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Cumulus CEO Mary Berner, left, and Beasley Media Group CEO Caroline Beasley, right, both met with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr recently to discuss removing local ownership caps, according to filings. Several more major broadcast groups are hoping FCC Chairman Brendan Carr will add the current local radio ownership market limits to his list of pesky regulations to delete. According to public filings by the broadcasters, Cumulus Media and Beasley Media Group are the latest to visit the chair in Washington to discuss the need for further deregulation. Radio World reported last week that Jeff Warshaw, the CEO of Connoisseur Media, took a meeting with Carr to discuss the same topic and painted a dire picture of broadcast radio’s future unless ownership caps are relaxed. And in separate meetings on June 10, Cumulus CEO Mary Berner and Beasley CEO Caroline Beasley stressed with Carr what they see as an urgent need to remove local radio ownership restrictions.   The FCC is currently reviewing if the need for ownership caps remains as part of its Quadrennial Review process. According to the group’s filing, the Beasley CEO urged for elimination of local radio ownership caps, citing heavy competition from streaming music services, podcasts, social media, giant digital advertising platforms, smart devices and automotive phone integration systems. “Due to the complete transformation of the media and advertising markets in the past three decades, the limitations imposed on broadcast radio stations but not their competitors now harm rather than promote competition, diversity, and localism and should be repealed,” Beasley Media wrote in a summary of the recent meeting. Broadcast radio does not exist in a “siloed market with radio stations only competing against other radio stations,” Beasley told Carr. “In today’s extremely competitive marketplace, radio broadcasters lacking critical economies of scale cannot compete effectively for listeners and advertisers against larger audio and advertising market players.” Beasley Media Group and other broadcasters have documented the shift of advertising dollars away from radio stations to digital platforms, according to the filing. The current local ownership caps also limit the ability of radio broadcasters to obtain the crucial investments necessary for their local radio stations to continue producing entertaining, informational and lifesaving programming, according to Beasley’s meeting recap. “Continuing to starve the radio industry of the capital and scale it needs to survive will not serve the public interest,” Caroline Beasley told the chairman. Cumulus’ Berner, meanwhile, emphasized… [TheTopNews] Read More.

Salem Media announced that President of Broadcast Media Allen Power will retire on Sept. 30, concluding a 50-year career in broadcasting. He joined Salem in 2000 as the company’s first general manager in Atlanta, rising to his current position in 2023. Under Power’s leadership, Salem said that it expanded its position as a leading Christian and conservative media company. The news follows Salem’s disclosure in May that it entered into an agreement with WaterStone to take the company private — a deal expected to close in August. Power will continue to serve Salem as a senior advisor following his retirement, according to a release. Salem plans to announce additional leadership appointments and succession plans in the coming weeks. “After five decades of hard work, the next chapter will be about investing my time and gifts in faith, family and worthwhile organizations,” Power said in the release. Salem noted that Power’s broadcast career began 50 years ago Monday — on June 15, 1976. According to his LinkedIn profile, he held various positions in the Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., radio market before becoming general manager of the Clear Channel cluster there in 1998. In addition to his work at Salem, Power has been active in industry leadership. He currently serves on the executive committee of the National Association of Broadcasters’ board of directors, and previously served as chairman of the Georgia Association of Broadcasters. He has also served on the board of the South Carolina Broadcasters Association. [Do you receive the Radio World SmartBrief newsletter each weekday morning? We invite you to sign up here.] The post Salem’s President of Broadcast Media Allen Power to Retire appeared first on Radio World. [TheTopNews] Read More.

Radio France CEO and Chair of the EBU Radio Committee Sibyle Veil delivers the keynote at WorldDAB Automotive 2026. When the daily news cycle consists of natural disasters, economic disruptions and military conflicts, Sibyle Veil believes that keeping radio accessible — particularly in cars — is of the utmost importance. That was the message the Radio France CEO and chair of the EBU Radio Committee delivered during her keynote address at WorldDAB Automotive 2026. The annual event, hosted by the global organization that promotes the DAB+ broadcast radio standard, was held in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 11. “The discussions you are having today go far beyond the radio and automotive sectors alone because the connected car is becoming one of the main gateways to information, culture, and public debate,” Veil explained. “And in a world marked by growing uncertainty, natural disasters, cyber risks, disinformation and network fragilities, this creates a shared responsibility for all of us.” [Related: “Arcom Report Underlines Enduring Strength of Radio in France”] From Veil’s perspective, it is the responsibility of radio broadcasters to ensure that listeners continue to have easy, universal and reliable access to trusted information wherever they are. “This is precisely why the place of broadcast radio and DAB+ in the cars of tomorrow matters so much — not out of nostalgia, but because radio remains uniquely resilient,” she continued. Veil highlighted radio having no cost to listen, as well as its immediacy and resilience. “And most importantly, it continues to work when other systems fail or become saturated during floods, blackouts, or security crises — and yes, it can happen — war, “ she said. At those moments, radio is not simply news and entertainment, she emphasized, but that it becomes essential infrastructure. Many of those moments of listening, as we’ve covered in the past, come inside a vehicle. As a result, Veil underscored how keeping radio “prominent and easily accessible” in cars is both a media issue as well as a societal one. “We must avoid a future where trusted and universally accessible services slowly disappear because of closed digital ecosystems or purely commercial choices,” she said. For this reason, the connected car of tomorrow must remain open and accessible, she told the WorldDAB Automotive 2026 audience. That takes innovation being in lockstep with public interest, she believes, with cooperation from both broadcasters, car manufacturers, aggregators and public authorities. “As president of… [TheTopNews] Read More.

