Pacific Northwest broadcast executive and DJ Steve West passed away yesterday following a battle with cancer. He was 81.
West was called the Golden Boy of Radio, and people said everything he touched turned gold.
The Washington State Association of Broadcasters said, “It is with both joy and sadness that we say goodbye to Steve.”
The Jet City Blues review attributes the following quote to West, “If you take the technical part of what you do — that being the right programming, the right songs, structuring a stationality, well it’s just like building a foundation for a house. You can’t have a great house without having a great foundation.”
West’s career took him to KPUG, Bellingham, KATC Tacoma, KJRB, Spokane, KJR, KISW Seattle, and The Steve West Group, where he worked with retail advertisers.
Among the awards won are two NAB station of the year awards and Crystal Soundie Lifetime Achievement Award from the Puget Sound Radio Broadcasting Association.
West served as Board Chair of the Washington State Association of Broadcasters from 1991-1992.
West is survived by his wife Sharon, and children, Kerrington and Kelli.
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As Dennis Prager recovers from a November fall, he has his eyes on returning to the Salem Radio Network show with his name on it.
In the most recent update on his health, Prager’s son, David, shared that his father is paralyzed from the neck down after falling at his Los Angeles home late last year. Prager injured his spinal cord in the fall, and remained in the hospital for several weeks recuperating from the incident.
In the first audio message since his accident, Dennis Prager shared that he will set a target date to return to the Salem Radio Network in the coming days.
“I’m really feeling much better as you can hear,” said Prager. “My voice is practically normal, which is very exciting, because I intend to go back on a radio. We will release the date, I think, within a week. Looking forward to being with you often.”
Prager added that he’s kept all the notes and letters from listeners as mementos of his struggle and wants to keep them for the remainder of his life and preserve them in what he called The Prager Library.
In his absence, The Dennis Prager Show has been helmed by Salem Radio Network host Carl Jackson.
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Fox Sports Sacramento has cut ties with The Rob, Anybody and Dawn Show effective immediately, according to a statement from the show’s Instagram page. The program had been part of the Fox Sports Sacramento lineup for just under a year and a half after its debut in November 2023.
The show, based out of Rocklin, California, posted a note to its followers announcing the departure.
“RAD RADIO has mutually agreed to part ways with 104.7 FM/890 AM in the Sacramento area.,” said host Rob Williams. “We thank and appreciate them for their support. We are live across our other platforms for a new RAD show this morning.”
Originally, the program aired on the station as a partnership between Lotus and Rob Williams’ Williams Broadcasting Incorporated under the name “RAD Radio.” The station carried the programming live in the mornings, with replays in the afternoons and overnights, as well as best-of segments running during middays and evenings.
Then, in August 2024, the station flipped its format to sports while still keeping the live morning airing of the show.
Looking back, the show’s origins date back to KDOT in 1996 as Rob, Arnie & Dawn before moving to Entercom’s 98 Rock KRXQ Sacramento in 1999. Later, a rebranding as Rob, Anybody & Dawn took place following co-host Arnie States’ exit in 2015. The show remained on 98 Rock until June 2023.
Now, Fox Sports Sacramento has shifted to an all-syndicated lineup, featuring Premiere Radio Network’s slate of shows, including Two Pros and a Cup of Joe, The Herd with Colin Cowherd, and The Odd Couple. However, according to the station’s website, there is still a gap in programming.
Meanwhile, RAD RADIO continues to air every weekday morning from 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. Pacific on Rock 104.5 in Reno, NV. Additionally, host Rob Williams recently dealt with some health issues, as noted on the show’s Instagram page. Fortunately, late last week, Williams announced that he would return to the air this past Monday.
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Brian Murphy, co-host of the morning show on KNBR, has signed a four-year contract extension to remain with the station. As announced on the Murph & Markus show by KNBR program director Mike Hohler, Murphy will remain a part of the station through the spring of 2029, which will extend his tenure with the sports talk radio outlet to more than 25 years. Upon the news being revealed, the show played applause sound effects and celebrated Murphy inking a deal to stay with the brand.
As he expressed his gratitude on the air, Murphy thanked Cumulus Operations president Dave Milner and regional vice president/market manager Larry Blumhagen, along with his agent Paul Anderson. Murphy has been hosting morning drive with Boucher over parts of the last two years as the station has undergone several changes to its programming lineup and managerial structure.
“I never wanted to leave,” Murphy told Barrett Media. “It’s home, and it has been home for 20+ years, so that’s a strong lore to keep doing something that you really love and have so much fun at that has never felt like work.”
The news takes place less than two years after KNBR laid off morning show co-host Paul McCaffrey that ended his 18-year run with the station. The Cumulus Media-owned station also let go of Tom Tolbert and John Lund as part of layoffs last November and subsequently reshuffled its daytime programming lineup.
