From the Hawaiian Islands to New England, dozens of stations within the iHeartMedia family have parted ways with employees on multiple levels of the audio content creation and distribution company’s core radio broadcasting unit.
Among the casualties is the Market President for Raleigh-Durham, and the Boston Region President.
As reported by Streamline Publishing’s Radio Ink, Boston Region President Alan Chartrand has been let go after a decade in the role. He previously served as the cluster’s Vice President of Sales and has been an active figure in the market since the 1980s.
Radio Ink also confirmed the departure of Raleigh Market President Michael Burger. He has led the iHeartMedia stations in North Carolina’s Triangle region since August 2022. Before that, he was the company’s VP of Sales in St. Louis. He began his media career in the television industry, working for KMIZ/KQFX in Columbia, Mo., following his graduation from the University of Missouri. He’d later hold digital and sales strategy roles at KTVI-2, the FOX affiliate in St. Louis.
Meanwhile, Senior VP/Programming for Des Moines, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and North Dakota Greg Chance has exited the company. He managed programming for more than 20 stations across various formats, including music, talk, and news. He rejoined iHeart in 2023 after serving as SVP of Marketing and Business Development at Diamond Oil. Previously, he spent over 17 years with iHeart as Program Director and Senior VP/Programming, where he launched Des Moines’ KKDM “KISS FM” in 1999.
The tally on the website for Radio and Music Pros (RAMP) kept increasing as of Tuesday, with WZLX/Boston parting ways with The Rich Shertenlieb Show after just five months on the air at the Classic Rocker. Perhaps the biggest news from RAMP is their confirmation that iHeartMedia/Chicago Market President Matt Scarano has exited as part of the reduction-in-force initiative.
In Dallas, two-decade programming pro Patrick Davis has departed; he served most recently as Sr. VP of Programming for iHeartMedia’s stations in North Texas.
At iHeartMedia/San Francisco, Don Parker has resigned as Regional SVP/Programming for the Northern California Region. He was also Program Director of KMEL-FM, the Hip-Hop station serving San Francisco-Oakland.
And, as RBR+TVBR shared in its Afternoon Headlines E-mail on Monday, Mike Kaplan has exited as Program Director of Alternative WRFF-FM in Philadelphia, concluding a tenure at the company that saw him join from Audacy Inc. to compete against former home KROQ by tilting KYSR-FM in Los Angeles from “Star” to “ALT.”
Also impacted are air personalities, producers and programming staff at station across numerous markets.
The reduction-in-force efforts began Friday and come ahead of Thursday’s release of Q3 earnings from iHeartMedia. Investors reacted by sending IHRT shares down below the $2 mark in Tuesday’s trading.
