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20 Brands In 20 Days: John Foxx, 101.1 WCBS-FM, New York

Jeff Lynn
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20 Brands In 20 Days: John Foxx, 101.1 WCBS-FM, New York

John Foxx is Brand Manager for Classic Hits WCBS-FM, New York. Making him responsible for a legacy that dates back to the station being the first FM station owned by CBS. The heritage is deep and includes names like Scott Shannon and Broadway Bill Lee.

CBS-FM is today’s featured brand.

When speaking with Foxx, his enthusiasm for the station is immediately evident. I asked how it felt to steer such a heritage brand.

“It’s absolutely incredible to work at such a legendary station,” he says, reflecting on his daily drive into the city. “I see the George Washington Bridge, coming down the West Side, and it just hits me in those moments where it’s incredible to work at such a legendary station. Every single day, it is not lost on me. The enormity of it.”

“I feel such responsibility, and it definitely has its level of stress, but I just think the excitement and the adrenaline keep me so focused on doing what I’ve got to do.”

Foxx is driven by the connection that WCBS-FM creates every day.

“There was a caller at 6:25 this morning. She’s down the shore, woke up early, and called just because she loves the music and the way the station makes her feel. That kind of moment re-energizes me. It reminds me what this station means to people.”

Navigating Big Losses in Pop Culture

The recent passing of Beach Boy Brian Wilson and Ozzy Osbourne provided the station with an opportunity to honor the artists who helped shape the soundtrack of our lives.

“With Brian and the Beach Boys, they’re such a big part of this radio station and the format. I felt immediately that it was our responsibility to honor him. We didn’t just play a couple of songs. We leaned all the way in. John Stamos came on the air with us to share stories. We showcased memories for two days straight.”

The station did the same with the passing of Osbourne.

“Even though Ozzy isn’t core to the format, we’re a pop culture brand. Of course, we played ‘Crazy Train’ and ‘Mama, I’m Coming Home.’ Every couple of hours, we had an Ozzy track. And our talent, Broadway Bill Lee, Dave Stewart, and Race Taylor, all brought their personal stories. That’s what makes it real.”

Broadway Bill

I asked about working with Broadway Bill Lee.

“He’s one of the most energetic, exciting, fun guys to be around. You walk in, and he’s bouncing. I’ve popped into the studio during his breaks and watched him work. His mic processing, the levels, the production, the rhyming swagger. It’s all dialed in. He makes it look easy, but it’s masterful.”

“He’s a legend, and he’s still so plugged in and not just going through the motions. When storms come through, when Ozzy passed, he is immediately thinking about what his show should sound like. He’s a secret weapon.”

Earlier this year, WCBS-FM made another big move. Foxx transitioned to afternoons, and longtime New York mainstay Race Taylor took over mornings.

“Race is a legend in this town. He’s been on the air for 25 years. There were a lot of different things that came into this decision. I had done mornings, I had a show together with my partner Annie, and then our company went through a whole bunch of different changes, and she was no longer a part of the equation.”

“When I took a second to step back and just look at the brand, it made complete sense to me. I didn’t want to make more changes than necessary, but this was a positive move. Race has one of the best voices on the air and deep relationships with the market. It felt like a natural progression.”

Comfort Food Radio in a Divided World

In a time of cultural division and digital fragmentation, the consistency and familiarity of Classic Hits has never felt more vital.

“I think the format is comfort food. But it’s also built on some of the biggest songs ever played on the radio. They’ve lasted for a reason. These songs are super familiar, super mass appeal. They’re tied to happy memories. Fun times. Positive energy.”

Foxx points out that the musical landscape has changed even for current-based formats.

“Contemporary brands have gone back in time, too. Stations like Z100 are now playing stuff from 20 years ago. Backstreet Boys, Britney, even Tupac’s ‘Changes.’ So, we’re all living in this nostalgia zone now. But for us, that’s always been home base.”

“Surprises and Fun”: Keeping the Playlist Fresh

That’s where Foxx and music director Jesse Addy come in.

“Every week, we sit down and just listen. We look at playlists, charts, other stations and ask: What vibe are we trying to create this week?”

But that doesn’t involve touching the core rotations.

“Songs like Bizarre Love Triangle, Blue Monday, and Major Tom. We rotate them back in. We’re digging through old MediaBase charts, pulling lost hits from the ’80s and ’90s. It’s all about finding the songs that were fun at the time.”