“While certainly we’ve had unfortunate changes – and nobody’s happy about all the loss of all of our colleagues,” Murphy said. “….It’s a tough transition for all of us. The fact of the matter is if you have a chance to stay at KNBR makes a nice offer, a nice gesture to stay, then I’ll accept it.”
All three former KNBR hosts recently collaborated to launch the Bay Area Sports Collective, a podcast network that includes new shows and is co-owned by former KNBR program director Jeremiah Crowe. Murphy did not elaborate on whether he engaged in discussions with the venture, but confirmed that he was “mulling many options” throughout the process.
“Yeah, definitely my mind was open to what’s next because, as I saw at KNBR, change is constant, so I had to keep my mind open and was ready to see what was out there,” Murphy said. “But fortunately for my sort of stability and consistency, KNBR really stepped up, and I can’t thank them enough, especially given the climate and how everything’s gone the last few years. It was a real pleasant turn of events.”
Murphy, who has been a member of KNBR since 2004, will be remaining on the airwaves for several years to come as teams in the San Francisco Bay Area look to bring more championships to the locale. The station serves as the flagship home of the San Francisco Giants and San Francisco 49ers and has introduced several new hosts on the airwaves in recent months, including Greg Silver and Derek Papa. Murphy expressed optimism in the direction of KNBR and recognized having the play-by-play rights as an anchor and reaching listeners in new ways has kept him confident in the future.
“I was sort of confident that I had value to the station,” Murphy said, “and I hoped that we could kind of mutually recognize that, and I think that’s what happened.”
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Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Brendan Carr has announced a new deregulation initiative with input sought by the public.
The initiative is titled “In Re: Delete, Delete, Delete” and seeks public comments “in which the agency seeks comment on every rule, regulation, or guidance” that currently is overseen by the FCC.
The campaign aims to “assist the FCC in carrying out the policies that President Trump included in certain executive orders” relating to deregulation.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Administration is unleashing a new wave of economic opportunity by ending the regulatory onslaught from Washington,” said Carr. “For too long, administrative agencies have added new regulatory requirements in excess of their authority or kept lawful regulations in place long after their shelf life had expired. This only creates headwinds and slows down our country’s innovators, entrepreneurs, and small businesses.
“The FCC is committed to ending all of the rules and regulations that are no longer necessary. And we welcome the public’s participation and feedback throughout this process. The American people expect and deserve a government that will efficiently deliver great results. We are committed to doing exactly that at the FCC.”
The Public Notice can be read in full here. Brendan Carr became an FCC commissioner in 2017. He was appointed chairman earlier this year. He replaced Jessica Rosenworcel in that post.
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Randy Scott recently started hostingSC+ at ESPN alongside Gary Striewski, bringing their proficiency and expertise exclusively to Disney+ on weekdays. Scott, who started working at ESPN in 2012 as a SportsCenter anchor, continues to host the morning edition of the show with Striewski recapping events from the previous day and previewing what is to come. On a recent edition of the Rise and Schein podcast, host Adam Schein revealed that he watches the morning show as he prepares to take the airwaves on SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio, and he has found that Scott makes him laugh more than anyone else.
Scott explained that some of his favorite episodes of SportsCenter turn out taking place when the program does not have an obvious lede. Outlining an example of such a scenario as being a midweek show with college basketball the night before and a light slate of NBA games, he articulated how sports does not fail and always brings something to the forefront.
“If we wanted to be serious all the time, we’d go work in news,” Scott said. “There’s never a shortage of sadness and bad news and that sort of thing whereas sports, man, like for me, they’re so important to how I grew up and they’re so important to, I don’t know, like learning how to lose, learning how to make friends.”
During his hiring process to join ESPN, Scott remembers meeting with vice president of talent Al Jaffe and being asked why he wanted to do this work. Jaffe also prefaced the question by imploring Scott not to say that it is because he has a love for sports and that it is part of his lifestyle. In response to his query, Scott explained that he wanted to be a part of someone’s memory and talked about the perdurable effect seminal moments can have, such as a then-hypothetical of when his beloved Washington Capitals win the Stanley Cup championship.
“There was a time since I’ve been at ESPN, early on, where it was like, ‘Hey, no one at home should know who you root for,’” Scott recalled. “‘We are professionals, there should be no bias, any of that stuff,’ and that’s softened as, I think, maybe audience research or just as regimes have kind of changed at ESPN where it’s like, ‘Hey, we wouldn’t be here if we weren’t fans.’ Maybe it’s a little disingenuous to try to convince people otherwise,’ so you’re allowed to be fans, we’re all fans.”
