebody trying to
do Country in the Bay Area on a non-viable signal or jerry-built from parts-found-around-the-house—a station getting minimal ratings, but
blocking the franchise for anybody else.

GM Nate Deaton has raised the possibility of continuing without a stick as KRTY.com. That hasn’t proven to be such a viable option for most stations
in exile, but as Cupertino’s local Country station, KRTY would be an intriguing partner for Apple Music or another pureplay. Sharing successful local stations with the world is one of the things I’ve wanted from
broadcast radio’s better-resourced competition all along. Every FM station has app promos saying “stream us wherever you are.” The first KRTY app promo I encountered featured someone listening from Israel. It seems like a logical candidate.

Besides the streaming experience and spot-load, it’s possible to look back
at the last 15 years and see the disenfranchisement of listeners as one of broadcast radio’s tactical errors. Every format change displaces a few
people to whom we have had little to offer but a barely-tended HD-2
frequency. When seven-share radio stations (or even four-share stations)
start going away, that’s a lot of listening that we can no longer count on making its way to the next-best-available FM choice.

Beyond saving KRTY and revitalizing WAMO, I’ve been thinking about what
other heritage stations deserve another shot. When I threw the question out
to Facebook friends, there were hundreds of comments and about 65 stations named—some of the stations recently claimed by K-Love like WPLJ and WLUP,
but also some stations going back a lot further. There were also, it must
be noted, a handful of commenters dismissing the question as nostalgic
folly to begin with. Who still cares besides radio folk?

Yet, radio is dominated by heritage franchises. Two years ago, I looked at
a page of market ratings from 1984. More than 35 years later, an average of
40% of those stations were still represented in some similar form in the
same market. In Radioinsight’s listing of the top 20 stations, only four
are stations launched in the 2000s. The “new” WKTU has lasted more than three times as long as its namesake. Big, established brands are definitely
one of radio’s strengths. 

If existing franchises can be reinvigorated by returning to their
roots—think XETRA (91X) San Diego or WLIT (Lite FM) Chicago—are there really no brands that could be revived altogether? The line between
sentimental and strategic is indeed narrow. The big AM call letters seem of interest only to radio geeks, but they seem to work even for Classic Hits stations that target listeners who should be 20 years too young to remember their predecessors—the often-market-leading WAKY Louisville for example. 

With heritage calls, the line between strategic and merely sentimental is fuzzy. As a researcher and consultant over the last 15 years, I’ve been involved with a handful of brand relaunches both successful and not. Calgary’s XL103 brought back an AM Top 40 brand that had been dormant in
the market for about 20 years. XL remains a successful Classic Hits station
15 years later, but two different heritage AM brands have been tried unsuccessfully on FM in Vancouver. 

Its worth noting that Calgary had a better signal than either of the
Vancouver stations. In general, it seems to matter if a station remembered
for its bigness isn’t obviously diminished in its new form—something confirmed by WAMO and important to the future of KRTY. As with the “Lost Factor” of songs, call letters endure best if they were big franchises to begin with. The original KDAY Los Angeles was a niche and so is Classic
Hip-Hop KDAY. But it’s a niche that has lasted for most of the last 15
years.

Sometimes the passage of time is an advantage. I’d like to see a current-based rock station in Boston under any call letters, but if that station were called WBCN, it would be less of an act of hubris than a
decade ago when recent memories of the original loomed larger. Also, it
helps that the similarly revered WMMR Philadelphia and WIYY Baltimore have learned to successfully live in the halo of their heritage brands, not just their shadow. Same goes for a new Triple-A KFOG San Francisco, particularly
now that KITS (Live 105) is gone as well.

Some of those who dismissed the discussion of throwback brands rightly
asked “why not create something new?” It shouldn’t be an either/or proposition. Radio needs its phenomenal stations again and there are
several ways to get there. In the mid-‘90s, over the course of a three year period, New York saw four such stations. Among them were:

Hip-Hop WQHT (Hot 97), powered by a relatively untapped body of new music; Adult R&B WRKS (Kiss 98.7), driven by classic R&B that had been missing
from the radio;
WKTU returning dance to the air after three years and heritage calls that
had been missing for a decade;
WHTZ (Z100) segueing back to Mainstream CHR—like WLIT and 91X, it made a decision to start delivering on expectations again.


Any of these could still be valid strategies. All are clearly more
difficult than they were 25 years ago. But a heritage brand is a head start.

(Update: I wrote this two days before Alphas AC KBAY San Jose moved to fill
the Country hole, two months ahead of KRTYs scheduled departure. KBAY was
at a 4.7 and had been a market leader with Classic Hits a few years ago
before returning to AC. During that time, it also became a surprise
contender in the San Francisco ratings. So its an encouraging vote of confidence for Country in the market on a viable signal. Its also good news
for Countrys national numbers which are always lower when the format has no
New York outlet. Im still intrigued by the KRTY on Apple Music idea,
though.)


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Fort Wayne Operator Looks To Resurrect Emmis' 1070 WFNI Indianapolis

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 07:56 AM PDT https://radioinsight.com/headlines/223143/fort-wayne-operator-looks-to-resurrect-emmis-1070-wfni-indianapolis/



The Zionsville IN Board of Zoning Appeals will meet tonight to vote on an application by Brian Walshs Blessed Beginnings Broadcasting to construct a
new six tower array for what is now Emmis silent 1070 WFNI Indianapolis,
which he would acquire.

The application requests special exemption and new variance on behalf of
BBB to rezone the land from agricultural use to commercial in order to construct the towers. Walsh tells the Lebanon Reporter that should it be granted, he intends to have the station operating from the new facility by
next year and plans on replicating the Oldies format currently heard on his 1450 WIOE/104.3 W282CH Fort Wayne and 101.1 WIOE-FM Warsaw IN. Its morning
show will be simulcast on WFNI, while the remainder of the programming will originate from Indianapolis including local news and sports coverage.

In addition to WIOE, Walsh owns Talk 1250 WGL/105.5 W288EI Fort Wayne


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WSUL Swaps Mornings & Afternoons

Posted: 06 Apr 2022 07:04 AM PDT https://radioinsight.com/headlines/223136/wsul-swaps-mornings-afternoons/



Bold Gold Media Hot AC 98.3 WSUL Monticello NY has made some on-air lineup adjustments.

Program Director Chase Daniels moves from afternoons to mornings to anchor
the All New Morning Mix with Chase. Jenn Clarke, who had been hosting
mornings, will move in the reverse to afternoons. Clarke also serves as Promotions Coordinator for the cluster.

WSUL has also added two syndicated shows to its weekend lineup as Compass Medias Anna Raven will be heard on Saturday mornings, while classic
editions of Rick Dees Weekly Top 40 will air on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings.


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Axios: iHeartMedia building new NFT network for podcasts

Posted: 05 Apr 2022 06:46 PM PDT https://www.axios.com/iheartmedia-new-nft-network-podcasts-5c67986c-2f02-4dec-978b-7ae30c78a6b5.html

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