We’ve confirmed with agency sources that Premiere Radio Networks EVP/Director of Sales Rhonda Munk Scheidel, not long after moving to Dallas, has lost the DOS title and is now in charge of the Dallas ad sales office only. No official confirmation yet from Premiere, but we did confirm Premiere President Charlie Rahilly and SVP/CFO Dan Yukelson were both in Dallas yesterday in meetings. Of course, Scheidel was also in meetings all day in The Big D yesterday.
RBR observation: This is a pretty big deal-it completes the Premiere changing of the guard. They went outside of Premiere to replace Kraig Kitchin and there’s a good chance they’ll go outside the company to replace Rhonda. This is a change that may affect their whole approach to staff and their business dealings. They don’t have much of sales management bench there now. Kraig was really a one-man-band with Rhonda. They still have Cathie Mongarella who handles Eastern Sales out of NYC and Dan Metter who handles Talk. He’s very strong with Talk and they won’t likely move him away from that spot. There’s too much money at stake with Rush, the new Glenn Beck contract and guarantees to mess with him at this point. So they may replace Rhonda with someone from outside Premiere and network radio as well. But chances are, Rahilly will go with someone who he trusts and believes in outside of Pr! emiere, but within the CCU family. Nonetheless, remember, network radio is not spot and the learning curve is a lot steeper. On keeping Rhonda with the company, it’s a win-win situation–a win for CC Radio because it avoids any litigation (they haven’t closed yet) and they keep her experience. It’s also a win for Rhonda because she gets to stay in her home market.
