ESPY Day Raises $3.85M For Cancer Research

ESPN’s second annual ESPY Day to benefit The V Foundation for Cancer Research and its new Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund raised more than $3.85 million for cancer research on Wednesday, July 15.

ESPY Day – a day-long fundraising drive across multiple ESPN platforms -- included the 11th annual ESPN Radio ESPY Day Auction, the 15th annual ESPY Golf Outing and the inaugural Sports Humanitarian of the Year Awards.  To date, ESPY-related fundraising efforts have raised more than $26 million for cancer research.

“On behalf of everyone at ESPN, I want to extend my sincere gratitude to all who contributed to another successful ESPY Day,” said ESPN President John Skipper.  “The creation of The Stuart Scott Memorial Cancer Research Fund made the fight against cancer even more personal for many at ESPN, and the generous support is a concrete demonstration of how together, we can make a difference in ending the battle.”

The fundraising total includes a $1.25 million grant from the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.  Contributions on ESPY Day included:

• $716,000 generated by the ESPN Radio ESPY Day Auction
• $603,000 raised during the Sports Humanitarian of the Year Awards\
• $600,000 raised during the ESPY Golf Outing
• $383,000 in public donations
• $248,000 from the ESPN Football Fantasy Sweepstakes
• $38,000 from eBay customers through its “Give at Checkout” program
• $12,000 directly from ESPN employees.

"ESPY Day is a huge day for The V Foundation and for everyone affected by cancer,” said Susan Braun, CEO, The V Foundation.  So many people hear the message about how research saves lives every day.  And because of ESPN’s tremendous reach and generosity, a remarkable volume of funds are raised that we can invest in cancer research.  It’s a win all the way around!”

Knoxville Radio: Fox Sports Radio To Air On WKGN

Knoxville sports fans will soon hear a new sound starting this football season.

WKGN 1340 AM is being purchased by Hodges Media which has  announced it will flip Regional Mexican to Sports when it closes on the $225,000 acquisition it announced in April.

Hodges says the snew station is planning to broadcast FOX Sports Radio Knoxville with a full lineup of local and national programming centered on University of Tennessee sports, the Southeastern Conference and current events from around the sports world.

Headlining the local lineup will be The Nate Hodges Show in partnership with GoVols247.com, a blended format from trusted sources who cover the Vols on a daily basis. Nate Hodges and executive producer Brad Matthews will broadcast weekdays from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. with Tennessee insider Ryan Callahan of GoVols247 co-hosting the final hour of the show.

WKGN 1340 AM (1 Kw)

“I’m excited to join FOX Sports Radio Knoxville and bring its listeners some of the insight, information and analysis that have made GoVols247 the fastest-growing subscription website devoted to University of Tennessee athletics,” Callahan said.

“Listeners in the Knoxville area love discussing Tennessee sports and we plan to offer a unique level of insight that will entertain and engage even the most avid UT fans.”

Callahan said radio will serve as an extension of GoVols247, which covers Tennessee football, basketball, and recruiting as part of the 247Sports network. The station will also feature Wes Rucker along with other 247Sports writers and analysts as regular guests.

“I believe the future is bright for FOX Sports Radio Knoxville, and the partnership will give us another way of interacting with our readers and an opportunity to reach an even larger audience,” Callahan said.

The Tom Poisal Show will anchor the local afternoon drive-time slot, on weekdays from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., with an opinionated quick-hitting style that will focus on football and current sports topics.

R.I.P.: KFGO Weather Forecaster Terry Spies Passes

Terry Spies

Longtime forecaster and broadcast professional Terry Spies passed away Monday night after suffering a heart attack.

He was 70.

A Hope, N.D., native, Spies joined KFGO 790 AM in 1997 after a long career with the National Weather Service.

“Spies held all of our hands and guided us through many storms over the years, including snowstorms and devastating floods,” KFGO wrote on its website.

July 22 Radio History

In 1963…The Beatles' first U.S. album, "Introducing The Beatles" was pressed by Vee-Jay Records. When it was released in January 1964, Capitol Records filed an injunction against Vee-Jay in an attempt to keep them from "manufacturing, distributing, advertising, or otherwise disposing of records by the Beatles." The trial that followed resulted in Vee-Jay being allowed to release Beatles records only until October 15, 1964

Jack Lescoulie

In 1987..WNEW-AM Radio/TV personality, former Today Show host  Jack Lescoulie died

On radio, he was billed as the "Grouchmaster" on The Grouch Club (1938–40), a program in which people aired their complaints about anything,  created by future TV legend Nat Hiken, creator of The Phil Silvers Show /You'll Never Get Rich and Car 54, Where Are You?. In the 1940s, he was morning-drive partner to Gene Rayburn on WNEW radio (now WBBR) in New York City, before turning over his role in the team to Dee Finch. The Lescoulie and Finch pairings with Rayburn provided what are believed to be radio's first two-man morning teams.

