The individual who has been Vice President of Sales for Entercom Communications‘ Buffalo-Niagara Falls cluster since 2012 has been promoted to the role of SVP/Market Manager.
The naming of J. Timothy Holly to the role comes following an investigation by the FCC’s Media Bureau into political programming practices at three of Entercom’s stations in the Western New York hub.
Holly became interim Market Manager for the stations, comprised of Alternative WLKK-FM 107.7, Urban Oldies WWWS-AM and FM translator 107.3, Sports WWKB-AM 1520, CHR/Pop WKSE-FM 98.5, Hot AC WTSS-FM 102.5, News/Talk WBEN-AM 930 and Sports Talk WGR-AM 550, in mid-January.
According to the Buffalo News, longtime SVP/Market Manager Greg Ried and sales administrative manager Lynn Hooper were fired. In the case of Ried, his termination came while on vacation, via a phone call.
While Entercom has not shared the reasons behind their exit, their departures came following a nearly year-long probe into whether the Entercom stations failed to timely upload information to its online political files about requests for the purchase of broadcast time “made by or on behalf of a legally qualified candidate for public office.”
The investigation at first involved WGR-AM, WBEN-AM and WTSS-FM “Star 102.5,” but a Feb. 26, 2019, response from Entercom’s top legal counsel led Robert L. Baker, the Policy Division Assistant Chief in the FCC’s Media Bureau, to expand his investigation to all Entercom/Buffalo stations.
The inquiries cover the period of January 1, 2018 to the present. Entercom is asked to state whether WGR, WBEN and/or WTSS “received any request for the purchase of broadcast time in calendar year 2018 that communicated a message relating to any political matter of national importance, including a legally qualified candidate, an election to Federal office, or a national legislative issue of public importance.”
These are non-candidate “issue” ads.
Did these stations air any such advertisement without charge? That was the question the Commission sought an answer to.
Asked in March 2019 for comment, an Entercom spokesperson said, “We are working directly with the FCC on this matter. We will not be commenting further.”
The Media Division’s Policy Division Political Programming Staff began its inquiry with a January 28 letter sent to Sutor in which an alleged former U.S. Congressional candidate, Jackie Drost, was billed for more than the “lowest unit rate” on Entercom’s Buffalo stations during the 2018 election cycle.
Drost’s complaint led the Staff to examine the political files for WTSS, WBEN and WGR.
“That examination revealed that Entercom apparently had not uploaded any records of
requests for the purchase of broadcast time by or on behalf of legally qualified candidates running in Federal, State or local elections in 2018,” Baker said in his first letter to Sutor.
While there were questions in terms of who Drost was, as there were no records of such a candidate or any acquisition of station air time, Entercom/Buffalo’s problems go way beyond the mystery whistle-blower.
Entercom provided the FCC with information regarding advertisements on WGR for three political campaigns: Pat Burke for State Assembly, Friends of [Assemblyman] Ray Walter and Nate McMurray for Congress.
Documentation was not uploaded, Entercom admits, to WGR’s public file until January 2019 “due to an inadvertent oversight.” This “inadvertent oversight” extended to WBEN, which ran a greater number of political ads than WGR, and music-focused WTSS, which aired ads for the Walter and McMurray campaigns.
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