Scott explained that this ostensible change in philosophy happened at the right time while he was at the network as the Capitals were on a run to win the Stanley Cup. The 2017-18 NHL season was the first full campaign after Scott lost his mother to cancer, and he has memories of rooting for the Capitals with her over the years. When the team hoisted the trophy victorious as champions, he remembered how much it meant to him and that he tracked a piece for ESPN from home despite not being scheduled to work the next day.
“I wrote this piece, and to be able to include her in the piece at this job that she always knew that I wanted and was so proud of me when I got it, it was everything, man,” Scott said. “It was still probably my best memory of working at this best place honestly.”
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Yahoo Sports has entered into a partnership with cllct to create a new destination for coverage on the sports collectibles business. The new section of the Yahoo Sports websites features a variety of written and video coverage that is produced by the cllct brand. Heralded sports business reporter Darren Rovell founded the collectibles and lifestyle brand last year to bring a journalistic approach to the business. The company covers parts of the industry such as sports auctions and trends in cards and memorabilia, and it recently created exclusive video content from Media Row at Super Bowl LIX.
“We’re thrilled to team up with three trusted voices in ‘the hobby’ to create a one-stop shop for comprehensive collectibles content,” Sam Farber, head of content at Yahoo Sports, said in a statement. “This experience will deliver news, coverage, and insights to avid collectors and sports fans alike.”
In an article delineating the partnership with Yahoo Sports, Rovell explained that his goal when he started the company was to cover the right stories and bring reporting from adept journalists in the space. Nearly one year later, he admits that the company has made “great strides” in accomplishing its goal but emphasized the importance of growth. Rovell also revealed that some content on the Yahoo Sports website will be proprietary to the platform and that the partnership allows it to reach a “wider audience” as well.
“This partnership marks a transformative moment for collectibles culture,” Rovell said in a statement. “By teaming up with Yahoo Sports, we’re amplifying our ability to tell the stories that matter most to collectors, fans, and brands alike, while engaging a broader audience of sports enthusiasts who may just be discovering the incredible value and appeal of collectibles and collectible-themed marketing.”
In addition to cllct, Yahoo Sports is also partnering with Sports Card Investor and Mantel to further boost coverage in the hub and provide additional video and newsletter offerings. Sports Card Investor will bring video content to the platform, delivering analysis of cards, mailbags and collector spotlights, along with interviews airing on The Geoff Wilson Show. Mantel will equip its base of users to source trend stories, collector profiles and other content for the domain, along with providing access to the Mantel Quality Stories video series hosted by Buster Scher.
“We believe the sports card hobby is the greatest hobby in the world,” Geoff Wilson, founder of Sports Card Investor, said in a statement. “Our goal is to educate, entertain and inspire new collectors and seasoned veterans as they build their collections and enjoy the awesome community. By partnering with Yahoo Sports, we have the opportunity to reach an even wider audience and ensure that the hobby continues to grow and thrive.”
“The sports collectibles industry continues to explode in popularity, and the commitment from Yahoo Sports to covering this space will point an even bigger spotlight on sports cards and memorabilia,” Evan Parker, chief executive officer of Mantel, said in a statement. “Every day we get to see our members’ passion for collecting, and we can’t wait to share the best finds, trends, and stories that we uncover on Mantel with the Yahoo Sports audience.”
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Faith Radio Network is purchasing Kick’n Country 103.5 WKNK Callaway FL and Adult Hits Bob 105.1 FM WASJ Panama City Beach, FL from RoRo Media.
The purchase price is listed in the FCC filing as $700,000. Faith Radio Network will operate the stations under an LMA pending FCC approval of the transfer.
Both stations will broadcast a noncommercial religious format.
RoRo purchased the station in 2012 from Powell Media.
Powell, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, company, shuttered the stations after Hurricane Michael severely damaged the facilities. The station’s 150-foot tower was snapped in half.
The stations will add to Faith’s eight-station Florida footprint. The company currently operates in Panama City with 1290 WPCF and 93.1 translator. The purchase will allow for full FM broadcast signals.
The company also operates “Radio Fe,” a Spanish-language station on 1430 WLTG and 101.7 translator.
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The tributes continue for radio legend Bob Rivers who passed away Tuesday from cancer at the age of 68.
Many recall the Twisted Tunes, his contributions to the American Comedy Network, and his 25 years in Seattle radio.
Audacy Rocker 99.9 KISW’s “The Daly Migs Show” dedicated its Wednesday morning show to Rivers. The show took calls from listeners, played River’s parody songs and talked with his friends, including BJ Shea.
Shea shared with the show and listeners that Rivers once told him, “There’s something about me where I have the inability to get depressed.”
Shea added that it was Rivers who helped him break into radio in the Seattle market.
“You know how it is, guys. If you’ve been trying to get a job, and people don’t react to you. It’s over, and so Bob was not happy, and he found out they threw my tape in the trash, so he went into the program director and basically strong-armed and said, ‘Get this guy an audition.”’
