3/15 WAKE-UP CALL: Former Treasury Secretary Eyes TikTok Bid

Steven Mnuchin said he is putting together a consortium to try to buy TikTok. The former Treasury secretary’s enthusiasm shows that interest would likely be high if Congress succeeds in passing legislation to force a sale of the Chinese-owned social-media platform, which has 170 million-plus U.S. users. The House yesterday approved a bill that would ban TikTok if parent company ByteDance doesn’t sell it. TikTok has said that separating the U.S. portion would be impractical and undercut the app’s appeal as a global product. Some officials fear the app gives Beijing a way to collect data on Americans and influence public opinion. TikTok and ByteDance didn’t respond to requests for comment today. The latter has said that it wouldn’t comply with any Chinese government demand for data and that it never had such a request. Former Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has expressed interest in owning TikTok, and Microsoft, Oracle and other tech heavyweights tried to buy the app when the Trump administration pushed for a ban.

➤REPORT: TRUMP OKAYED CIA CHINA CAMPAIGN: Two years into office, President Donald Trump authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to launch a clandestine campaign on Chinese social media aimed at turning public opinion in China against its government, according to former U.S. officials with direct knowledge of the highly classified operation.

Three former officials told Reuters that the CIA created a small team of operatives who used bogus internet identities to spread negative narratives about Xi Jinping’s government while leaking disparaging intelligence to overseas news outlets. The effort, which began in 2019, has not been previously reported.

During the past decade, China has rapidly expanded its global footprint, forging military pacts, trade deals, and business partnerships with developing nations. The CIA team promoted allegations that members of the ruling Communist Party were hiding ill-gotten money overseas and slammed as corrupt and wasteful China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which provides financing for infrastructure projects in the developing world, the sources told Reuters.

➤SCHUMER STEPS IN IT:  Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is taking a lot of heat over his comments about Israel. During a floor speech Thursday, the Senate majority leader called on Israel to elect a new prime minister and advance a two-state solution for Israel and Gaza. Schumer said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was one of four obstacles to lasting peace. Republicans quickly demanded he apologize for his comments. 

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has called for new elections in Israel, saying that PM Netanyahu is an "obstacle to peace." Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish official in U.S. government, warned Netanyahu has "lost his way." @MattGutmanABC has more. https://t.co/S2GkI4CrKU pic.twitter.com/qQX0nJmOfj

— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) March 15, 2024

The top four GOP lawmakers held an impromptu press conference during their annual retreat at the Greenbrier Resort in West Virginia, just after Schumer's statement. "As we were in a work session here within the last half hour, there was a buzz among the audience as people were seeing notices come across their phone as something that was rather shocking to us," Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said. He suggested in an interview with Fox News Digital that the House may move ahead with a standalone Israel aid package, given the "urgency" after Schumer's comments.

WATCH: Fox News’ @JacquiHeinrich: “President Biden is in Michigan today trying to wear down Trump’s three point lead there in a new poll while also quieting discontent in his base over his refusal to call for a ceasefire in Gaza…” pic.twitter.com/QYCykr2Nqi

— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) March 14, 2024

➤FEDS ASK DELAY IN TRUMP CASE: A New York prosecutor asked Thursday to postpone by 30 days Donald Trump’s trial on charges of falsifying financial records to pay hush money to women so the former president can study new evidence in the case. Judge Juan Merchan had set the first-ever criminal trial of a former president to begin March 25. But Trump’s lawyers asked for a 90-day delay while they study 73,000 pages of new evidence received from federal prosecutors on March 4 and another 31,000 pages received Wednesday. More records are expected next week. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said he was prepared to start the trial on time, but out of "an abundance of caution" was willing to delay by 30 days “to ensure that defendant has sufficient time to review the new materials.” Merchan hasn't ruled on the requested delays yet.