During World War II, Lescoulie served as a war correspondent, flying in Air Force planes on bombing missions over Italy.

Today's Frank Blair, J. Fred Muggs Dave Garroway

In the fall of 1947, Lescoulie became the "all night radio man" on the Mutual Broadcasting System's New York affiliate WOR 710 AM. On April 12, 1948, he portrayed a mysterious newscaster in "Twelve to Five," a Quiet, Please fantasy drama which recreated an all-night request radio program so convincingly that some listeners phoned in with requests. He returned to Quiet Please June 4, 1949, in the horror drama, "Tanglefoot."

On today, he was teamed with Dave Garroway for over nine years, covering sports, news and features. The tall, blond performer was called ''the saver'' by Mr. Garroway because of his ability to enliven lackluster interviews with his wit. Often characterized as a good-humored, all-American boy, his frequently lighthearted tasks for ''Today'' included wrestling a walrus, interviewing a penguin and eating six breakfasts in one sitting. He Left 'Today' in 1961.

During the 1950's, Mr. Lescoulie made commercials for Milton Berle, was an announcer for ''The Jackie Gleason Show'' on CBS and was the host of an NBC sports-interview series called ''Meet the Champions.'' He also filled in as host of NBC's ''Tonight: America After Dark,'' a show that briefly replaced the ''Tonight'' show in 1957. The next year, he was co-host of an NBC quiz show called ''Brains and Brawn.''

Nielsen Blinks On Voltair, Will Tweak PPM

Nielsen Audio has “reiterated its non-support” for the controversial Voltair product. It made the statement more than once in a private national webinar for its radio clients and industry leaders.

But, reports RadioWorld,  the company also announced planned technical tweaks to its system, intended to help assure reliable PPM performance in difficult listening conditions, including a new station monitor that will be distributed to all radio stations later this year.

The company told clients in the webinar that it had conducted tests of Voltair and concluded that the $15,000 processor, made by 25-Seven Systems/Telos Alliance, can introduce audible artifacts for listeners, interfere with the Nielsen encoding and result in “credit for unintelligible listening.” It can also “introduce variability” through station-controlled settings, Nielsen said. And because Voltair is not universally implemented, it “results in an unequal market dynamic.”

Nielsen did find that in certain situations where background noise is equal or greater than the audio content, the PPM could pick up more codes with Voltair; but Nielsen doesn’t know whether this is “true listening.” 

It said that it has been working on enhancements to its system already and have been expediting them due to market conditions. They promised enhancements in the fourth quarter of this year. They promised improvements to the PPM system’s “critical band encoding” and they will issue a “next generation” in-station monitor that will be for all PPM station users. 

There was no mention of any legal action with the product’s users or manufacturers, something that had been speculated about. But the company several times “reiterated its non support of Voltair.” 

As to whether any ratings had increased because of Voltair, one speaker said Nielsen has no way for sure to know, in part because the list of Voltair users isn’t public, but that “Nielsen stands behind the ratings that have been released.”

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Taylor Swift Leads In VMA Noms

UPDATE 1PM 7/21/15:  Apple Insider, a tech news blog, reports Apple's App Store, Apple Music, iTunes Store and some other services. had issues Tuesday.  It appears excess traffic associated with the announcement of MTV's 2015 Video Music Awards nominations caused some disruptions, which lasted about three hours.

Taylor Swift

(Reuters) - Pop singer Taylor Swift, British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, R&B singer Beyonce, and DJ-producer Mark Ronson lead the nominations for the MTV Video Music Awards, the cable network said on Tuesday.

Swift, whose "1989" was the best-selling album of 2014, earned nine nominations for the awards to be handed out on Aug. 30. Sheeran garnered six nominations, while Beyonce and Ronson each scored five nods.

Swift's superhero-themed video for "Bad Blood," a collaboration with hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar, which also features cameos by more than a dozen other celebrities, will compete for the coveted Video of the Year award against Beyonce's "7/11," Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud," Ronson's "Uptown Funk" featuring Bruno Mars, and Lamar's "Alright."