Experiences, Not Just Prizes

As radio continues to compete for attention in a world of infinite options, contests have taken on new importance, especially as ticket prices skyrocket.

“Concert tickets are the new currency. This year’s been packed. REO Speedwagon, Styx, Billy Idol, Goo Goo Dolls. People want experiences. We’ve made it a major strategy to have something every week. Winning Weekends, Ticket Tuesdays or Thursdays.”

“We weren’t doing much contesting when I got here, but listeners have responded to it big time. Even today, we’re giving away Goo Goo Dolls tickets every hour, and the phones are blowing up. You give someone a pair of tickets now; you’re saving them $350. That’s huge.”

The Magic of Connection

At the heart of it all is the connection WCBS-FM has maintained with its audience across decades.

“I was out last night in the city, from gift shops to bodegas. The station’s on everywhere. It’s front and center. And it’s part of the soundtrack of New York.”

“It’s the vibe. The connection. The music. The memories. You’re playing Prince, Madonna, Journey. You’ve got some of the best accents in the world on the phones. How could you not have a good time?”

Listen to 101.1 WCBS-FM here.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.

Gary McNamara and Eric Harley Reflect on 20 Years of Red Eye Radio

Garrett Searight
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Gary McNamara and Eric Harley Reflect on 20 Years of Red Eye Radio

Turn on a news/talk radio station in the overnight hours, and there’s a good chance you’ll hear Red Eye Radio hosts Gary McNamara and Eric Harley.

Earlier this month, the duo celebrated 20 years working together. And, believe it or not, that anniversary didn’t sneak up on the pair due to the memorable news events that transpired just after they took the air partnered together.

“Some big stories were hitting,” McNamara said. “There was a lot going on during that time.”

Just over a month after their debut, Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. The following month saw Hurricane Rita hit the Gulf again.

McNamara pointed out that the duo has been on the air in the 1-6 AM ET timeslot when several major news events took place.

“The Las Vegas shooting — I think we were probably one of the first radio stations to play the gunshot sounds,” he shared. “We didn’t know what it was at first. It sounded like automatic fire, and it sounded like a lot of weapons. That was a moment I won’t forget, though not in a good way. I’ll also always remember the Tsarnaev brothers. After the Boston bombing, when the police were following them, that all unfolded overnight. The ship hitting the bridge in Baltimore—that happened while we were on the air. That’s why we remember the past 20 years. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita both hit that year, and it was incredibly memorable for us.”

Nearly 14 years of the duo’s partnership have been spent in national syndication with Westwood One. They had nothing but praise for their bosses at the company. They noted that they’ve never been instructed what to talk about or what to steer away from. The partners believe that it has helped their relationship and the show immensely. The ability to talk about what interests them isn’t lost on the duo.

Some of the best partnerships in radio history have admitted that working together for long stretches of time can test a friendship. But after 20 years together, Eric Harley and Gary McNamara are still having a blast with one another.

“Working with Eric has been the absolute most fun that I’ve ever had in radio,” McNamara said. “I can’t wait to get to work with Eric. One time, Eric asked me — because I’m 10 years older than Eric, and I’m into retirement age — ‘Why do you want to continue doing this?’ And I said, ‘This right here.’ As we’re walking out, we walk out after five hours, and you would think we’re dragging. But we’re just having the most fun, laughing and joking the 30 seconds it takes to get from the studio out to our vehicles. That’s why we continue to do it.”

“There is nothing more enjoyable — more fun — than what we’re doing here,” Harley added. “The complete experience of what Gary and I have is really unmatched, because we get to call over all the important stuff that’s going on. In fact, sometimes we’ll get listener feedback when they say ‘You guys laugh a lot.’ Our motto that we have is ‘There are certain things we can’t control about the government, but we’re not gonna let them steal our joy.'”

The 1-6 AM ET timeslot isn’t viewed as primetime real estate by most radio leaders. But the Red Eye Radio hosts take the job of putting on a quality program during the overnight hours incredibly seriously.

“The work is important. We believe that the listener must be served. The stations that were on must be served. Those programmers and station managers need to know that things are being covered when they’re asleep,” Harley said. “When a story comes across, we’re going to work hard to get it out there. So we do take great pride in the work. There is something about coming away from something like that, knowing that you put the work in during those hours, and it’s everything.”

