Radio News

One of Country radio's most successful air personalities has called it quits. Billy "Dex" Poindexter, half of the Dex and Mo Show on Entercom-owned WUSY-FM "US101" in Chattanooga, Tenn., is retiring from the station, ending a 25-year career. Poindexter plans to focus on his health, his family and travel. Poindexter's last day at WUSY is today (4/26) — just weeks after Entercom agreed to obtain WUSY as part of a four-market station swap with iHeartMedia.

Streamline Publishing’s Radio + Television Business Report is pleased to formally announce the launch of a weekly series of audio podcasts designed to educate and inform radio broadcasting companies on the continued strength of Hispanic-targeted AM and FM radio stations across the United States.

As long-time New York Tri-State area radio listeners know, there are two well-known stations licensed to Paterson, N.J. — Multicultural Radio Broadcasting's Class B WPAT-AM 930, and SBS's Class B Spanish Contemporary WPAT-FM 93.1 "Amor". However, a third Paterson-based signal has popped up on the dial at various times over the past several years. It's not supposed to be there. The FCC is trying again to kill it once and for all.

It may be the steamy and humid, but that won't stop Caroline Beasley from appearing in a "fireside chat" at the posh Vinoy hotel in St. Petersburg at the Florida Association of Broadcasters (FAB)'s annual convention.

Tuesday, May 8 will be a busy day for investors in media companies. As previously announced, broadcast TV station owners TEGNA and Gray Television will each be releasing their Q1 2018 results prior to the Opening Bell on Wall Street on this day. Add one of the radio industry's biggest players to the mix.

The man who has served as SVP/Sales for iHeartMedia's Washington, D.C. stations is heading up I-95 to take the company's top job in Charm City. Effective immediately, a 19-year media veteran who began his career with Clear Channel in New York's Capitaland region is now Market President of iHeartMedia's Baltimore station group. 

A large noncommercial group of religious radio stations operating in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota has snagged its third FM signal in The Mount Rushmore State. In doing so, it will bring back to life a Class C3 FM that until September 2017 was a Classic Rocker owned by the central figure behind a payday lender whose business was quashed by South Dakota voters in November 2016. That vote resulted in this individual planting "For Sale" signs for several of his business, largely purchased with profits from his Dollar Loan Center.

Randy Markel in February 2016 took on the St. Louis sports market by taking the lead in acquiring Class B KFNS-AM 590 "The Fan," licensed to Wood River, Ill., for $300,000. The deal came via a court order handed down in fall 2015 to sell the station, as former owner Grand Slam Sports LLC went into receivership. Now, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports, Markel has had enough as an owner.

"I must be the happiest, passionate and most peaceful person in radio today ... and I don’t even work inside a radio station." Those are the words of Kelly Orchard, who spent 20 years operating family-owned radio stations and is today a licensed psychotherapist and alternative FCC compliance specialist. In this exclusive column, Orchard diffuses the ticking time bomb of "living with the daily pressure most broadcasters experience." There's a way to get rid of that negativity. Here are her suggestions for how to achieve that goal.

It's been suggested by the head of the BBC that "the smartphone generation is our biggest challenge." RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson has a one-word response to the Beeb: Bullocks. In his view, radio and TV can continue to win by "doubling down on your biggest asset." What would that be?

The city of Charlottesville, Va., is home to the University of Virginia and Cavalier athletics. It is also home to a group of stations owned by Monticello Media, led by one of the nation's top media brokers. The cluster just named a VP/GM.

The future of an AM-FM combo serving a town along the banks of the Mississippi River is in question, as the Yankton, S.D.-based family-owned company founded in 2004 that owns the duo has run out of options. In April 2016, acquiring the stations seemed like a good idea. At the 2018 NAB Show in Las Vegas last week, Riverfront Broadcasting co-owner Carolyn Becker told RBR+TVBR that operating the stations was no longer feasible. Today, news of a possible end-of-month shutdown of these stations was confirmed.

The motto of the city of Waycross, Ga., is "opportunity in every direction." For one local broadcaster, opportunity means cashing out. With the filing late Tuesday of a Form 314 with the FCC, a trio of FMs have been sold. The buyer is another Georgia-based broadcaster, led by sole owner John Higgs.

Here's a learning lesson from an LPFM in the Midwest, as RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson discusses the launch of a Spanish-language radio operation once the stuff of dreams. Led by Venezuelan immigrant and journalist Linda Parra, this latest Hispanic Radio Podcast from Radio Ink and the Radio + Television Business Report puts the focus on the first in-language voice for Latinos in Toledo, Ohio.

For a generation of NPR readers, the name Carl Kasell is synonymous for morning newscasts delivered during the pubcaster's signature Morning Edition program, and for his role as the judge and official scorekeeper for "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!," NPR's news quiz show. Kasell on Tuesday lost his battle with Alzheimer's disease, and died at the age of 84 in Potomac, Md.