Swift also earned nominations for her music video "Blank Space" in the Best Female Video and Best Pop Video categories.

Ed Sheeran

The awards show, which MTV bills as "music’s most unexpected night," hands out "Moonman" statuettes for achievements in music videos. The event has made headlines in recent years for singer Miley Cyrus' provocative "twerk" performance with a foam finger in 2013, and hip-hop artist Kanye West's interruption of Swift’s 2009 acceptance speech.

Cyrus tweeted on Monday that she will host this year's awards, showing pictures of her with placards saying: "MTV won't let me perform" and "So I'm hosting this year's VMAs."

The show, which attracts a young audience prized by advertisers, will air live from the Microsoft Theater, formerly the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

The Video Music Awards began in 1984 and helped propel the young cable channel, now owned by Viacom Inc, as a player in the entertainment industry.

(Reporting by Katherine Davis-Young; Editing by Mary Milliken and Lisa Shumaker)

Google, NAB Top Lobbying List

Google’s company-wide effort to control costs hit its lobbying budget, which was down 16 percent in second quarter. But the company still spent more than the other 65 media, marketing, and consumer tech firms tracked by KatyontheHill.

Of the top five, the search giant spent $4.62 million in the second quarter, down from the $5.47 million it spent in Q1 2015.  That topped the National Association of Broadcasters at $4.17 million, AT&T at $4.1 million, Comcast at $3.8 million and Verizon at $3.1 million.

Of the firms with big deals pending before regulators, AT&T was tops at $4.1 million, though down slightly from its $4.4 million in previous quarter.  DirecTV spent $730,000 in Q2, up from $450,000 in Q1.

Charter Communications, which recently announced deals to buy Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks is ramping up. It shelled out $1.1 million in Q2, up substantially from its $640,000 in previous quarter.

Comcast, whose deal with Time Warner Cable was blocked by regulators,  trimmed its budget by 18 percent.

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Axe Falls At Westwood One Formats

Last week it was CBS Radio, this week it seems to be Cumulus-Westwood One to institute a reduction in force.

Up to 50 employees have been layed-off from Westwood One's Colorado offices as Cumulus has finished their takeover that began in August 2013, according to allaboutcountry.com.  Cumulus Media paid $260 million for Westwood One.  It was then merged into Cumulus Media Networks.  The company eventually merged the two operations, under the Westwood One name.

According to Mike McVay, Cumulus Media & Westwood One SVP/Content and Programming, "We are now one company.  Westwood one and Cumulus are together and it has taken a while to fully integrate all of our great assets that we have .have acquired over the last four years, but we are now there. That means we can now take advantage of the complete talent pool in our company. This will improve the quality of the 24/7 products by tapping into market leading talent across our company."

Mike McVay

McVay also indicated that there will be no name change but the changes in personnel will allow the 24-hour formats to be hosted ," , "to a large degree by top-quality and experienced Cumulus announcers from the company’s radio stations in markets like New York City, Chicago, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Atlanta and Los Angeles.  This takes advantage of the best personalities in every format, regardless of where their sshow originates."

About this integration and the job cuts McVay comments, "While many current Wetwood One announcers will still be heard on weekday and weekend dayparts, the integration of our company into one programming platform has affected some Westwood One announcers," said McVay, who noted, "all departing announcers will be eligible for vacancies at Cumulus radio stations. This week we’ll be evaluating what openings exist inside of Cumulus and we’ll consider the Westwood One personalities and programmers for these positions."

Those that we know have been affected:

• Jim West-Mornings on Classic Country with Westwood One.  Experience includes three years in this position and 30-plus years in the Country format.  Markets worked inclue KYNG, YOung Country/Dallas, K-Bull/alt Lake City and KIM/Tucson. Also programming for ten years including KAYD/Beaumont, Cat Country/Colorado Springs.
• Bernie Mack-Full time nighttime voice and voice of the Hot AC format.  Available for Top 40, Hot AC and has had experience in Classic Hits and Young Country.
• John Summers' background includes B-94 Pittsburgh, KJ 105/Orlando, WMMO/Orlando, spent 19 years at KLUV/Dallas and has been with Westwood One for four and a half years doing Classic Hits and Classic Hits Rock.
• Dan Hardee has been with the Hot AC format as afternoon host for just over a year.  His experience includes time at KYGO and KWOF and was Production Director for KIMN and KXKL/Denver.  He also worked for 5 years in Colorado Springs and was on-air for Hot AC KKPK and Country KATC along with programming and promotions experience.

