CPAC Underway in Washington, DC with Active Media Row
CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference), the annual national meeting of leading conservatives, is underway in the nation’s capital at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. The event (March 1-4) draws active participants in the American conservative movement from politics, radio, TV, print and the general public. As is customary, the event features a sizable “media row” which includes a variety of live talk radio broadcasts presenting interviews with luminaries on the scene. Pictured (above) at the event (l-r) Joe Wang, The Epoch Times/NTD TV; Victoria Jones, executive director, DC Radio Company; Lisa Wendl, The Epoch Times; and Todd Starnes, owner/KWAM, Memphis/nationally syndicated radio talk show host.
Pictured above is Nan Su of The Epoch Times with talk show host Dan “Ox” Ochsner, host of KNSI, St. Cloud, MN’s “Ox in the Afternoon.” Victoria Jones, one of the nation’s leading talk media PR specialists, tells TALKERS, “In spite of some of the negative press and public relations problems associated with this year’s installment, the atmosphere is optimistic and the media row is extremely vibrant.”
Above is a shot of Media Row at CPAC.
top-ranked program, including production, affiliate sales, marketing and staff management.” Premiere Networks EVP of affiliate sales Peter Tripi says, “Eric is a key member of ‘The Sean Hannity Show’ team, and his leadership and collaboration with our affiliate partners have been instrumental in the program’s continued growth and success. I couldn’t be happier to recognize his efforts with this well-deserved 
promotion.” Prior to joining Premiere when the company began syndicating “The Sean Hannity Show” in 2009, Stanger served as director of talk programming at ABC Radio Networks. He’s also previously served as APD at KABC, Los Angeles as well as at WABC, New York, and at Westwood One as executive producer of “The Tom Leykis Show.” Stanger first joined forces with Hannity during his time at WGST Atlanta, where he served as producer of “The Sean Hannity Show.” Stanger comments, “I want to thank Peter Tripi, Julie Talbott, Sean Hannity, and our amazing studio team. It’s an honor and inspiration to work with this group of radio professionals every day – they are the best of the best!”
advertisers as to how their campaigns are performing over a cross section of Audacy’s portfolio of radio brands. With these insights, advertisers will be better able to evaluate campaign performance on Audacy stations in comparison to other mediums. Research has shown that advertisers who receive attribution reporting spend more year-over-year and cancel their ad campaigns less often on average than those who don’t measure performance.” Audacy chief revenue officer Brian Benedik states, “As we aim to best serve our clients, Veritone Attribute will further enable us to optimize advertisers’ campaigns and maximize their ad dollars. There has never been a better time to leverage the power of audio to tap consumers, and this technology will complement our existing capabilities.”
before an ad runs, enabling advertisers to plan and execute campaigns with confidence. iHeartMedia chief data officer Brian Kaminsky says, “Audio had been without a truly operative brand safety tool that gave advertisers the ability to run without risk at a national scale. The process was labor intensive, fragmented, and often failed to deliver the level of protection brands truly needed. We looked at every potential solution in the industry, and Sounder’s technology is far ahead when it comes to brand safety and suitability. This new tool changes the future and opens up endless possibilities. Brands are now able to opt out of content they deem unsafe and inappropriate. Our partnership with Sounder has set a new benchmark for transparency in audio advertising that has been long overdue.”
#2 (77,602 AAS), and Audacy at #3 (58,527 AAS). Other commercial broadcasters making the top 30 include Cumulus Streaming Network at #4 (40,999 AAS), Beasley Broadcasting Corporate at #6 (18,862 AAS), Hubbard Broadcasting at #8 (14,792 AAS), Urban One at #11 (9,601 AAS), and Salem Communications at #12 (8,244 AAS). 
was given a second chance when his old friend WWE Hall of Fame legend “Diamond” Dallas Page challenged him to compete again in the field he worked so hard to enter for years… by getting back in the “squared circle” at age 50. Doctor Asa re-trained this past year with Dusty Rhodes’ son, Cody Rhodes, who is set to go against Roman Reigns for the undisputed WWE Championship at WrestleMania in Hollywood, California on April 1 and 2. In signing with Impact Wrestling, one of the top three wrestling promotions in America, Doctor Asa has taken on the role as head of medical and sports performance for the company. His new title? “Doctor Asa, Ringside Physician.” TALKERS publisher Michael Harrison, an avid fan of wrestling, boxing and MMA, says, “Don’t be surprised if the doctor in scrubs sitting at ringside doesn’t wind up in the midst of the action should things get out of hand.”