While working in the overnight hours isn’t ideal for hardly anyone, Harley noted that the schedule originally worked in his favor, before joking that the last time he slept was in 1973, and it was overrated.

“Quite frankly, I’m the one in the family that gets less sleep,” he shared. “One of the biggest appeals for the job, not just being a part of a national broadcast … was the schedule, because my kids were little. They’re all adults now and have their own kids. But back then, I could be home by 6 AM, get them off to school, and be there during the day if the school needed a parent to come up there. And then be there for them when they got home to do homework and everything. So that kind of set the tone.”

There’s an additional element to the wee hours of the morning that the pair finds enticing.

“When you’re on overnight, we can make it sound more of a podcast, more conversational,” McNamara said. “You don’t have all the elements. You don’t hear the commercials. When we’re done, it’s silent. You don’t have a bunch of formatics that you have to do, for example. You can concentrate on what you’re doing.”

Gary McNamara concluded that he’s proud of the work he and Eric Harley have done on together during the past 20 years, including on Red Eye Radio. He added that the audience’s acceptance of the pair certainly helps make the job easier.

“We just feel so blessed,” he said. “Our audience gets us. For doing talk radio, we really don’t get many complaints. You think that we would, but we really don’t get many complaints.”

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.

News Fatigue Is Real — And It’s Reshaping Media Consumption

Perry Michael Simon
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News Fatigue Is Real — And It’s Reshaping Media Consumption

Here’s a thought for news media: What if nobody cares?

To be clear, plenty of people do care about the news right now. It’s a good thing for those who report or comment on it that so much is going on; there aren’t too many days when there’s nothing in the news worth talking about. But there’s a core audience for that, the politically active and aware people online. How about everyone else?

Think about it. We are going through a bizarre period in world history, especially in America, where “It Can’t Happen Here” is happening before our eyes. Everyone imagines that if it were the 1930s and they were in Europe, they’d have valiantly opposed the rise of Naziism and fascism, but that doesn’t seem likely, based on how people are reacting now.

Do they not care, are they burned out on the firehose of stories about the administration, or Gaza, or Ukraine, or deportations, and just don’t want to spend their time listening to talk about it or reading the details? Are they too exhausted to care?

Or do they really care more about the CEO of a company they never heard of before having an affair embarrassingly exposed at a Coldplay concert? (Mark me among those surprised to hear that there is still such a thing as a Coldplay concert, let alone a stadium tour.) Would the public prefer, rather than fretting over today’s news, to pay attention to less challenging things?

Yes to all of that, but it’s nothing new. There will always be a considerable portion of the American media-consuming public who will be focused on the news, although they have more sources, legitimate or not, for information. There will also always be the rest of society, who prefer just getting through the days. They care about their kids, their commute, their jobs, the cost of food, the weather, but they do not put those eye-level concerns together in their minds with the news until the effects of things in the news hits them squarely in the wallet. Until then, everything is abstract.

Tariffs will only become an issue they care about when the prices of things they want go up; deportations and due process violations don’t matter until it’s their family members or employees or neighbors getting sent to El Salvador. “I got my own problems” is the prevailing sentiment.

Remember, when cable news networks crow over who’s leading the ratings or talk radio points to their own relative popularity, that leaves the vast majority of Americans NOT watching the news, NOT listening to talk radio, NOT doomscrolling on social media (or just skipping the political stuff). Unless something cataclysmic happens, they’re all in on “Love Island” and football training camps.

You can’t entirely blame them, can you? How many of us have any say over what happens in the world besides the vote? And if you’re in a district with representatives gerrymandered into lifetime gigs who don’t represent your interests and never will, what are you gonna do? (A general strike would be a start, but that’s unlikely to ever happen.)

So, are you going to spend your leisure time listening to talk radio shows and watching cable news panels? Of course not. But when your paycheck, your employment, and your family are affected, they’ll pay attention. Be ready to make those connections when they become apparent.

And keep talking about the Epstein Files. That might be the only exception to the rule.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.

The Watch: The Record with Greta Van Susteren, Newsmax

Garrett Searight
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The Watch: The Record with Greta Van Susteren, Newsmax

Greta Van Susteren — the host of the 6 PM ET Newsmax show The Record with Greta Van Susteren — has long been a prominent figure in cable news, with a career that spans multiple networks and decades.

