Profile: FOX Sports' Colin Cowherd. Seventeen months into his deal with
FOX Sports – one that puts him on
television, in national radio syndication and makes him part-owner of his own content –
Colin Cowherd speaks with
TALKERS magazine managing editor
Mike Kinosian in a profile published today (2/3). Cowherd tells Kinosian that the move from ESPN to FOX Sports was moving from "one great company to another." But he's happier with the vibe at FOX. "The reality is that radio should be more dangerous. It is unedited, ad-libbed, and free-form. There's a little stand-up, a little ranting, a little painting and you are going to spill a little on the canvas. I think my personality fits the FOX ecosystem a little better than the current ESPN ecosystem, which has gotten much more politically correct in the last several years." Read the whole piece
here.
2016 Banner Year for SiriusXM. The financial figures from the fourth quarter of 2016 and the entire year are being reported and
SiriusXM says it beat its guidance "on all metrics." The satcaster's net income for the fourth quarter of 2016 was $205 million – up 52% from the same period in 2015. For the year, net income was $746
million – up 46% from 2015. As for its subscriber numbers, SiriusXM reports a net subscriber growth of 1.75 million for the year. It now reports more than 31 million subscribers with nearly 26 million self-paying subscribers. CEO
Jim Meyer comments, "Last year was a phenomenal year for SiriusXM's business, and we expect continued success in 2017. We finished ahead of our guidance across the board, with record revenue, adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow. With more than 31 million subscribers, SiriusXM has never had more paying customers. We've issued guidance for continued growth in 2017, and we expect a record adjusted EBITDA of more than $2 billion."
Trump Travel Order/Protests Top Talk Story for Week of Jan. 30-Feb. 3. The travel order banning people coming into the U.S. from seven predominantly Muslim nations and the protests over the presidential order was the most-talked-about story on news/talk radio this week, landing atop the Talkers Ten
TM. At #2 was the nomination of
Neil Gorsuch for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court. Coming in at #3 was the violent protests at UC-Berkeley over the planned speech by
Breitbart editor
Milo Yiannopoulos, followed by the U.S. putting Iran "on notice" over its test of a missile at #4. The Talkers Ten
TM is a weekly chart of the top stories and people discussed on news/talk radio during the week and is the result of ongoing research from
TALKERS magazine. It is published every Friday at Talkers.com. View this week's entire chart
here.
Longtime ABC News Radio Staffer Bob Benson Passes. News radio pro
Bob Benson passed away on
Sunday (1/29) after a four-decade career in radio. Benson started in radio while still in high school. In 1966 he joined
ABC as news director at WLS, Chicago, then moved to the company's KGO, San Francisco. In 1974, Benson launched
AP Radio in Washington. He returned to ABC as vice president of ABC News, managing the news and sports for the radio networks.
Is It Possible to Teach Media and Politics in Today's Environment without Expressing (or Being Accused of) Expressing a Significant Degree of Bias? This is just one of several key questions that are explored in an extremely candid conversation between
TALKERS founder
Michael Harrison and veteran talk radio programmer
David Bernstein posted today (1/31) on this week's installment of the award-winning
PodcastOne series "Up
Close and Far Out with Michael Harrison." Bernstein's stellar career in radio includes stints as program director of such politically diverse powerhouses as WTIC in Hartford, WPRO in Providence, WRKO and WBZ in Boston, and a 10 year run at WOR in New York. He even served for a brief period as VP/programming at
Air America. Today, he is the general manager of the experimental "workshop" platform
TalkersRadio and going into his second full year as an adjunct professor of media studies at
Caldwell University in New Jersey. Harrison and Bernstein explore the characteristics, habits and challenges facing Millennials with a focus on those considering careers in the media. The discussion includes an analysis of the public's across the board obsession with politics inspired by the rise of
Donald Trump permeating all aspects of daily American life. Don't miss this one! To listen to the podcast in its entirety, please click
here or click the "Up Close and Far Out" player box located in the right-hand column on every page of Talkers.com.
Zannie K. Named PM Drive Host at '105 The Vibe' in Twin Cities. In the Minneapolis market,
Cumulus Media announces that on-air pro
Zannie K. is the new afternoon personality and assistant
program director at classic hip hop outlet WGVX "105 The Vibe." He also hosts the weekend "Zannie K's Throwback Theory" Saturday nights at 10:00 pm. Additionally, he's going to host the Sunday midday show for
Westwood One's 24/7 AC, hot AC and CHR affiliates. Cumulus Media Minneapolis OM (and corporate VP of classic rock)
Scott Jameson comments, "We've seen consistent growth with 'The Vibe,' and adding Zannie to afternoon drive will no doubt sustain the positive momentum for our listeners and advertisers."
Music Radio News and Career Moves. On Monday (2/6), married morning show personalities "
Chadd &
Kristi" (at right) debut their program on
Beasley Media Group's newly launched adult contemporary WBRN "B98.7." The station was formerly a rock outlet and the Tampa affiliate of the
Bubba the Love Sponge show, but Beasley flipped it to AC on January 5…..Country superstar
Luke Bryan chatted with
Westwood One Sports NFL host
Scott Graham on Thursday (2/2). Bryan appeared as part of Westwood One's nightly "The Road to Super Bowl LI" broadcast that aired live. On Sunday, Bryan will sing the national anthem before the Super Bowl LI broadcast…..
Townsquare Media launches the new KAMM, Missoula, Montana as an alternative rock outlet branded "ALT 101.5." The brand manager for the new station is
Angel Hughes, who will also serve as the station's morning personality…..Rock radio jock
Spam joins
Sun Broadcasting's alternative WXNX, Fort Myers "93X" as host of the morning show. Spam comes to Sun from his most recent gig at
Entercom's cross-state alternative rocker WSFS, Miami "104.3 The Shark." Spam was a longtime personality at
CBS Radio's WHFS, Baltimore/Washington…..In Reading, Pennsylvania,
Jimmy Steele exits
iHeartMedia's hot AC WRFY and Spanish AC WRAW after a restructuring of the cluster's staff.