on stories from the Globe’s newsroom, offering a deeper dive of major news, politics, business, and entertainment stories and how they impact New Englanders.” Boston Globe Media CEO Linda Henry adds, “We are continuously improving the ways that we deliver vital news and information to our community and are excited to build a television show that will bring the Globe’s award-winning journalism to a broader 
audience. ‘Boston Globe Today’ reflects our commitment to serve our community, invest in local journalism, and for Boston Globe Media to be an innovative news leader.” The program will be hosted by national media personality Segun Oduolowu and will air from a new, state-of-the-art broadcast studio in The Boston Globe’s downtown newsroom. It will focus on news Monday through Thursday and devote Friday to sports. On Friday, Globe sports columnist Christopher Gasper will anchor. Oduolowu comments, “I’m thrilled to join the ‘Boston Globe Today’ team, working on this exciting collaboration between the Globe and NESN. I look forward to diving into the stories affecting this historic city and New England at large, drawing on the considerable talents of the Globe newsroom.”
Spanish on “La Kaliente” 1370 AM/KZSF-AM. KGO program director Kevin Graham says, “Cumulus San Francisco is thrilled to continue our partnership with the San Jose Earthquakes for the seventh straight year and broadcast their matches this season on the all-new KGO-AM. With The Spread’s powerful signal and strong digital assets including the station’s app, more Quakes fans in Northern California will be able to listen and engage than ever before.” Ted Ramey – KCBS-AM reporter and host of KGO-AM’s “The Soccer Hour” – will serve as the primary play-by-play voice for home and away broadcasts and Joe Cannon will serve as the color analyst for home matches.
Miracle Mile. Mike Simpson, host of “LA’s Morning News” on KNX, and Charles Feldman, host of “KNX In Depth” and “LA’s Afternoon News” served as moderators. Audacy Southern California regional president Jeff Federman says, “There is no issue of more universal importance to our communities. It was important that we use our platform at KNX News to ensure parents and teens know they’re not alone in adjusting to a new reality.” Panelists included students Montserrat Hidalgo, Sarah Mian, and Alex Bielanski who discussed their first-hand experiences of how the pandemic shutdowns affected their education, social development, and mental health. Other panelists were Long Beach Unified School District superintendent Jill Baker, UCLA director of undergraduate admissions Gary Clark, Los Angeles Trade Tech College dean Chito Cajayon, and Stanford University professor Sean Reardon. 
serving a suspension for his racially insensitive comments made on last Friday’s program. As TALKERS reported on Tuesday (2/21), Massarotti – who co-hosts the show with Mike Felger – on Monday (2/20) apologized for his comments. 
significant, positive results for our organization. We are excited for Gail to lead our automotive teams and to continue to drive growth of SiriusXM’s dominant in-car presence.” Berger comments, “SiriusXM’s strong and deep relationships with every major automaker and tens of thousands of dealers and remarketing organizations across the United States are a testament to our team’s talent and capability. I am excited to step into this leadership position and continue to grow our business and deliver the best customer experiences in the vehicle.”
Herman says, “We’re delighted to have such prestigious presenters at this year’s Golden Mike Award dinner. We’re looking forward to Rosanna and Jeff’s contributions to our program and thank them for lending us their time and talent, as broadcasters come together to honor Jack and Dick.” BFoA president Tim McCarthy adds, “The Golden Mike Award gala is one of our biggest fundraisers. We’ve seen an incredible uptick in requests for aid, and we thank everyone who has bought a table or ticket. The funds allow the Foundation to continue providing aid to hard-working individuals in our industry who have fallen on very challenging times due to illness or disaster.” For more information or to reserve a seat or table at the Golden Mike Award gala and fundraiser, please contact the Broadcasters Foundation at 212-373-8250 or 
broadcasting remotely from a business center in a New Orleans hotel in which two Black people were sitting behind him. Referencing a previous trip to New Orleans in which Felger’s vehicle was stolen, Massarotti asked Felger if the two could hear him and when Felger replied that they couldn’t, he said, “OK, so I would be careful if I were you because the last time you were around a couple of guys like that, they stole your car.” During his apology on Monday, Massarotti said he gets why the joke, intended to be poking fun at Felger, was wrong. “It didn’t come off that way. It came off as something far broader and ignorant, and I’m regretful of that… I sincerely apologize, and I will do my best to make sure it never happens again.”
