Alpha Media to Buy WFTL and WMEN in Palm Beaches. This deal brings two spoken-word formatted AMs
into
Alpha Media's West Palm Beach station group, joining current holdings adult
contemporary WEAT "Sunny 107.9" and hot AC WRMF. News/talk WFTL, West Palm Beach and sports talk WMEN, Royal Palm Beach are being sold by
Mark Jorgenson's
ACM JCE IV B, LLC to Alpha for $ 2 million. Jorgenson's firm acquired the stations from
James Crystal in a 2015 bankruptcy auction. Alpha begins operating the two stations under an LMA until closing.
Sports, Music, Politics and Talk Media. TALKERS publisher
Michael Harrison is joined in a free-wheeling dialogue by his long-time friend, New York City radio broadcaster
Richard Neer as his guest on this week's installment of the award-winning
PodcastOne series "Up Close and Far Out." The two talk about the public's and media's obsession with
Donald Trump, with an emphasis on the infiltration of sports and entertainment by political
passions. Richard Neer brings his diverse background as a legendary Big Apple music radio host (WNEW-FM), sports talker (WFAN) and best-selling author of the landmark book
FM: The Rise and Fall of Rock Radio (Villard, 2001) to the discussion which focuses on the rapid morphing of the traditional left/right talk media paradigm into a more complex resistance/revolution chess game. To listen to the podcast in its entirety, please click
here or click on the "Up Close and Far Out" player box located in the right-hand column on every page of Talkers.com.
Trump's Travel Ban Battle, North Korea Missile Incident/Trump Security Questions, Michael Flynn Under Fire-Resignation, California Dam Concerns, 'SNL' Trump Sketches, Tumultuous GOP Town Halls, and Sunday's Grammy Awards Among Top News/Talk Stories Yesterday (2/13). The court battles over his original travel ban and potential new executive travel orders from President Donald Trump and related protests over his perceived anti-immigration stance; North Korea's weekend test of an ICBM and related questions about presidential and national security after Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe learned of and discussed the matter in the Mar-A-Lago dining room; National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn resigns after ongoing questions about his improper communications with Russian diplomats; the status of a Northern California dam spillway as it threatens the residences of some 200,000 evacuees; the flap over the series of Trump Administration spoofs aired on "Saturday Night Live"; the raucous town hall receptions some GOP lawmakers are receiving in their districts; and Sunday night's Grammy Awards were some of the most-talked-about stories on news/talk radio yesterday, according to ongoing research from TALKERS magazine.
Music Radio News and Career Moves. Music radio pro
Zakk Babb stays in the
Entercom family in his new position as afternoon
drive personality for CHR WZPL, Indianapolis and imaging director. Babb has been hosting evenings at Entercom's hot AC WSTR, Atlanta "Star 94.1" – a position he'll continue to hold as he'll voice track the show from Indy…..Due to his ongoing cancer treatment,
John Thomas is
stepping away from his SVP of programming role at
iHeartMedia's Springfield, Massachusetts cluster in which he oversees programming at news/talk WHYN-AM, hot AC WHYN-FM, and country WRNX. In a Facebook post, Thomas writes, "After a lot of prayer, weighing the pros & cons and deep soul-searching – I've decided to resign from my position @ iHeart in order to FOCUS 100% on my HEALTH! Over the course of the next several weeks – I'll be transitioning in order to put myself in the BEST possible position to benefit from the clinical trial that I started a few weeks back."…..
Cumulus Media announces that the nationally syndicated
Kidd Kraddick show – starring
Kellie Rasberry,
Big Al Mack,
J-Si Chavez and
Jenna Owens – is the new morning program on its CHR KBIU, Lake Charles "HOT 103.3."…..In the Lafayette, Louisiana market, programming pro
Tyrone Davis exits
Delta Media's urban contemporary KFXZ "Z105.9" where he'd been serving as program director and music director. His duties will be assumed by operations manager
Erik Tobias.