➤JUDGE REJECTS TRUMP STALL BID: A federal judge on Thursday rejected a bid by Donald Trump to throw out his classified documents criminal case, and appeared skeptical during hours of arguments of a separate effort to scuttle the prosecution ahead of trial. U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon issued a two-page order saying that though the Trump team had raised “various arguments warranting serious consideration,” a dismissal of charges was not merited. Cannon, who was nominated to the bench by Trump, had made clear during more than three-and-a-half hours of arguments that she was reluctant to dismiss one of the four criminal cases against the 2024 presumptive Republican presidential nominee. She said at one point that it would be “quite an extraordinary” step to strike down an Espionage Act statute that underpins the bulk of the felony counts against Trump but that his lawyers contend is unconstitutionally vague.

SpaceX successfully launched its third test flight of Starship – the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built. The spacecraft burned up on reentry to the atmosphere. @ABCMireya has details. https://t.co/SPLUc2AYFo pic.twitter.com/6VmLVmcR3A

— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) March 15, 2024

➤DAD GUILTY OF INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER:  James Crumbley, father of a school shooter in Michigan, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter, a second conviction against the teenager's parents who were accused of failing to secure a gun at home and doing nothing to address acute signs of his mental turmoil. Crumbley and his wife, Jennifer Crumbley, whose teenage son murdered four students and injured seven other people at Oxford High School in November 2021, are the first parents in the nation to be held criminally accountable for a child's school shooting. In February, Jennifer Crumbley was convicted on involuntary manslaughter charges.   When the jury foreman read the verdicts, sighs of relief could be heard from the victims' families. James Crumbley shook his head from side to side as each guilty verdict was read.

CRS Unveils 2025 Dates

The Country Radio Seminar (CRS)has announced dates for CRS 2025.

Dates: CRS 2025 is scheduled to take place from Wednesday, February 19 through Friday, February 21.

CRS has also released 2024 session videos, panel handouts, and a photo gallery from this year’s event all for free on its website. Anyone can now catch up on the latest in AI, inclusivity, and strategy in radio and the music industry.

Among the video highlights are all three keynotes, including the CRS Research Presentation “But They Have A Great Personality: On Air Talent and Their Role on All Platforms,” “Leadership, Strategy, & Optimizing Country’s Surge In 2024,” and the standout crowd favorite “Your Brain Is A Liar” featuring Mental Health Advocate Jason Prinzo.

All three “Cycle Of A Song” sessions are featured, with Bailey Zimmerman’s “Fall In Love,” Megan Moroney’s “Tennessee Orange,” and Radio Ink‘s February cover star Jelly Roll, discussing the slow burn and grassroots reach of “Son of A Sinner.”

As artificial intelligence was at the center of many panels and conversations, the “AI Interactive Town Hall” with Mike McVay, Fred Jacobs, Buzz Knight, and Zena Burns is posted, with “AI and Identity,” “AI Chat GPT: The Good, The Bad, and The Truth,” and “AI: Work Smarter, Not Harder.”

Access to Resources: Session videos, panel handouts, and a photo gallery from CRS 2024 are available for free on the CRS website.

Broadway And Friends Show Adds Two Markets

 “Broadway and Friends” adds Clarity Communications “105.5 Hank FM” WLXO Lexington, KY, and Opus Broadcasting “Wild 97.7” KKWL Butte Falls, OR, to a collection of more than 35 affiliates.

“When we were looking for a morning show, we wanted to make sure the personalities were genuine and likable,” WLXO OM Lee Reynolds said in a release. “After an extended search, it became clear that ‘Broadway and Friends’ checked all the boxes. It's highly customizable – everything is built around our music and our station’s structure. Plus, Jerry Broadway has a winning track record, as a personality and OM/PD – making it easy to communicate and achieve our goals.”

“Broadway and Friends" is syndicated through Oceanic Tradewinds and Gemini 13/United Stations. The show first entered syndication as “Bud and Broadway” in 2020, rebranding to “Broadway and Friends" in January 2023.