hour. Starting next Monday, our sports reports will begin airing at :25 and :55 and our money/business reports will move to :10 and :40 past each hour. We will also be reducing the number of commercial breaks listeners hear each hour and increasing the amount of news we deliver at the same time. These changes allow us to provide our listeners with longer, uninterrupted news segments, which we believe offer a better listening experience overall.” Ziegler adds they are tweaking how they approach news content. “WTOP will always be the place you can turn to when news is breaking, but we realize news consumers want more than that — not just from WTOP but from the news industry as a whole. So, it is our commitment to balance out those serious news stories we deliver each day with news about the good things going on in the D.C. region, too. Stories that make you smile; stories that inspire hope; and stories that make you laugh or are just cool. We’re also committed to providing you with stories that can help you, your kids, your finances and your health, too.”
as a percentage of the weekly podcasting audience – is based on total audience reach from Edison Podcast Metrics, and Edison says the Q3-Q4 ranker includes increased sample size implemented last year and is based on surveys of 10,579 weekly podcast listeners age 13+. The rest of the top 10 are: 4) Wondery/Audible/Amazon Music, 5) Audioboom, 6) The New York Times, 7) NPR, 8)Audacy, 9) Acast Creator Network, and 10) Cumulus Podcast Network.
inhumanity. Torture, murder, brainwashing, imprisonment, rape, forced labor, propaganda, slander, robbery, and economic deprivation form the foundation of the campaign. The harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners for transplant sale has taken the persecution to a whole new level. TALKERS magazine is in communication with the New York City-based Falun Dafa Information Center which reports the following message to our readers: The fact that the CCP is enacting these crimes in the world today creates a series of questions. If China is willing to do this to a harmless and innocent group of its own citizens, what wouldn’t it do to the rest of the world if it felt that it had the power and incentive to do so? Would it violate the human rights of other nation’s citizens, invade a neighboring country, or try something worse? Do we each have a responsibility to stand up for innocent victims who are being tortured and slaughtered by their own government? If your neighbor was not bothering you but they were slaughtering their family members what would your responsibility be? Given the truth of this situation, what is your responsibility? TALKERS encourages the talk media community to make contact with Levi Browde, executive director of the Falun Dafa Information Center to arrange interviews with him and other experts to raise consciousness among Americans to this dire human rights threat as well as other detailed insights into tenuous U.S.-China relations. He can be reached via email at 
Ohio but returned to Western New York and has spent the last 18 years with Jeremy White as his co-host in mornings on Audacy’s WGR. Simon says, “I’ve been very lucky to have worked alongside some wonderful people at WJJL, WBEN, Empire Sports Network and finally at WGR. I wish I could list everyone by name, but that isn’t possible. Let me just say, thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you to my many co-workers over the years. I’ve made some great, lifelong friendships, while getting a chance to do something I truly loved. I would like to mention my co-host for the last 18 years at WGR, Jeremy White. That is the longest I worked with anyone by far! Jeremy is super talented, extremely creative, and has a great feel for what topics will be of most interest to our listening audience.”
agreement to eliminate the burden and expense of further litigation.” It also says, “The plaintiffs believe that all claims ‘have merit,’ but they decided to settle due to ‘the inherent risks, difficulties and delays in complex ERISA litigation such as this.’” The settlement requires court approval. The Pensions & Investments report says, “The plaintiffs sued in December 2022, alleging that the defendants ‘did not try to reduce the plan’s expenses or exercise appropriate judgment to scrutinize each investment option that was offered in the plan to ensure it was prudent.’…The Cumulus Media 401(k) Plan, Atlanta, had $260 million in assets as of Dec. 31, 2021, according to the company’s most recent Form 5500 filing.” 
served as the National Gardening Association’s regional horticulturist for the Southeastern U.S. and is a contributing editor to Texas Gardener magazine. iHeartMedia Houston director of AM programming Bryan Erickson comments, “We’re all still reeling from the sudden loss of Randy. This was a difficult search and we feel fortunate to have found Skip. Not only is he one of the most qualified horticulturists in Texas, he has the perfect ‘down home’ demeanor when it comes to helping listeners with their gardening issues.” Richter states, “I’m excited to be hosting ‘Garden Line’ and helping listeners have more bountiful gardens and beautiful landscapes! Randy was an old friend going back to college when we lived in the same dorm. We will all miss him, and I consider it an honor to carry on the ‘Garden Line’ tradition.”
‘citizen’ – as a verb. Through meaningful conversations and insightful moments, Baratunde shows listeners how to wield their collective power to make the world a better place.” iHeartMedia says, “This season, Baratunde focuses on how to create a culture of democracy in communities, workplaces, homes and within the listener themselves. Guests will include adrienne maree brown, Priya Parker, NBA legend Steve Kerr and more.”