Philly Radio: CBS Radio Promotes Marc Rayfield To NYC

Marc Rayfield

Marc Rayfield, senior vice president and Philadelphia market manager for CBS Radio, has been promoted to head the company's New York City market.

The Business Journal reports Rayfield will succeed Scott Herman, who was promoted Monday to company COO by new CBS Radio President Andre Fernandez, who took the reins of the nation’s third-largest radio operation in April from retiring Dan Mason. Fernandez recently visited Philadelphia, addressing the staff and spending time with Rayfield.

No word on who will replace Rayfield in Philadelphia. He plans to commute to Manhattan.

Rayfield will be in charge of seven New York-based CBS stations. Rayfield will now report directly to Herman, who will oversee all market managers.

Boston Radio: Nom-Com WGBH Survives License Challenge

The FCC has denied a petition challenging the lisence renewal of non-com WGBH 89.7 FM Boston/

A local media advocacy group called The Committee for Community Access filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission asking it to deny renewal of the license.  The group wanted the station to restore music programming” that was either cut or shifted to WCRB 99.5 FM in 2009.

According to the CCA, the “near-total expungement of music from the airwaves” of WGBH was done to transform the station into a full-time news and talk station, and therefore limited format diversity in the Boston area. Listener letters sharing similar concerns were also submitted to the FCC.

In its complaint, the CCA called on the commission to “hold public radio licensees to a higher standard than commercial licensees” when it comes to adequately serving the listening public with diverse format options. The CCA also asked that the commission reconsider its Format Policy, saying that alleged “market failures” call for the commission to revisit the issue, and that listeners have a “First Amendment right to be served,”

WGBH 89.7 FM (98 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area

The FCC countered by saying — as it has many times before — that it does not regulate programming, nor does it take potential changes in entertainment programming formats into consideration in reviewing license renewal applications.

The agency also declined to reconsider its Format Policy. “When addressing matters of broad applicability, the commission has preferred utilizing rulemaking proceedings and policy statements rather than fact-specific adjudicatory proceedings to give guidance and reasonable notice to licensees on going forward requirements,” the ruling said.

NYC Radio: WEPN, Michael Kaye Ink New Deal

Michael Kaye

ESPN New York WEPN 98.7 FM has signed veteran New York City broadcaster Michael Kay to a three-year contract extension that will keep the longtime radio voice with the station through 2018.

The successful team of Kay, host of The Michael Kay Show, and partner Don LaGreca has been an afternoon drive mainstay for New York sports fans since 2002.

The duo will continue to interact with listeners during afternoon drive, as they have for the past 14 years, discussing the latest sports news and previewing upcoming events in an entertaining manner, infused with opinion, analysis and humor. The Michael Kay Show is broadcast weekdays from 3 – 7 p.m. ET and will continue to be simulcast on the YES Network, as it has been since February 2014.

“Mike has been the cornerstone of ESPN Radio New York for the past 14 years and his audience is growing,” said Tim McCarthy, General Manager, ESPN New York 98.7FM. “He is a familiar and friendly voice for the New York sports fan.  His credibility and passion each day provide New York Metro listeners an entertaining and informative choice for their commute home.  He is one of the best in the sports business and I am proud he will remain part of the 98.7FM team.”

ESPN New York 98.7FM Signs Michael Kay to 3-Year Extension http://t.co/fMHoLTVwP3

— Michael Kay Show YES (@TMKSonYES) July 20, 2015

Kay added, “After 14 years, I am l thrilled to remain with 98.7FM and seized this opportunity to continue doing sports talk radio in a fun and entertaining way. Don and I don’t take our positions or the loyalty of our listeners who spend their afternoons with us for granted. They are part of our family. And we treat them that way!  I am really excited about 98.7FM’s future and am very happy to remain with such a great company, ESPN.”

Kay graduated from Fordham University in 1982 with a B.A. in Communications.  That same year, the Bronx native became a general assignment writer for the New York Post and later covered college basketball, the New Jersey Nets and, ultimately, the Yankees for the paper.

While there, Kay got his first television job, with MSG Network in 1989 as host of the Hot Stove League segment of MSG’s SportsNight and as Yankees reporter. In 1992, he added Knicks locker room reporter to his responsibilities, and continued in that role until the 1998-99 season. Kay won three Emmys and accumulated numerous Emmy nominations while at MSG.