A former criminal defense and civil trial attorney, Van Susteren first entered the national media spotlight during the O.J. Simpson trial, offering legal analysis for CNN. Her sharp insight and on-air presence led to a co-hosting role on Burden of Proof, and eventually her own show.

In 2002, Van Susteren made a high-profile move to Fox News, where she anchored On the Record for 14 years.

In 2022, Van Susteren joined Newsmax after a brief stop at MSNBC, taking on the 6 PM ET hour.

I sat down to watch one of her more recent episodes to get a feel for what the program looked like. Does it try to follow the Special Report with Bret Baier formula that competitor Fox News features, where the onus is placed on newsgathering and storytelling more than conservative punditry which is more prominent on the program? Or is Van Susteren more closely aligned with the likes of Rob Finnerty, Greg Kelly, Rob Schmitt, and Chris Plante in the Newsmax lineup?

I want to focus on a segment that saw Van Susteren speaking with Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. As you may have heard, Gabbard released files last week purporting to show that the Obama administration had worked in an adversarial manner against the Trump campaign in 2016, by attempting to show that Russia was working with the campaign.

Critics have argued that the release of the files is hogwash, a ruse — if you will — to take attention away from the administration’s reluctance to release files relating to Jeffrey Epstein. Others have argued the files prove a conspiracy that should lead to the arrest and prosecution of Barack Obama.

So, Greta Van Susteren tried to get to the bottom of it. The first question she asked of Gabbard was the logical starting point: “When did you begin looking at these documents?”

What a prosecutorial approach by the Newsmax host. You can tell — right off the bat — that she wants to take a linear approach to this interview and story.

The one downside of the question was that Van Susteren allowed Gabbard to go on for entirely too long. There’s not an easy way to interrupt a rambling guest, no matter the medium. And, to her credit, the Newsmax host did interject enough that Gabbard realized that it was time to toss the proverbial football back to the host for the next question. But Gabbard spoke uninterrupted for nearly four minutes. And in a roughly eight minute segment, you just can’t have that.

Van Susteren then shared that she viewed two items in part of the release of the files that stuck with her that she thought were “cooked up.” The first was the now-famous “Hunter Biden’s laptop story is Russian disinformation” letter signed by 51 intelligence officers.

Now, the problem with that nugget is that — it doesn’t have anything to do with Barack Obama and whether or not he led some sort of deep state coup against the Trump campaign. That letter was signed in 2020, nearly four years after Obama departed the White House.

So, it isn’t exactly germane to the conversation at hand. If Van Susteren thought that that smelled like something worth investigating, that’s fine. Have at it, and welcome Gabbard back to the program another time. But this was supposed to be an interview about how the Obama administration allegedly worked a “treasonous conspiracy” to undermine Trump ahead of and in the immediate aftermath of his election in 2016.

The other thing that Van Susteren thought raised red flags were the actions of former FBI Director James Comey, and his release of notes from a meeting with Donald Trump to The New York Times. Again, that isn’t necessarily on-topic for this interview, though, in my opinion.

To say that Gabbard never really made her case for why the actions led to a “treasonous conspiracy” led by Barack Obama is a bit of an understatement. Do the files bear that out? They absolutely could. But that didn’t come across, in the slightest, in the interview with Van Susteren.

And to her credit, Greta Van Susteren was fair by stating that many of the files were heavily redacted, making it difficult for her to come to any conclusions about the topic. At the conclusion of the conversation, the Newsmax host noted that she looks forward to some day looking through the unredacated files so she can come to her own conclusion.

So, what’s the biggest takeaway from The Record with Greta Van Susteren? Well, it wasn’t exactly what I had expected. There are many who call themselves “journalists” today. For instance, when Candace Owens was sued by French President Emmanuel Macron last week, she questioned why the leader of a country would ever sue a “foreign journalist.” Listen, if Candace Owens is a journalist, then I’m a supermodel.

But I’ve always viewed Greta Van Susteren as a legitimate journalist. Not a partisan hack masquerading as a journalist, but one who was largely unbiased and was hell-bent on seeking the truth. There was a little of both in this interview. She started off on the right foot in the conversation with Gabbard, but asking when the files first came to light. Now, a cynic could say she was setting up Gabbard — a fresh-faced conservative who “saw the error of her ways” and left the Democratic Party to buy into the MAGA movement — to make her case for why Barack Obama committed treason.