Westwood One Launches 'Today In Women's Sports'

Cumulus Media’s Westwood One will launch a new two-minute feature entitled “Today in Women’s Sports” beginning Monday, March 18, 2024. The new feature will cover the athletes, coaches, teams, and sports that have contributed to the explosive worldwide growth of women’s athletics in recent years. A rotating cast of trailblazing women in the sports broadcasting business will highlight the headlines, highlights, and storylines.

With 60 seconds of content followed by a 60-second network commercial, the feature will be available for affiliates to air each weekday between 5 a.m. and 8 p.m. each weekday, local time.

“Today in Women’s Sports” is available via satellite or the Content Delivery Network (CDN). For more information about “Today in Women’s Sports” please contact (212) 824-2994.

“Today in Women’s Sports” will include a rotating line-up of notable sports broadcasters. Among the hosts will be:

Here's What We Hate About Being Online

Marketers have declared that a disappointing customer experience (CX) is a business risk, and that excellence in digital CX is critical to business survival. So what are the biggest pitfalls to avoid online? Research [download page] from Thales outlines consumers’ biggest online frustrations.

Top of the list is the dreaded pop-up: 71% of consumers surveyed around the world cited advertising pop-ups as an online irritation, making it the most widespread annoyance of the lot. Back in 2020, this was also listed by consumers in the US and the UK as the most frustrating aspect of online content, and in 2017 pop-up ads were found to be the most intrusive or unacceptable online ad format.

But it’s not just the pop-up that annoys consumers. A majority also get frustrated by having to re-enter personal information (65%) as well as by password resets (64%), complex cookie options (59%) and chatbots (53%).

While these might drive consumers away from online experiences, there are other reasons consumers leave brands, and they have plenty to do with data privacy: 29% have left a brand over the past 12 months as a result of it demanding too much personal information, and 26% over concerns about how their personal data was being used. This is unsurprising given the scarce amount of confidence consumers have in how their data is handled.

As such, roughly 9 in 10 (89% of) consumers will only share their personal information if certain caveats are met. Those include only consenting to the extent necessary (32%), only consenting if they can pick and choose which data to share (30%), and basing consent on the sector, or the nature of the service (27%).

FCC Proposes New Emergency Alert Code

The Federal Communications Commission Thursday proposed a new event code option to deliver critical messages to the public over television and radio about missing and endangered adult persons.  Adding a new “Missing and Endangered Persons” event code to the nation’s Emergency Alert System would help law enforcement agencies to issue timely alerts in accordance with the Ashanti Alert Act and galvanize public attention to these cases.

Similar to how law enforcement agencies successfully use AMBER Alerts on TV and radio to help mobilize public attention and recover abducted children, this new Missing and Endangered Persons event code would trigger Ashanti Alerts to sound the alarm over other missing and endangered persons.  This initiative would be particularly beneficial to the thousands of missing native and indigenous women who have disappeared from their homes.  

Alert originators, such as local public safety officials, use the Emergency Alert System by selecting from a group of event codes based on the nature of the situation (for example, “CAE” signifies a Child Abduction Emergency, otherwise known as an AMBER Alert).  This Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeks public comment on creating a new “MEP” alert code for missing and endangered persons who do not meet the criteria for an AMBER Alert.  The NPRM also asks about the relationship between this potential new category and the Wireless Emergency Alert system, which does not use event codes like the Emergency Alert System does.

Radio History: March 15

➦In 1679...Philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz described binary numbering. In mathematics and digital electronics, a binary number is a number expressed in the base-2 numeral system or binary numeral system, which uses only two symbols: typically "0" (zero) and "1" (one).

The base-2 numeral system is a positional notation with a radix of 2. Each digit is referred to as a bit. Because of its straightforward implementation in digital electronic circuitry using logic gates, the binary system is used by almost all modern computers and computer-based devices.

David Schoenbrun - 1950

➦In 1915...Journalist David Schoenbrun born (Died at age 73 - May 23, 1988), Schoenbrun enlisted in the Army in 1943 and became a World War 2 correspondent covering North Africa through to the liberation of France.

