Move affects WGCI, V103 in Chicago – but not everyone’s on board With racism issues in the spotlight, it isn’t a surprise some changes were due in the way music and radio in general is targeted to African-Americans. As reported by All Access and Rolling Stone, changes are in the works by iHeartMedia and Mediabase to rebrand the format names […]
The iconic countdown show turns 50 this Saturday and a year-long celebration is planned One of America’s iconic radio shows is turning 50 this Saturday, and the party is going to be one year-long celebration. Premiere Networks announced Tuesday plans to celebrate American Top 40 as it marks its 50th year in radio. (although it did not air in 1996 […]
Replaces fifteen terrestrial radio stations including Atlanta conservative talk outlet In the aftermath of the George Floyd police murder and protests for racial justice nationwide under the Black Lives Matter movement, there have been calls for more diversity in every faucet of life – especially in the media business, particularly when it comes to news and information. On Tuesday, iHeartMedia […]
Radio clusters in Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Louis hit hardest; TV side spared (for now) It was Minneapolis-based Hubbard Broadcasting’s turn to trim its workforce due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic – and Chicago was hit very hard. Robert Feder reported Friday afternoon of a dozen cuts at Hubbard’s cluster. Among those whose jobs were eliminated include evening […]
Also: Jonathan Brandmeier returns with a podcast; daytime talkers perform from home; changes at Tamron Hall. Even though iHeartMedia and other radio companies are either furloughing or laying off employees due to the loss of advertising revenue caused by COVID-19, one station did manage to announce a promotion: iHeart’s WGCI announced last Tuesday that Zach Boog is the new evening […]
Thanks to coronavirus pandemic, tough times for radio just got together Two of radio’s biggest chains announce layoffs and furloughs as the economy continues to collapse amid the coronavirus epidemic infecting the globe with Entercom and iHeartMedia announcing a reduction of their workforce, suspension of 401k contributions and pay cuts. Entercom announced Thursday morning numerous layoffs across its clusters nationwide, […]
Nation’s largest radio chain eliminates positions in belt-tightening In 2009, Clear Channel Communications announced one of the biggest radio layoffs in history, cutting 1,850 positions announced on January 20, the same day President Obama was inaugurated into office. At the time, I wrote: “Even more appalling is their plan to cut back on live, local programming and add more syndicated […]
There are flops, and then there are….flops. For every success in the most recent decade, there were products coming off so badly, you don’t know how the hell they were even conceived in the first place – you basically had to see it to believe it! If you thought the 2000s version of “The Dirty Dozen” were bad, they have […]
Also: WLS-FM achieves historic feat; Nick Cannon to get new daytime show; MST3K canceled again Univision (branded locally as Univision Chicago) and the non-profit Chicago Reporter are teaming up to cover more of the area’s Hispanic community. As first reported by Broadcasting and Cable, the duo is forming a multi-platform news service named Latintext, and plans to cover important issues […]
Early arrival of winter leads holiday charge Get ready Chicago radio listeners because the Christmas season is here. As first reported by Robert Feder, Chicago’s go-to Holly Jolly station The Lite (WLIT-FM) is launching its annual Christmas Music format Tuesday afternoon around 4:00 p.m., which usually brings big ratings to the iHeartMedia-owned station and dominates the market for three of […]
McQueary’s piece on radio is a complete waste of time and space, as she is a member of the same political party who helped deregulate radio – leading to piped-in out-of-town voices in the first place. Every once in a while, you have those who work in the media who write about the media, proving how completely clueless they are […]
The “Crazy” is back after more than a decade off the airwaves It was back in July 2007 when a stunning development took place – in what would be a symbol of what was wrong with the industry at the time, a top-rated local radio personality was fired from his morning gig, replaced by a syndicated show. Now a dozen […]
Move comes as controversies surrounding singer heats up The first local shoe to drop in the ongoing R. Kelly saga is a “rimshot” radio station. Clubsteppin’ 95.1 – a new Urban Adult Contemporary station launched last August, announced Thursday it is removing R. Kelly’s music from their playlist in light of allegations surrounding the singer’s alleged abuse against women, raised […]
Outrage over R. Kelly’s sexual misconduct grows In a move similar to what Detroit’s WMGC-FM (Bounce 105.1) did with Kanye West after his comments on slavery last spring, a pair of radio stations in Dallas and one in Atlanta have announced it would no longer play any music performed by R. Kelly on their airwaves in wake of last week’s […]
Howard hopes to take cluster to new level There isn’t much going on in D.C. these days with the government shutdown, but one radio programmer is hoping to inject some excitement in the Chicago radio scene. As first reported by Radio Insight last week, iHeartMedia Chicago has hired James Howard to become Senior Vice President of Programming for the six-station […]
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