Media Moves

Scholarship recipients for the 2023 Rising Through the Ranks program, presented by the RAB, BMI, Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio Inc. and Xperi, have been selected. As previously announced, this year’s program will be hybrid, starting with a virtual session taking place on August 1, leading up to an in-person event scheduled for August 8-10 at the BMI Nashville office.

Cumulus Media-owned national radio operation Westwood One has hired an individual with more than 25 years of media sales experience to serve as its new Sr. VP of Sales and Digital Partnerships. He's inbound from Spotify.

He's been the Senior Director of Sales for local and digital at KERO "23ABC" in Bakersfield, owned by The E.W. Scripps Co.  Meet the new VP/GM of the ABC pair serving Springfield and Champaign-Urbana, Ill., stations owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

After nearly 25 years of service to the NAB, its EVP and Managing Director of Global Connections and Events overseeing the annual NAB Show will be transitioning out of the role over the next nine months.  And, while he'll exit after the April 2024 Las Vegas affair, the search for his successor has just begun.

The NBC affiliate serving Evansville, Ind., is mourning the unexpected passing of its News Director, an individual who from 2000-2015 was a key member of the newsroom at WIVB-4 in Buffalo.

Thanks to the retirement of Chris Allen, the noncommercial Classical station serving the Omaha market is now one of the few of its kind to have a female General Manager. Who's been appointed to the position?

From 1998 through 2009, he was Chief Operating Officer of the former Granite Broadcasting. In June 2010, he resurfaced as President/GM of TEGNA's WXIA "11Alive" and co-owned WATL-TV in Atlanta. Now, local media news reporter Rodney Ho says John Deushane is retiring.

After 33 years, KSAZ-10 and KUTP "FOX 10 Xtra" VP/News Director Doug Bannard is retiring. Who is succeeding him at the FOX Television Stations-owned duopoly in the Valley of the Sun?

The Boulder, Colo.-based nonprofit consulting firm dedicated to serving public media has selected its next CEO. He's being heralded as "a visionary leader whose career spans more than 25 years as a public servant and advocate for public and independent media."

NATPE Global is confirming "a slew of appointments rounding out the team" ahead of its return to South Florida in January 2024. The new venue: the InterContinental Hotel in downtown Miami, rather than the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach.

For nearly 19 years, he served in various roles at Fox Television Stations properties, most recently in Charlotte. Upon exiting in April 2020, he's mainly focused his efforts on sales and business consulting.  Now, Michael Lewis is returning to broadcast TV, and it is thanks to Sinclair Broadcast Group. 

In February 2020, he was promoted to GM from Director of Sales. And, during his tenure as the station's head, WTVA-9 in Tupelo, Miss., earned honors as Station of the Year from the Mississippi Association of Broadcasters. Now, the leader of the Allen Media Group station is being remembered, as he died at home Sunday after a lengthy illness.

He's served as Syncbak/VUit's VP of Affiliate Relations and Content, focused on the OTT service bringing local newscasts to viewers across the U.S. Before that, he was VP/GM of the owner of "9&10 News" in Cadillac, Mich. As of today, this individual is now reporting to Sinclair Broadcast Group's Rob Weisbord.

He was previously Director of Regulatory Policy at UScellular. In that position, he worked on complex regulatory and policy matters dealing with Infrastructure, Public Safety, and Consumer items. He's also worked at AT&T Wireless and at TDS.