After the war, from 1947 to 1964, Schoenbrun worked for CBS, serving primarily as the network's bureau chief in Paris. He was one of the reporters known as Murrow's Boys.

From the 1960s through the 1980s, Schoenbrun served as a news analyst for WNEW Radio in New York (now WBBR) and other Metromedia broadcast properties, and later for crosstown WPIX Television and its Independent Network News operation. In the mid-1970s.

Schoenbrun is the author of On and Off the Air, a personal account of the history of CBS News through the 1970s.

➦In 1922...WSB-AM Atlanta signed-on.

First Employees Walter Iller, Walter Tison

The call-sign "WSB" carried an infamous history before it was assigned to a land-based broadcaster in Atlanta.

In very early days of radio licensing, sea-based broadcasters were included in the call-sign assignment system. The first licensee of the call-sign "WSB" was the S.S. Francis H. Leggett. After foundering off the Oregon coast on September 18, 1914, taking a toll of two of the 67 lives aboard, the call "WSB" was reassigned to the Firewood, the name of which forms a grim coincidence with its fate: the ship burned off the coast of Peru on December 18, 1919, with 28 persons on board, all of whom were saved.

Because superstitious seafarers objected to being issued a call "used by that ship which went down with all hands last month", "tainted" calls like "WSB" were quietly issued to unsinkable land stations.

Lambdin Kay, First GM

Originally on 740 kHz until the 1936 FCC band plan, WSB was the fourth radio station in the South, behind the first AM station, WBT 1110 AM in Charlotte, licensed in December, 1920... WNOX 990 AM in Knoxville, Tennessee licensed in November, 1921... and WWL 850 AM in New Orleans, licensed 13 days before WSB in March, 1922.

They, among others, are all considered "clear channel" stations. That designation is given to frequencies on which only one or two stations are assigned to a frequency that allows full power transmission day and night.

The WSB broadcast call sign stands for "Welcome South, Brother". Founded by the Atlanta Journal newspaper (once a competitor of the Atlanta Constitution, now merged), the station began broadcasting on March 15, 1922, just a few days prior to Constitution-owned WGM 710 AM (eventually swapped to WGST 640 AM.

➦In 1956...Elvis Presley signed a management deal with Colonel Tom Parker.  Their partnership was uniquely successful, Elvis being an entirely new force in popular music, and Parker an entrepreneurial genius able to market him.

A carnival worker by background, Parker moved into music promotion, earning the courtesy rank of ‘Colonel’ from a grateful singer Jimmie Davis, who had become governor of Louisiana. After discovering the teenage Tommy Sands, Parker talent-spotted the unknown Elvis Presley, and skillfully maneuvered himself into position as his sole representative with control over much of his private life. Within months, he had won Presley a recording contract with the prestigious RCA Victor record label, made him a star with his first single Heartbreak Hotel, negotiated lucrative merchandising deals, made plans for TV appearances as well as a new career as an actor in film musicals.

➦In 1964... Pioneering radio deejay Alan Freed indicted by Federal Grand jury for income tax evasion. On January 23, 1986, Freed was part of the first group inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. In 1988, he was also posthumously inducted into the National Radio Hall of Fame.  On December 10, 1991, Freed was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

➦In 1971...CBS announced the cancellation of The Ed Sullivan Show.

2024 ACM Radio Awards Nominees Unveiled

The Academy of Country Music has announced its nominees for this year's ACM Radio Awards. Eight stations picked up double nominations, receiving one in Station and one in Personality categories. 

Those stations are Zimmer Communications “94.3 Kat Country” KATI-FM Jefferson City, MO; Zimmer Communications "Clear 99" KCLR-FM Columbia, MO; Audacy “K-FROG 95.1” KFRG-FM Riverside, CA; Audacy "100.7 The Wolf" KKWF-FM in Seattle, WA; iHeartMedia "Kat 103.7" KXKT-FM Omaha, NE; Audacy "Froggy 101" WGGY-FM Scranton, PA; Urban One “97.1 Hank FM” WLHK-FM Indianapolis; and Hubbard Broadcasting "B-105" WUBE-FM Cincinnati.

