Chris Rongey Joins WXOS, St. Louis. A third voice is added to the afternoon drive program "The Fast Lane" on
Hubbard Radio's WXOS, St. Louis "101 ESPN." Joining
Randy Karraker and
Brad Thompson is
Chris Rongey. He'd been with WSCR, Chicago for the past 14 years handling pre-game and post-game duties for White Sox games. He also served as an update anchor at the station and wrote for the suburban
Daily Herald. WXOS program director
Chris "Hoss" Neupert states, "We are excited to welcome Chris Rongey home. He is a tremendous talent and will be a great addition to the '101 ESPN' team."
Entercom Surrenders KDND, Sacramento License. The
Federal Communications Commission had been taking the rare action of designating the 2013 renewal application of
Entercom's KDND, Sacramento for
hearing, due to the death of station contest participant
Jennifer Strange in the now infamous "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" promotion. Now, Entercom announces it is voluntarily giving up the station's license. The company states, "After careful consideration, Entercom determined it is in the company's best interests to voluntarily turn in the KDND license to facilitate the timely FCC approvals for the planned combination with
CBS Radio." At least partly responsible for the FCC's actions was the
Sue Wilson-led
Media Action Center which had filed the petition to deny for the station's license renewal. MAC had also attempted to get the Commission broaden its hearing to include the entire Entercom Sacramento cluster. As of today, Entercom is moving the CHR format heard on KDND to its current hot AC KUDL at 106.5 FM.
iHeartMedia Names Mike Saffer Tucson Market President. Moving from his most recent position as VP of
sales for
Clear Channel Outdoor in Tucson is
Mike Saffer, who takes on the market president position at
iHeartMedia Tucson. Its stations in that market include news/talk outlets KNST and KTZR, as well as CHr KRQQ, hot AC KMIY "My 92.9," hip hop KOHT "HOT 98.3," country KYWD "97.1 The Bull," and Tejano KXEW-AM "Tejano 1600." About his new gig, Saffer comments, "I am elated to make the transition into the iHeartMedia family here in Tucson. Being raised in Tucson, the talent at these stations has always played a major role in my life. I am excited to work with those same stations to build upon their legacy and strengthen our relationship with both advertisers and the community."
Pollnow to Lead Cumulus Green Bay. The Green Bay cluster of
Cumulus Media has a new vice president and market manager as
Don Pollnow returns to Wisconsin to lead the company's six-station group. Though Pollnow
has most recently been serving with
LM Communications in Lexington, Kentucky as national sales manager, he served as general manager for
NRG Media's Wausau-Steven Point station group in the past. Cumulus' Green Bay stations include: sports talk simulcast WDUZ "The Fan," country WPCK "NASH FM 104.9," hot AC WQLH " Star 98," triple A WKRU, and classic hits WOGB.
Travel Order Court Battle, U.S.-Russia Relations, Yiannopoulos Berkeley Speech Protests, Iran Missile Test, Marine Le Pen's Campaign for President, Gorsuch SCOTUS Nomination and Patriots-Falcons Super Bowl Among Top News/Talk Stories Over the Weekend. The ongoing controversy over President Donald Trump's travel order targeting seven predominantly Muslim nations and federal judge James Robart's temporary restraining order staying the order; the relations between the U.S. and Russia and Trump's comments to Bill O'Reilly about Vladimir Putin; last Thursday's canceled speech by Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos at UC-Berkeley after violent protests; U.S. response to Iran over its test of a missile last week; the nationalist campaign of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen; the nomination of Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court justice; and Sunday night's Super Bowl LI between the Patriots and Falcons were some of the most-talked-about news/talk stories over the weekend.
Music Radio News and Career Moves. In Boston, "The Morning Wake UP" with co-hosts
KJ Carson and
Kesha Monk debuts today on the new urban AC WKAF "97.7 FM, Boston's #1 For R&B."
Entercom split the simulcast of rock WAAF and WKAF back in early January and today is launching the new morning show.
Chris Malone is programming the station…..
Mapleton Communications promotes
Tommy Del Rio from his regional program director post to vice president of top 40 programming. Del Rio is in charge of the programming for all seven of Mapleton's CHR-formatted stations…..In the Yakima market,
Brian Henderson and
Todd E. Lyons Esq. are being paired up for mornings on
Townsquare Media's active rock KATS. Henderson previously served as PD for
Radio Yakima's crosstown classic rocker KRSE "105.7 The Hawk." In addition to morning show duties, Henderson is handling the brand manager position at KATS…..
Brazos Valley Communications appoints
Shalayna Valencia regional director of events & digital for its stations in both the Odessa-Midland and Bryan-College Station markets. Valencia was previously market president for
Townsquare Media's Odessa-Midland operations…..Radio pro
Sari Zalesin joins the marketing division at mobile app developer
jacapps. At the same time, the company promotes
Alex Burnstein to the new position, director of marketing.