WEPN 98.7 FM (6 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area

In 1989, Kay moved from the Post to the Daily News, where he was the Yankees beat reporter, before taking the job as a Yankees broadcaster on WABC Radio in 1992.  Kay worked as the Yankees play-by-play commentator and analyst on WABC Radio’s Yankees broadcasts from 1992 through the 2001 season, and then became YES’ Yankees play-by-play man when the network launched in 2002. In 2015, Kay won the coveted “Best Play- by-Play Voice in NY.

Syracuse NY Radio: Mark Wainwright Now Permanent At WSYR

iHeartMedia/Syracuse has announced Mark Wainwright is the new permanent morning host at News/Talk WSYR 570 AM / 106.9 FM.

Wainwright was the designated fill-in host for veteran morning personality Joe Galuski. When Galuski was diagnosed with cancer in September, 2014, Wainwright stepped in through Galuski's illness, ad death in May.

"Mark Wainwright has become a familiar voice to our listeners and he has developed great relationships with our staff and clients," said iHM SVP/Programming Rich Lauber for Syracuse, Binghamton, and Rochester.

Wainwright spent more than 25 years as a morning personality, talk host, and air personality. After leaving radio, a guest-host stint in mornings at iHeartMedia's WGY/Albany brought him back to the airwaves. He continued to perform fill-in duties at WGY and other iHeartMedia stations (including WHAM/Rochester and WRVA/Richmond) before he became a frequent guest host on WSYR.

WSYR 106.9 FM (9 Kw) Red=Local coverage Area

"After almost a year of filling in for Joe, when the time came to conduct a nationwide search for a new host for Syracuse's Morning News it was an honor to bring Mark back to our industry full time on 570 WSYR," said iHeartMedia Market President Rick Yacobush.



"I felt right at home here after my first hour on the air at WSYR. Our late colleague Joe Galuski spent more than two decades building a successful and highly-regarded morning program, and I am committed to continuing that success. I just wish this all came under happier circumstances, as Joe Galuski is dearly missed by me -- and the Central New York community," added Wainwright.

Michael Savage's 'Free Agency' Upheld By 9th Circuit

Michael Savage

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld a federal judge’s decision to release talk-radio host Michael Savage from a contract with his former syndicator, Talk Radio Network.

WND reports, when U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled in Savage’s favor in 2013, Savage’s lawyer, Dan Horowitz, compared it to the case that led to free agency in baseball.

“Michael is to talk radio what Curt Flood was to Major League Baseball,” Horowitz told WND at the time, referring to the player who challenged baseball’s reserve clause, which kept a player bound to his team even after fulfillment of his contract.

“For me, personally, it finalizes a struggle to perform for my audience in an atmosphere of freedom, not working on a ‘radio plantation,’” Savage told WND after the original decision.

Savage told WND Friday, “After five long years and a fortune in my costs, justice has prevailed.”

Savage said the case cost him $1 million in legal fees “and many lost days and nights.”

Horowitz said in 2013 that Savage’s victory establishes the ability of radio talent to break away from an employer like any other employee.

Radio hosts, he explained, have been bound by restrictive clauses in their contracts that treat them like businesses instead of regular employees. The law, therefore, has allowed the networks to enforce non-compete agreements with radio hosts that would be illegal if applied to individual employees.

Report: iHM Brass Meet With FCC's O'Rielly

iHeartMedia opposes cutbacks in interference protections for AM Class A stations in the United States.

RadioWorld reports Bob Pittman, CEO of iHeartMedia, met with FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly in the Big Apple. Among topics discussed were iHeartMedia’s stance in the ongoing AM revitalization proceeding. Also taking part were Richard Bressler, iHeartMedia’s president/CFO; Dan Dukes, its senior director of government affairs; and O’Rielly’s legal advisor Amy Bender.

According to an ex parte summary filed by the company, Pittman and his colleagues told O’Rielly the commission should take aggressive action in support of revitalizing AM radio.

They said that reducing interference protections for Class A stations would harm rather than revitalize the band. It has been active in putting this argument in front of the FCC, as Radio World has reported, arguing that Class As provide access to important programming for many listeners beyond and between major markets.

A Class A station operates on a clear channel, can broadcast 24 hours per day and has power of 10 kW to 50 kW. IHeartMedia owns 17 Class A stations, may with nationally known call signs like KFI, KGO, WGY and WOR.