Winners of the ACM Radio Awards will be announced ahead of the 59th ACM Awards and celebrated during ACM Awards week.

The 59th Academy of Country Music Awards will take place Thursday, May 16, 2024, at Ford Center at The Star in Frisco, TX and will stream live exclusively on Prime Video around the globe.

A list of 59th ACM Radio Awards nominees follows:

Former Treasury Secretary Interested In Buying TikTok

Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is building an investor group to acquire ByteDance’s TikTok, as a bipartisan piece of legislation winding its way through Congress threatens its continued existence in the U.S.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bipartisan bill that if signed into law would force ByteDance to either divest its flagship global app or face an effective ban on TikTok within the U.S.

“I think the legislation should pass and I think it should be sold,” Mnuchin, who leads Liberty Strategic Capital, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday. “It’s a great business and I’m going to put together a group to buy TikTok.”

There is common ground between Liberty and ByteDance. Masa Son’s SoftBank Vision Fund invested in ByteDance in 2018, and is also a limited partner in Mnuchin’s Liberty Strategic.

The bill is now headed to the Senate, where its future is uncertain, though President Joe Biden has said that he will sign the legislation if reaches his desk.

“This should be owned by U.S. businesses. There’s no way that the Chinese would ever let a U.S. company own something like this in China,” Mnuchin said.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have highlighted TikTok’s reach in the U.S. — by its own estimates, 170 million Americans use the app — as providing the Chinese government with ready access and influence over the U.S.

Major tech investors, including Peter Thiel, Vinod Khosla and Keith Rabois, have publicly or privately decried the social media platform as a pernicious influence.

Still, it remains unclear if Chinese government would permit ByteDance to sell TikTok to a U.S. buyer. TikTok has lobbied furiously against the bill, including a concerted pitch to its user base and through videos on its platform.

ByteDance was valued at $220 billion at its last funding round in 2023, according to PitchBook data. While a discrete valuation for TikTok was not immediately clear, any sale price for the U.S. division would likely be less.

TikTok’s most valuable asset and, to lawmakers, its most worrying weapon, is its algorithm, which delivers tailored content to users and was developed in China. Any sale of TikTok without the algorithm would be significantly less attractive to potential buyers.

TV RATINGS: Another Good News Week For Fox News

Fox News had its best week of the year as the news network secured 50% of the cable news share in terms of viewers during total day and primetime. 

TV Newser citing Nielsen live plus same-day data for the week of March 4 reports FNC averaged 2.604 million total viewers and 354,000 A25-54 viewers during primetime. The network was up in total viewers by +24% and +50% in the A25-54 demo, relative to the week prior (week beginning Feb. 26). 

In total day viewing, Fox News averaged 1.461 million total viewers and 192,000 A25-54 viewers, which translated to a +7% gain in total viewers and a +18% gain in A25-54 from what Fox News averaged in those measurements the week prior. Among all basic cable networks, Fox News maintained its No. 1 position in total primetime viewers and climbed three spots from the previous week to land in the No. 2 position in the primetime demo. In total day, the network was once again the only cable network to cross one million total viewers in total day, holding its No. 1 position and remaining in the No. 2 position in the total day demo for the week of March 4, 2024.

MSNBC in primetime averaged 1.625 million total viewers and 204,000 viewers from the A25-54 demo for the week of March 4. It had a +33% gain in total viewers and a +67% gain in the A25-54 demo from what the network averaged the week prior. 

CNN averaged 761,000 total primetime viewers and 181,000 A25-54 viewers in primetime for the week of March 4. The news net was up +33% in total viewers and had a gain of +52% viewers in the A25-54 demo compared to the prior week.

Fox had 11 out of the 15 most-watched cable news shows of the week, led once again by The Five (3.174 million viewers at 5 p.m. ET). The Rachel Maddow/Alex Wagner 9 p.m. ET timeslot was MSNBC’s most-watched program at No. 8 with 1.800 million viewers. MSNBC had four of its shows in the top 15 of most-watched cable news shows.

