Media Moves

Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB)'s 2019 Board of Directors Officers have been decided, thanks to an election held by the sales advocacy group led by Erica Farber. Taking the role of Chairman is a well-liked Entercom RVP.

After 47 years at legendary Urban AC WHUR-FM 96.3, Jim Watkins in late August retired as GM. This resulted in an opening on the NAB Radio Board of Directors, and it's just been filled. Watkins' old seat has now been given to a radio executive who has been active in the Old Dominion since 1979.

On Wednesday, SummitMedia revealed that its VP/GM in Springfield, Mo., will be retiring. One day later, it announced who his successor will be.

The individual who has guided SummitMedia's four Springfield, Mo., radio stations for nearly two decades and, before that, led Southwest Missouri radio properties owned by Mid-West Family Stations, has decided to retire.

After 18 years in sales leadership roles at Cox Media Group's Houston station group, Judy Lakin is leaving at the end of the year. Her successor has just been named.

Lori Waldon is trading in easy access to Sacramento Kings games for a quick drive to Santa Fe and other wonders of northern New Mexico. 

There's a new EVP of Lifestyle and Hispanic Advertising Sales at NBCUniversal, and the woman being promoted to the role will be charged with leading the sales teams responsible for national advertising and marketing partnerships on three total market cable channels, in addition to NBCU's two Hispanic-targeted entities.

Entercom Communications' VP/Sales for its three stations in Indianapolis has been elevated to the role of SVP/Market Manager. It's a reward for strong leadership and an ability to win singled out by Regional Manager Dave Alpert, who congratulated this seven-year company veteran for his promotion.

The man who presently oversees several TEGNA stations in Texas is expanding his role by taking on the President/GM position of an ABC affiliate along the Gulf Coast. This veteran arrived in the Lone Star State following 20 years overseeing a TV station in Billings, Montana.

A former VP/Market Manager for Cumulus Media-owned stations in Youngstown, Ohio, who has also been GSM of iHeartMedia's stations in the city between Pittsburgh and Cleveland has just accepted a job east of the state line, in the Steel City.

In August 2017, a four-decade radio industry veteran who started his career at an R&B station in New Orleans was coaxed out of 16 months of retirement to take on the role of VP/Market Manager of Entercom's stations in the Crescent City. Today, this individual is gone, and the former GSM of Entercom's Dallas-Fort Worth cluster has the title of SVP/Market Manager.

Beasley Media Group has two more National Format Brand Managers in its stable of programming prowess professionals. One is the PD of its recently acquired Sports station in Boston. The other is a Beantown radio veteran who presently serves as PD of Beasley's Country station in the Hub.

Here's a hiring that certainly deserves the radio industry's attention. An individual who for the last decade has served as VP/Creative Director for NBC News has just been hired by a radio industry pure-play that recently closed on the purchase of 19 stations from The E.W. Scripps Co. for $47 million. 

In September 2009, Clear Channel's Minneapolis-St. Paul cluster said goodbye to an account executive who arrived 2 1/2 years earlier from a role in print sales for Southwest Newspapers. Roughly nine years later, following stints at the region's top newspaper and, after that, at Comcast Spotlight, he's back at the radio stations -- and a company now known as iHeartMedia.

Larry Patrick and his wife Susan may be best-known across the broadcast media industry for their role as media brokers through their Patrick Communications. But Larry and Susan are also owners of a group of radio stations in the Mountain West, branded as the Big Horn Radio Network. Effective today, its Director of Sales is now VP/GM for the 11-station group.