Bill Smee Named VP/News for Entercom

Entercom, one of the two largest radio broadcasters in the U.S. and the undisputed leader in local news talk radio, has named Bill Smee to the newly created role of Vice President of News. 

In this capacity, Smee will have strategic oversight of the Company’s best-in-class multiplatform local news brands, including eight all news and 18 news talk radio stations in 23 markets across the country, and nationwide via the RADIO.COM platform. Smee will spearhead linear audio, podcast and on-demand audio, written editorial and video news content produced both centrally and at market level, while collaborating with digital product teams on the design of new features to serve news listeners.

Bill Smee

“Bill is a highly respected, award-winning news professional with over 30 years of experience leading and growing high-profile news brands,” said Jeff Sottolano, Executive Vice President, Programming, Entercom. “As the No. 1 local news platform, we remain committed to providing our audiences with quality local content via our collection of iconic news brands. Bill’s expertise will help us enhance and expand our position as an unparalleled leading news platform to better serve our communities.”

“This is a tremendous opportunity to build on the core strengths of Entercom’s news brands on all platforms at a time when demand for quality news, especially at the local level, is sky high,” said Smee.

Bill Smee is a multiple Emmy Award-winning video content creator and strategist with a proven track record of producing distinctive, high-profile video and audio journalism. He has launched and led new projects at major media companies, engineering growth and driving revenue, while recruiting top production talent. Smee has led video strategy for multiple leading news outlets, including CNN, where he supervised editorial content and managed rapid deployment teams on breaking news specials as Senior Supervising Producer for the outlet’s documentary unit “CNN Presents.” 

Smee also previously served as Director of Digital Video for NBC News, where he launched, built and led a new team to produce original video for all digital platforms, and Executive Producer for Slate Magazine, where he developed and launched Slate’s award-winning online video site, oversaw operations, editorial development and production of daily video content. Smee previously served as a strategic consultant for Entercom’s news radio, podcasting and digital platforms and served on the Board of Governors for Yale Broadcasting Corporation from 2011 to 2018.