Meanwhile, Hannity toppled Gutfeld! as the top cable news program among Adults 25-54, averaging 344,000 A25-54 viewers at 9 p.m. ET. Fox News again led the way with 12 of the top 15 cable news shows in the demo overall. MSNBC occupied the remaining spots, with the Maddow/Wagner 8 p.m. ET timeslot landing at the No. 10 spot, with 220,000 viewers. The other two MSNBC shows in the top 15 were the Jen Psaki/Chris Hayes 8 p.m. timeslot at 12 with 201,000 viewers and The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell at 10 p.m. ET at 15 with 176,000 viewers.

X Ends Don Lemon Partnership

Don Lemon's partnership with Elon Musk's social media network is over before it began, reports CBS News..

X (formerly known as Twitter) ended its commercial partnership with the former CNN anchor shortly after he interviewed the billionaire, the company said Wednesday in a post on the platform. The interview was scheduled to run on the maiden broadcast of "The Don Lemon show" on X on March 18.

X in January announced that Lemon would bring his "unique and honest voice" to the service in three 30-minute episodes per week. The company at the time also unveiled two other news shows featuring former U.S. congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard and sports radio host and former ESPN star Jim Rome. 

But Musk on Wednesday derided Lemon's approach as "basically just 'CNN, but on social media.'" 

X said Lemon is "welcome to publish its content on X, without censorship, as we believe in providing a platform for creators to scale their work and connect with new communities."

In a video posted on his own X account, Lemon said "Musk is mad at me."

Elon Musk canceled #TheDonLemonShow👀

Watch on YouTube and listen everywhere on Monday March 18. pic.twitter.com/AAhnvcY0ny

— Don Lemon (@donlemon) March 13, 2024

"Throughout our conversation, I kept reiterating to him that although it was tense at times, I thought it was good for people to see and hear our exchange and that they would learn from our conversation," Lemon said.

"Apparently free speech absolutism doesn't apply when it comes to questions about him from people like me," Lemon added, noting that his March 8 interview with Musk would appear March 18 on YouTube and via podcast.

Musk has repeatedly professed his belief in uncensored expression on social media, calling himself a "free speech absolutist."

Jacobs Media Releases Radio’s Road Map for Political Marketers

On the heels of the release of Nielsen’s new report, “Optimizing Political Campaigns To Win In November,” Jacobs Media has released initial results from its 2024 Techsurvey report, providing radio broadcasters with a road map to utilize when generating political advertising dollars. In this study conducted during January and February of this year, more than 29,000 core radio fans from the U.S. responded to the world’s largest online radio survey.

As Jacobs Media President Fred Jacobs noted, “While Techsurvey 2024 results won’t be widely released until next month, the importance of this data for radio stations today is obvious. As the Nielsen study notes, radio is an excellent marketing vehicle in political races. Techsurvey reveals actionable results by format, generations, ethnicity, and other key demographics.”

Jacobs Media COO Paul Jacobs views this data as especially timely for radio in a hot election environment: “Without question, political advertising dollars are important to radio operators, but historically, the only data stations have had is ratings. The data from Techsurvey 2024 takes radio’s sales pitch to a higher level, providing invaluable insight designed to not only help radio sellers, but also leaders of political campaigns determine where to invest their dollars for maximum effect. It makes a powerful statement not only about radio’s power, but also demonstrates the versatility of the medium – radio can help political campaigns regardless of party, region, or size.”

Key findings include:

1. Radio listeners will be following the 2024 Presidential election very closely.
 In fact, more than eight in ten broadcast radio fans say they’ll be very closely following the race to the White House, especially males and progressively older radio listeners.

Those likely to focus on the election this year are especially apt to be partisans of News/Talk, Triple A, and Sports Radio stations. More than nine in ten say they will be “very” or “somewhat closely” following the political goings-on.

