NPR Readies Democratic National Convention Plans
NPR and participating member stations will begin coverage of the Democratic National Convention from Chicago next Monday and Tuesday (8/19, 8/20, 9:00 pm – 11:00 pm, ET). Scott Detrow’s recap of the day’s major events will feature insights from NPR correspondents, as well as interviews with newsmakers attending the convention. NPR’s coverage will continue Wednesday and Thursday (8/21, 8/22) beginning at 9:00 pm ET. NPR’s team of reporters in Chicago will include: Liz Baker, Martin Kaste, Sandhya Dirks, Don Gonyea, Tamara Keith, Asma Khalid, Deepa Shivaram, Mara Liasson, Deirdre Walsh, Danielle Kurtzleben, Franco Ordoñez, and Domenico Montanaro. Additional political reporting will be provided by: Sarah McCammon, Ashley Lopez, Elena Moore, Stephen Fowler, Ben Giles, and Ximena Bustillo. Coverage will include live reports from within the convention hall, expert analysis, and interviews with key figures. The “NPR Politics” team will release a podcast episode each night of the convention. NPR will have a reporter stationed outside the arena to capture public reactions and potential protests.
continue to direct corporate marketing for Cumulus Media, Westwood One, and the Cumulus Podcast Network. Since 2016, Chauncey has overseen ad sales solutions, creative services, and audience development for Westwood One. Other moves include Jason Soderberg being elevated to vice president, podcast operations and production in which he’ll be responsible for managing all audio and video production for the podcast network as well as platform relations and Megan Devine being promoted to vice president, podcast sales planning and yield optimization. 
5,206 weekly podcast consumers age 13 and older in the U.S.) and the top three remain unchanged from the Q1 2024 data: 1) “The Joe Rogan Experience”; 2) audiochuck’s “Crime Junkie”; and The New York Times’ “The Daily.” Other moves of note include Ramsey Network’s “The Ramsey Show” up one spot to #15; The DailyWire’s “The Ben Shapiro Show” sliding three places to #16; and “The Tucker Carlson Podcast” dropping from #24 to #33. 
First”; 3) NBCUniversal News Group’s “Dateline NBC”; and 4) audiochuck’s “Crime Junkie.” Moving up to the #5 rank in July was Cumulus Podcast Network’s “The Dan Bongino Show.” Other moves of note include SiriusXM’s “The Megyn Kelly Show” rising three places to the #10 rank; Salem Podcast Network’s “The Charlie Kirk Show” up four spots to #14; and iHeartAudience Network’s “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” also up four places to the #19 rank. 
reveal that AM/FM ads far outperform most social media ads. For example, the firm Adelaide found that for revery $1,000 spent on AM/FM ads it would require spending $2,635 on Facebook ads for the same amount of attentiveness. However, it also found that just $698 of YouTube ads would yield the same degree of attentiveness as $1,000 of AM/FM advertising. The blog post also addresses the myth that video ads are necessarily more effective than audio ads. 
of broadcast, events, digital and podcast products to advertisers across all markets. In this role, Reed will manage iHeartMedia’s largest individual sales team and create advertising opportunities for brands and iHeartMedia partners across the company’s array of platforms including radio broadcasting, digital, mobile, outdoor, live concerts and events and more. iHeartMedia president of multimarket partnerships Julie Donohue says, “We’re thrilled to welcome Angela and her extensive experience to iHeartMedia. We know she’ll make an immediate positive impact as SVP of our Inside Sales Division, a key role in keeping our company thriving and broadening our reach even further.” Reed most recently served as chief sales officer at Miradore, a purveyor of mobile device management software.
that partner with Audacy’s own sports talk stations. Some of the key takeaways from this study include: 1) Sports fans are 4x more likely to trust brands that support their teams; 2) Listeners are 4x more likely to catch a brand’s message on sports radio than on TV; 3) 73% of fans spend more time following their favorite teams on sports audio than sports-related digital media; and 4) Brands that advertise on Audacy sports stations enjoy a 40% lift in usage. 
the Audacy station to become part of a new show on FS1. Parkins has worked alongside Matt Spiegel on the afternoon drive program for the past seven years. This summer, Parkins filled in for Colin Cowherd on the cable TV show The Herd and reportedly acquitted himself well. The FS1 show is scheduled to launch this fall. Parkins and Audacy have not commented publicly about the story.
Malone – an unapologetic liberal on a station comprised of conservative talk hosts – anchored the 9:00 am to 10:00 am hour. He posted to X, “I’ll have more to say later, but after decades of loyalty to my company, they fired me after my show today and didn’t give me a chance to say goodbye to my listeners. I’m grateful for all of the support I’ve received for so long.” Malone was a longtime cast member on the “Lanigan & Webster Morning Show” on WMJI-FM, Cleveland. His program on WTAM debuted in April of 2022. 
“If you missed Biff & Bev in-the-Morning, you missed…” It’s a donut: produced open and close, with an aircheck clip in the middle.