IHeart also says that if the commission pursues an FM translator window exclusively for AM owners, it should allow equal participation by all AM stations. “All AM stations, irrespective of class, face challenges in providing a listenable signal,” the company summary stated. “FM translators would allow AM stations to expand audience by reaching listeners who do not tune into the AM band due to signal quality or other issues.

Ratings Tank As Philly Fans Flee TV

Its bleak times for Philadelphia sports amd fans are fleeing with their eyeballs, and Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia - which owns the TV rights to two of the worst teams in professional sports, the Phillies and the Sixers - is taking an epic TV ratings beating.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Phillies viewership has plummeted 65 percent from 2011, the last time the team reached the playoffs. Sixers viewership has nosedived 72 percent over the same period, according to Nielsen.

"We serve a passionate and loyal fan base," Brian Monihan, president of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia, said in a statement. "And while viewership can be cyclical and reflective of the teams' performance, our passion for covering them remains high."

But experts grimace when they hear of the fans' dismay, the poor Nielsen ratings, and the teams' performance, given the huge TV rights contracts with regional sports networks that guarantee a revenue stream to the franchises; the Phillies signed a $2.5 billion, 27-year deal in early 2014 to televise their games on SportsNet. The Phillies also own part of the network.

Phillies and SportsNet officials say that comparing the viewership decline between 2011 and the last two years is unfair: the Phillies won 102 games in 2011, the most in franchise history, and were a heavy favorite to win the World Series.

An average of 350,000 adults watched Phillies games that year. The team lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in the first round of the playoffs and never recovered its competitive footing.

Last year, an average of 112,000 adults tuned in to the Phils on SportsNet. Through early June the viewership had improved slightly from last year to an average of 123,000 a game. The Phillies' record on Monday, going into the break for the All-Star Game, was 29 wins and 62 losses.

Dave Buck, the team's senior vice president of marketing and sales, said that the 112,000 TV viewers per game in 2014 was exceptionally low, and the 350,000 viewers in 2011 was probably exceptionally high. Average viewership over time should fall between those two poles, he said.

Report: TV, Radio Deals During 2Q Were "Slow"

TV and radio station deals have slowed down dramatically in the first six months of this year.

In that time, TV and radio station deals totaled just $343.8 million compared to $5.3 billion -- just 6% of the total for the first half of 2014, according to SNL Kagan.

Mediapost reports the slowdown can largely be attributed to the rush of major TV station group deals in 2014 -- including LIN Media and Media General's $2.5 billion merger announcement in March and the 21st Century Fox TV station swap with Cox Media Group in June valued at $859.3 million.

Looking at just the second quarter of 2015:

• Total broadcast station deals were valued at $223.3 million
• Radio stations at $125.1 million
• TV station deals worth around $98.2 million. 

This is about twice the overall level of the first quarter of 2015, which sat at $120.5 million.

Still, while the second quarter improved more than the first quarter of 2015, both periods collectively are still way down from a year ago.

Pittsburg KS: KSEK-FM, AM To Get New Owners

The SKIL Resource Center Inc. has begun transferring its KSEK radio stations to new local owners, the group announced Monday.

Jessica and Mika Nugent will take ownership of Classic Rock KSEK 99.1 FM, while Triple T Plus Two Inc., headed by Jerry Tibbetts, will receive Fox Sports KSEK 1340 AM. The sale of both stations will be finalized pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission.

The Nugents said on their Facebook page, Luke Nugent Memorial, that they planned to use a settlement recently awarded to them in a suit against the Carl Junction School District to buy a radio station and promote the anti-bullying movement. The couple was paid $300,000 earlier this month as a settlement in a federal wrongful death lawsuit, which had alleged that district officials failed to protect their 14-year-old son, Luke, from bullying, which ultimately led to him taking his own life.

KSEK 99.1 FM (6 Kw) Red=Local Coverage Area

Shari Coatney, president and chief executive officer of SKIL Resource Center, said in a statement that she wanted the KSEK stations to remain in the control of the local community.

"At SKIL, maintaining localized ownership of what has been a valuable community resource was of major importance," she said. "We encourage the area businesses and community individuals who have supported these stations with their advertising dollars in the past to continue to do so with the new ownership, thus maintaining the heritage and vitality of KSEK-AM and KSEK-FM in the community.

"The Nugents and Jerry Tibbetts have been a part of the SKIL family, past and present,” she said. “Because of these relationships, I’m confident that both stations are in good hands."