I don’t see it that way. I see it as Van Susteren doing her job, and doing it correctly. Where things went wrong, in my eyes, was when she got off-topic in an attempt to play the “Those dirty rotten Democrats are always trying to do shady stuff” by using the disinformation letter as a quasi-case-in-point argument. It didn’t work, it fell flat, and it undermined her objectivity in the moment, from where I sit.

But from watching the entire episode, I came away with some other thoughts. There’s an old phrase I like to use sometimes that says “The key to knowledge is to know thyself.” Greta Van Sustern knows herself.

The Record with Greta Van Susteren leans into the host’s strengths — hard news coverage, legal analysis, and in-depth interviews. Van Susteren’s presence gives Newsmax added credibility as it continues to compete for cable news viewers in a fractured media environment. With a reputation for being thorough, direct, and fair, she remains one of the most recognizable names in political journalism. And that was on display in this episode, even if I didn’t always love her approach.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.

Lisa Chase, RADIO ONLINE Co-Founder, Has Died at 67

BMM Staff
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Lisa Chase, RADIO ONLINE Co-Founder, Has Died at 67

Lisa Chase, co-founder and Senior Editor of RADIO ONLINE, died on Sunday, July 27, due to complications from pneumonia. She was 67. Chase had been undergoing treatment for cancer for the past eight years.

Earlier in the week, she experienced cardiac arrest and remained in a coma. After medical evaluations showed minimal brain activity, she was removed from life support.

Chase began her career in broadcasting in 1977 while attending West Texas State University. In 1979, she met Ron Chase during an interview with the San Diego Chicken. The two married the following year and later worked together at KGNC-AM & FM in Amarillo before moving to Memphis in 1981. There, Lisa held positions at WMC-FM and WDIA-AM.

In 1984, the Chases launched Supertraxx Production-Services, producing commercials for concert promoters nationwide. In 1989, they co-founded RADIO ONLINE, one of the first digital trade services for the radio industry.

As Senior Editor, Chase contributed to the development of key features, including the Daily Show Prep and the Promotional Planner.

In addition to her broadcasting work, Chase published several independent comic books and appeared as a character in a Batman comic. She was also active in gaming and science fiction communities.

She is survived by her husband, Ron Chase, extended family in Amarillo and Dallas, and two cats, Leo and Rey.

Details regarding memorials and arrangements will be announced at a later time.

Send condolences to Ron Chase here.        

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.

Vinny DiMarco Out as Good Karma Brands Market Manager New York City

BSM Staff
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Vinny DiMarco Out as Good Karma Brands Market Manager New York City

Changes are underway in New York City. Barrett Media has learned that Vinny DiMarco is no longer serving as market manager for Good Karma Brands. DiMarco posted to his personal LinkedIn profile, marking the end of his tenure with the company after serving as market manager since January 2022.

According to sources, DiMarco was cut from the company last month. Currently, Good Karma Brands Executive Vice President Emily Dillinger is serving as the interim market manager.

Neither DiMarco nor Good Karma Brands responded to requests from Barrett Media on the matter.

Before arriving as market manager in New York City, DiMarco served as senior director of sales for ESPN Audio partnerships. In that role, he managed the day-to-day operations of an expanded sales group while also overseeing radio affiliate relationships.

Additionally, DiMarco oversaw the recent launch of 880 ESPN New York last year, as the Walt Disney Company’s agreement with Emmis Communications for the use of the 98.7 FM signal expired. As a result, Good Karma Brands opted to end the local marketing agreement and moved forward without an FM signal airing ESPN New York content.

Nevertheless, the 1050 AM frequency for ESPN New York has continued to air the ESPN Radio Network slate of shows, thereby retaining the presence of ESPN New York across both frequencies.

Vinny DiMarco (Via LinkedIn)

In speaking with Barrett Media’s Demetri Ravanos in 2022 as part of our Market Managers series, DiMarco explained his history with Good Karma Brands before arriving to work for the company.

“I had exposure to these guys for a number of years and got to know them pretty well prior to accepting this role and moving into this role. So I had a lot of experience with them and knew what kind of company it was and knew what the people were all about and the culture,” said DiMarco in 2022. “It was really a pretty easy decision for me to move over when they acquired New York.”

At this time, neither Good Karma Brands nor ESPN has posted an opening for the vacant position.

Meanwhile, ESPN New York remains the radio flagship of the New York Knicks and New York Rangers.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.