Interamercana de Radio SA de CV, Flagstaff, Arizona-based ad agency owner Bill Hagen leased the signal and launched a new sports format as “The Mightier 1090 ESPN” built around San Diego sports talk personalities including Scott Kaplan. Hagen tells the Times he’s not disappointed and says considering the launch of the station during the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 was definitely a challenge. He says, “We accomplished something that had never been done before and during a very challenging time in the economy and broadcasting.” 
acquisition of five radio stations and one translator in Lafayette, Indiana on May 31, 2024, and that the stations were operated by Saga for one month during the second quarter of 2024. Saga paid a quarterly dividend of $0.25 per share on June 28, 2024. The aggregate amount of the quarterly dividend was approximately $1.6 million. To date, Saga has paid over $132 million in dividends to shareholders since the first special dividend was paid in 2012. Saga’s balance sheet reflects $24.1 million in cash and short-term investments as of June 30, 2024, and $26.2 million as of August 5, 2024.
located another device that had many if not all of the text messages. Those messages were produced to Smartmatic in the litigation. Newsmax also notes that it informed the Special Master that neither Ruddy nor any senior staff sought to hide text messages or emails, which in many cases were also collected from dozens of other Newsmax witnesses in the case and produced to Smartmatic. Newsmax separately filed a Motion for Sanctions against Smartmatic on May 13, 2024, and a Motion for Contempt against Smartmatic on July 16, 2024. Both of those motions remain pending. In its motions Newsmax argues that Smartmatic and its executives have misled Newsmax, the Special Master, and the Court about the Department of Justice’s ongoing criminal investigation into Smartmatic in which the agency alleges that Smartmatic and several of its senior executives participated in an international scheme involving a multi-million-dollar bribe allegedly made to an election official in the Philippines in exchange for the company getting nearly $200 million in contracts. 
radio station of the back-to-back defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and broadcast all pre-, regular and post-season games. Chiefs games will be simulcast on 106.5 The Wolf “WDAF-FM” for the 2024 season.” The station will also serve as the play-by-play home of the Kansas City Royals, Kansas State University and University of Missouri men’s basketball and football. The station’s weekday programming and play-by-play content will also be heard on KFNZ-AM “The Fan AM 610,” formerly known as KCSP-AM. Audacy Kansas City SVP and market manager Roxanne Marati comments, “Kansas City has the most passionate sports fans in the country, and they deserve a one-stop destination for premium sports content year-round. This is an exciting time for KC sports, and our exclusive partnership with the World Champion Chiefs, local content and engaging personalities with unrivaled sports knowledge will fuel fandom, bring listeners closer to the action and keep them connected to their favorite teams.”
-host John Lopez and producer Edward “Figgy Fig” Gilliard on KILT-AM “SportsRadio 610,” beginning August 19. KILT brand manager Parker Hillis comments, “We’re thrilled to have Reggie join ‘In The Loop’ as the newest host. He’s a natural talent whose on-air enthusiasm and innate ability to connect with an audience will make him the perfect fit here in Houston.” Adetula is a native Houstonian who returns home after nine years as the evening host and producer on Audacy’s KRLD-FM, Dallas “105.3 The Fan.” 
The fourth of four rounds of ratings data from Nielsen Audio’s July 2024 PPM survey has been released for 12 markets including Austin, Raleigh, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Nashville, Providence, Norfolk, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Greensboro, Memphis, and Hartford. The survey period covered June 20 through July 17. Today, TALKERS magazine editor Mike Kinosian presents his Ratings Takeaways from this group of markets. In Raleigh, iHeartMedia’s news/talk WTKK-FM adds three-tenths to finish with an 8.9 share (weekly, 6+ AQH share) that keeps it locked in the #3 rank, while Curtis Media’s news/talk WPTF is up one-tenth for a 0.6 share finish good for the #23 rank. In Milwaukee, iHeartMedia’s news/talk WISN adds a half share to finish with a 13.0 share that keeps it ranked #1 for the eleventh straight month. (Good Karma Brands’ crosstown competitor news/talk WTMJ ceased subscribing to Nielsen several months ago.) In Nashville, Cumulus Media’s news/talk WWTN-FM rises 1.2 shares for a 6.7 share finish that lifts it to the #3 rank, while iHeartMedia’s news/talk WLAC adds three-tenths to finish with a 1.3 share and remains ranked #18. 
comments, “Our second quarter results mark the first quarter that our consolidated revenues increased year-over-year since Q4 2022. We continue to see strong momentum in our podcast business, our Digital ex. Podcast business, and have seen sequential improvement of our Multiplatform Group’s year-over-year revenue performance. This performance is built on iHeartMedia’s strong and unparalleled audience and demonstrates the progress we are making in maximizing the monetization of it.” Company COO and CFO Rich Bressler adds, “We continue to see signs of improvement throughout our business and the broader advertising marketplace, and our second quarter 2024 results were in line with, and in the cases of revenue, slightly above guidance. Our high-growth Digital Audio Group revenues were up 10% year over year, and represented 31% of our company’s revenues, and our Multiplatform Group revenues exceeded our previously provided guidance. Our full year 2024 political revenues are currently pacing approximately 20% higher than the last presidential election cycle, which gives us confidence that this will be a record political year for us, and we expect to see a significant year-over-year improvement in our full year Adjusted EBITDA performance.”
-hourly money news reports Monday through Friday in middays and PM drive. Robison most recently served as evening news anchor at Townsquare Media’s WKXW-FM, Trenton New Jersey 101.5.” Compass Media Networks also names Joe Mackay director of audio sales. The 25-year radio sales pro, based in Chicago, will manage advertising sales relationships throughout the West Coast and Midwest. Also joining the company as manager of sales planning is Laura Schaeffer. The 10-year radio industry pro will help manage customer relationships and assist sales executives and management with sales proposals and inventory management. She is based in New York.