Media Moves

Discovery Inc. has flipped the switch on what it describes as "a newly expanded hub for digital and social video content creation" to support its growing "TV everywhere," websites, social media and direct-to-consumer businesses and brands. In doing so, it is naming the former SVP/GM of Scripps Lifestyle Studios as this new group's EVP/GM.

The world has lost "a wunderkind of the media advertising industry as soon as he entered it over 30 years ago." Michael Lolito, the founder and CEO of Media IQ (today known as MiQ), died on Monday after a prolonged battle with lymphoma. He was 57 years old. 

Lachlan Murdoch, the future Chairman and CEO of the company to be spun-off in connection with the merger of 21st Century Fox with The Walt Disney Company, has solidified the leadership of what is colloquially being referred to as "new FOX."

After starting his career as an AE for the former Jacor Broadcasting in Cincinnati, Chuck Deskins relocated to Tampa-St. Petersburg in 1992, staying with the stations through their acquisition by iHeartMedia predecessor Clear Channel Communications. He later moved on to Atlanta and Miami before returning to Tampa Bay. After four years away, Deskins is back in a big way for iHeart.

TEGNA has decided who will succeed its retiring EVP and Chief Legal and Administrative Office once he departs in early 2019. It turned to an individual who has been in TEGNA’s legal department since joining the company as assistant general counsel in 2003.

Broadcast Music, Inc. on Monday re-elected six members of its Board of Directors during the music rights organization's annual shareholder meeting in Nashville. Six Board members were elected to new three-year terms.

Buzz Knight was a longtime executive at Greater Media who came on board at Beasley Media Group following its 2016 purchase of the Boston-based radio broadcasting company. He's now been upped from a top programming role to an Executive VP position at Beasley.

For the past 16 years, Kelly Bitter was a sales leader at U.S. Traffic Network (USTN). With that company's recent decision to cease radio industry operations, Bitter has accepted a new role that taps into her national radio sales experience by giving a Phoenix-based entity a bit of a strengthening on the West Coast.

A media industry veteran who spent nearly eight-years as a New York-based SVP of Programming Partnerships for iHeartMedia, where she was recruited the radio business' first Digital Program Director, has just taken an executive leadership role at audio technology firm Futuri Media.

To many, Premiere Networks President Julie Talbott is a trailblazer. The Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio (MIW) Group are now making that official.

The SVP/Market Manager for Alpha Media's stations in Louisville has just taken over a cluster of radio stations in Alabama's biggest market for the nation's No. 2 radio broadcaster by station count. His resume includes a stint as Regional Market President for iHeartMedia, overseeing properties in three Kentucky markets and in Nashville.

More than a year after being dismissed by iHeartMedia as part of a wide-ranging job reduction initiative, the company's former Market Manager and GM of heritage News/Talk WLW-AM in Cincinnati has just joined Cumulus Media. In his new role, he will oversee the company's stations in Indianapolis.

Entercom has selected a new member of the C-Suite with responsibility for the continued development, implementation and execution of the radio broadcasting company's human resources strategy.

A new CFO is set to start Sept. 10 at Hertz Global Holdings. Who is it? The person who most recently served as CFO of Nielsen. Now, Nielsen has found its new CFO, and it is going with a Honeywell veteran who has also worked for ITT.

Starting Oct. 26, a veteran of 10 Boston-area radio stations will no longer be affiliated with an AM or FM outlet in the market for the first time since 1971. After 45 years of service to the Boston radio industry, this longtime advertising sales legend presently with Beasley Broadcast Group has announced his retirement.