2. In Presidential election years, Techsurvey asks about party preference, a particularly useful tool for political marketing activities. In comparing the 2020 data to this new survey, we see a 2-point shift between Democrats (up) versus their Republican counterparts (down). Independents have also seen their ranks grow by 2%, while those without a stated party preference comprise nearly three in ten respondents.

3. By age, Gen Z and Millennials are more likely to classify themselves as Democrats, while radio fans who fall in the Gen X, Boomer, and Greatest Generation groups lean Republican.

4. As for ethnicity, whites are especially like to be a part of the GOP ranks, while ethnic minorities are decidedly in the “blue” column, especially Blacks.

5. And then there are the radio formats, 12 in all, and a key to marketing effectively using broadcast radio. They are listed on three different slides in alphabetical order.

NYC Radio: Mark Adams To Program Z100

iHeartMedia Top 40 WHTZ (Z100)/New York has announced that radio veteran, Mark Adams has been named Program Director effective Wednesday, May 1. Adams will remain Vice President of CHR and replaces Mark Medina, who has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Programming in Phoenix. Adams will report into Thea Mitchem, Executive Vice President of Programming for iHeartMedia.

Mark Adams

“Z100 is one of the country’s most iconic stations and brands with an incredible legacy of programmers and talent,” said Adams. “It represents the absolute pinnacle of our industry and to find myself a part of that history is honestly humbling. I’d like to sincerely thank Bernie Weiss Division President, Thea Mitchem EVP of Programming, and Tom Poleman President, National Programming Group & Chief Programming Officer for the opportunity to join their amazing team at Z100 and iHeartMedia New York”.

“Mark Adams was the perfect choice to build on the iconic legacy of Z100 New York’s #1 Hit Music Station,” said Thea Mitchem. “His brand experience, commitment to talent development and track record of success makes him the ideal choice to lead Z100 into the future.”

Mark Adams joined iHeartMedia in 2013 as VP/Programming for their Portland OR stations before moving the following year to San Francisco to program “Wild 94.9” KYLD and Hot AC “Star 101.3” KIOI. He has also been VP/Programming for Rose City Radio in Portland and VP/Music Programming for CBS Radio Houston.

Z100, home of Elvis Duran and the Morning Show, continues to broadcast the greatest music, introduce fans to new music, connect listeners to the personalities and brands they love and trust, and produce pop culture promotions and events for millions of listeners including the long-standing holiday concert – the iHeartRadio Z100 Jingle Ball.

Phoenix Radio: iHM Relocates Mark Medina As SVP/Programming

iHeartMedia Phoenix announced today that radio veteran, Mark Medina has been promoted to Senior Vice President of Programming effective Wednesday, May 1. Medina will continue in his role on the CHR Brand team. Medina will report to Linda Little, Region President for iHeartMedia Phoenix.

Mark Medina

“It’s been an amazing decade at the World Famous Z100. I’m so thankful and proud of the entire New York team for all we’ve accomplished the past 10 years in moving this iconic brand forward. I owe a huge thank you to Thea, Brad, and Tom for their partnership, mentorship, and scholarship in programming,” said Medina. “There is only one job on the planet I would leave Z100 for, and it’s this one. I’ve considered Phoenix home my entire adult life, and I have a special place in my heart for those brands from my previous decade there. Thanks to Tony Travatto, Linda Little, and Kris Foley for the return home to the Valley to start another winning chapter.”

“Mark Medina’s programming prowess and leadership are evident in his impressive track record at Z100,” said Linda Little, Region President. “We are beyond thrilled for his return to Phoenix and cannot wait for Mark to put his touch on our already exceptional brands.”

Medina most recently programmed iHeartMedia’s Z100 in New York City. His programming experience also includes Hot 99.5 in Washington DC and Z104.3 in Baltimore. Medina will also continue to be part of iHeartMedia’s talent development coaching team, where he has been instrumental in developing and coaching some of iHeartMedia’s top talent including The Kane Show, Toby Knapp and Johnjay & Rich.