Jobie Sprinkle. Photo by Jim Peck Jobie Sprinkle has a national profile in public radio engineering in the United States. Now he is also being honored by the public station where he has worked for 36 years and counting. He received a Beacon Award at an event celebrating the 45th anniversary of WFAE this month. Sprinkle is WFAE’s director of engineering/IT. “Since 1990, he has managed the station’s broadcast and computer operations as well as four radio signals: WFAE in Charlotte and WFHE in Hickory, N.C., and two translators in Laurinburg, N.C., and Southern Pines, N.C.,” the organization said in its announcement. “Between 2004 and 2005, he directed WFAE’s studio conversion to full digital operations and conversion of WFAE/WFHE to HD digital radio broadcasting.” Prior to WFAE, Sprinkle was director of engineering at WCQS (now Blue Ridge Public Radio), operations director at WISE and chief engineer at WWNC, all in Asheville, N.C. “He has consulted with many public radio stations in North Carolina and across the country including WHQR in Wilmington, N.C., WFDD in Winston-Salem, N.C., and Hawaii Public Radio.” He is a founding executive board member and former president of the Association of Public Radio Engineers. Jobie Sprinkle at the Beacon Award presentation. (Photo: Jeff Cravotta Photography) The Beacon Awards recognize individuals who have “played a pivotal role in transforming WFAE’s journalism and community engagement service to the Charlotte region.” Also honored this month were former board members Astrid Chirinos and Mark Ethridge. President/CEO Ju-Don Marshall called Sprinkle “an absolute treasure. He is the quiet force behind WFAE, ensuring that our station reaches hundreds of thousands of listeners across the region. He also equips our team to go out into the community – whether it’s for reporting, events or public conversations. He is not just a gift to WFAE but to many stations throughout North Carolina that have relied on his expertise to help them navigate station launches and emergencies.” The post WFAE Honors Engineer Jobie Sprinkle appeared first on Radio World. [TheTopNews] Read More.

Eddie Andelman at his Boston home in 2006. Credit: MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images Four hours of sports talk every Sunday Night became a staple inside many southern New England homes during the 1970s. It was also a novel concept for its time. And during what became a 42-year career in such a sports-crazed region, Eddie Andelman earned the nickname “the godfather of sports talk radio.” He has died at 89, his family announced. “He is one of the sole reasons the sports talk format, especially in Boston, is as powerful as it is today,” Massachusetts Broadcasters Association Executive Director Jordan Walton told us. In 1969, Andelman launched the “Sports Huddle” on WUNR(AM) with Mark Witkin and Jim McCarthy. A Time Magazine profile in 1973, “The Boston Badmouths,” described the show’s origins. “They were ‘discovered’ four years ago when an executive from station WUNR overheard their loud banter in a Boston bar and invited them to sound off at a microphone,” Time explained. The show became such a success that the powerful signal of WBZ picked it up six months afterward. After pressure from the Boston Bruins in 1971, according to Time, WBZ dropped the sometimes irreverent show. But 2,000 devoted fans staged a demonstration in the station’s parking lot in support of the hosts. WEEI picked up the show afterward and CBS would syndicate the show to approximately 50 U.S. stations. Andelman later became a fixture on WHDH(AM) during the 1980s, moved back to WEEI(AM) and then went to WWZN(AM) before the “Sports Huddle” was revived on WTKK(FM) until 2010. He was inducted into the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame in 2011. [Do you receive the Radio World SmartBrief newsletter each weekday morning? We invite you to sign up here.] The post Boston Sports Radio Pioneer Eddie Andelman Dies at 89 appeared first on Radio World. [TheTopNews] Read More.