“I said, Bob, you don’t have to go out of your way. Why are you doing this? He said, ‘Look, here’s the deal. Not only am I doing this for you, but I know that in five years, you’ll have your own morning show.’ At the time I was only doing a mid-day job. He goes, ‘you’ll have your own morning show, and you’ll beat me in the ratings. I know this.’ I’m like, why did you bring me to town? He said, ‘because I can learn from you.’
BJ Shea (c) on the The Daly Migs Show Wednesday morning
Among the many things radio did in the past that you couldn’t get away with these days was Rivers’ promotion of “Nudestock.” A promotion that Rivers hosted in 1992.
“JD from Tukwila” who attended called the show and said “Nudestock” was a very “surreal experience.” Adding, “It took us a while and we finally got naked and were kind of looking around and I’m thinking this is weird. I saw this big biker guy and it was miles of buttcrack.”
Brad Cash, who also worked with Rivers, told the show, “He knew how to get the most out of the people around him. Bob was so generous with the platform of the microphone. He didn’t have to be the one with the funny joke or the big joke to close the segment.”
”He knew that Spike could do it or maybe Downtown Joe or maybe it was a listener or even someone from the hallway. If it was funny, he would put it on the air and he didn’t have to be the guy who said it.”
Paul Anderson, Rivers’ longtime agent and friend told Barrett Media, “Bob was all about relationships. His keen wit combined with his endless curiosity and high integrity, made for an infectious personality that drew people to him.”
Adding, “We were super close for over 30 years and it’s really difficult to process what life will be like without being able to call him on the phone, go hiking with him, and to simply muse about everything going on in the world with him. I am fortunate to have known him for so long, and super grateful that I got to spend a few days with him a couple weeks ago in New Hampshire and Vermont.”
Radio consultant John Lund told Barrett Media that he once asked Rivers what made his show so successful and was told:
1. Meet every listener. Have your morning show visit listeners three times a week.
2. Stage wake-up calls: this classic bit still works like a charm.
3. Create local characters to champion local causes.
4. Make a “Hot Topic” list every day.
Rivers’ wife Lisa told the Seattle Times, “I have everything that Bob’s done and that we’ve done together to be grateful for. I will miss him tremendously, but I can push play on his voice and our memories will live on.”
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Tucker Carlson and Chris Cuomo recently sat down for a conversation that aired on both Carlson’s digital network and NewsNation. Stephen A. Smith didn’t like what he heard.
The conversation between Carlson and Cuomo lasted for more than two hours, tackling a variety of subjects.
One of the topics the pair disagreed on was Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts. That is what struck Stephen A. Smith when he joined the NewsNation show hosted by Chris Cuomo on Tuesday evening.
“I’m not gonna lie, Chris, it was a hard listen to,” said Smith when asked to react to the comments from Tucker Carlson. “I’m certainly not trying to cast any aspersions on Tucker Carlson, but just listening to some of the questions that he was asking you, I’m certainly not going to say that he’s detached from reality, but he clearly lives in his own reality that I’d be hard pressed to believe is inundated with an abundance of black perspectives.
“That’s where I took issue with what he is saying. He almost wanted to say that race doesn’t exist. He came across as someone who lamented some of the things that had gone on in society … He’s saying, ‘Hey, let’s be all about a meritocracy.’ What do you think black folks want? What do you think Hispanic folks want? Asian, etcetera. What do you think they want in this nation?”
Chris Cuomo said he believes Tucker Carlson views the issue as a “precept of what’s necessary” and that “he doesn’t seen the same need for corrective action” as others might. He continued by sharing his belief that there is no difference between races, but once you start to view the issue from that prism, people can be led to believe those things are relevant.
Stephen A. Smith went out of his way to say he wasn’t attempting to be disrespectful of Carlson. Instead, he just shared that he doesn’t share the former Fox News host’s worldview.
“I just said to myself, ‘Wow, he really, really seems a bit detached from reality.’ I’m not going to be overtly or extremely insulted by what he said,” Smith said. “I do appreciate the fact that he was honest and forthcoming with where he was coming from, and that he was talking to somebody like you on your level, who is this conscientious as you are, and willing to tackle those subjects. And I truly, truly appreciate what you did, from the bottom of my heart. It’s just unfortunate that he didn’t see that as he was talking to you … he didn’t take into consideration at all. He’s in his bubble. This is how he sees it.
“I listened to that and I found myself being very disheartened at listening to the words coming out of his mouth,” Smith later added. “It was unfortunate. I’m not judging him and painting him with a broad brush. I was not comfortable listening to him say the things that he says. And I don’t think he understands who he’s echoing by saying some of the things that he was saying, in the eyes of somebody who is not white.”
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