Philly Radio: Jeff Moore Promoted To iHM Market President

Jeff Moore

iHeartMedia has named industry veteran Jeff Moore as its new Philadelphia market president. He replaces Nick Gnau who was promoted to a division president role last year.

The Philadelphia Business Journal reports Moore began his career at iHeart as a sales manager 10 years ago, most recently serving as the senior vice president of sales. He will be succeeded in that role by Chris Squire, who joined the company last August as station manager for iHM’s highest-rated station, urban adult contemporary formatted 105.3 WDAS-FM.

As market president, Moore, a 2001 Temple University graduate, will oversee programming, business and sales teams for iHM’s six terrestrial radio stations in Philadelphia as well as its digital properties. He will report to New York-based Scott Hopeck, division president for iHeartMedia.

Prior to joining iHM last year, Squire had been general sales manager at Townsquare Media in Trenton/Princeton and has spent more than 30 years in the radio business. He is a 1982 graduate of Loyola University in Chicago.

“It’s especially rewarding to find the best candidates for key leadership roles within your own division,” Hopeck said of Moore and Squire. “They’ve collaborated under the most difficult circumstances in 2020 and clearly demonstrated their creativity and resilience. I’m confident this duo will continue to lead our Philadelphia operation to new highs.”

Chris Squire

Gnau is based in Detroit and had been essentially serving as head of both the Detroit and Philadelphia markets since replacing the reassigned Richard Lewis in 2018. Lewis has since left the company.

When the pandemic hit, iHeart revealed that it planned to trim $250 million in costs. It told employees in late April that if they had not agreed already to take a 5% pay cut, they would be forced to take two weeks of unpaid leave.

In November, a workforce reduction hit Philadelphia, where layoffs included one of its most senior local executives and two disc jockeys. Brian Check, who had been with the company and predecessor Clear Channel in Philadelphia since 2002 and most recently served as vice president of programming for iHeart’s six-station Philadelphia cluster, was among those affected.

iHM’s chief Philly rivals, Naples, Florida-based Beasley Media Group and Philadelphia-based Entercom Communications Corp., also imposed austerity measures such as layoffs when the pandemic’s impact was first felt last spring.

In its Philadelphia cluster, iHM also operates adult contemporary station The Breeze 106.1 (WISX-FM); Top 40 station Q102 (WIOQ-FM); hip-hop and R&B station Power 99 (WUSL-FM); modern rock station Radio 104.5 (WRFF-FM); and The Gambler, a sports talk station the company launched last year. In August, iHM leased 610 ESPN (WTEL-AM) from Beasley and flipped the format to its Black Information Network.