Nielsen Radio Ratings Grow By Nearly 20% in Spring 2025 After Updated Qualifying Time

BNM Staff
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Nielsen Radio Ratings Grow By Nearly 20% in Spring 2025 After Updated Qualifying Time

The latest Nielsen Radio Ratings for Spring 2025 have been released, and the results show a substantial surge in AM/FM radio listening, largely attributed to a key change in measurement methodology.

According to Nielsen, overall listening is up significantly across all major demographics and dayparts, with the most dramatic increases seen on nights and weekends.

Among adults 25-54, average quarter-hour (AQH) audiences in Portable People Meter (PPM) markets jumped 19% compared to Fall 2024. The surge is consistent across all demos, with AQH audience growth ranging from 17% to 19%. Total U.S. AM/FM radio listening, as projected by Nielsen and diagramed by Cumulus Media’s Pierre Bouvard, rose by 7%.

The audience boost follows a critical change in how Nielsen credits radio listening. Beginning in January 2025, the company adjusted its PPM methodology to credit listening sessions of at least three minutes—down from the previous five-minute requirement.

Nielsen revealed that 23% of listening occasions fell within that three-to-four-minute window and would have previously gone unmeasured.

Westwood One’s VP of Research, Scott Anekstein, analyzed the Spring 2025 PPM data across 48 markets, finding that the update led to notable improvements in all key metrics.

Importantly, despite increased listening levels, format shares remained remarkably stable—a sign that growth is broad-based and not limited to specific content genres.

The implications are significant. First, AM/FM radio’s lead over linear TV in key demos is likely to widen, particularly in the 18-49 and 25-54 segments.

Second, advertisers can expect stronger campaign delivery, with 2025 post-buy analyses projected to outperform 2024 media plans. Third, as reach improves, so too does AM/FM’s standing in media mix modeling.

Perhaps most impactful for marketers: shorter ad breaks are proving more effective. Nielsen’s analysis of nearly 18 million commercial breaks found that two-minute ad pods retain 99% of their lead-in audience, compared to 85% for six-minute breaks.

With the new three-minute qualifier, stations can implement shorter, more frequent breaks—boosting both audience retention and ad effectiveness.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.

Joy Taylor Says She No Longer Has “Joy for the Business” in First Comments Following FS1 Cancellation

BSM Staff
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Joy Taylor Says She No Longer Has “Joy for the Business” in First Comments Following FS1 Cancellation

Former FS1 host Joy Taylor is stepping away from the daily sports media grind — at least for now — and she’s doing so with a degree of transparency rarely seen from high-profile personalities. During an emotional appearance on Higher Learning Podcast, Taylor spoke candidly about the emotional toll of her recent departure from FOX Sports, revealing that it’s shaken her passion for the business and shifted her long-term outlook.

“I gotta be honest with you,” Taylor said. “The f****d up part about this year, and I don’t know if I’m going to get it back, is the experience this year has taken away my joy for the business.”

Although she acknowledged her continued commitment to short-term obligations, Taylor said her exit had a deeper effect on how she views her career moving forward. She described a creative fatigue that goes beyond the normal ebbs and flows of a demanding media schedule.

“The work of it all, it doesn’t feel the same. The dream now is to just disappear,” she said. “It doesn’t feel exciting. Like the big dreams seem like… I’m going to do it, but I’m not as excited about it.”

Yet her comments weren’t only about disillusionment. Taylor also discussed a shift in ambition — one that leans toward producing and building for others, rather than remaining front-facing.

“I started as a producer because that’s how you start in the business. I do like making things. I enjoy that process,” she explained. “Whether it’s my show or other people’s shows, or movies or whatever I enjoy the process of creating and making things. Not being front-facing allows you the space to still create but not have this responsibility.”

That responsibility, Taylor said, is uniquely heavy for someone in her position.

“In a lot of ways, I am the only me. And that’s a lonely experience,” she said. “There’s not a lot of comps, if any, to what it is that I do in the space I’m in. That requires a lot. And it’s a responsibility to the next generation. Somebody else very high up in the business, I was telling them about this, and they said the same thing but in a different way. They were like you can’t do that, you’re not allowed to do that.”

Despite the speculation her comments may generate, Taylor reassured listeners she’s not stepping away just yet.

“Don’t get excited. I’m not doing it right now,” she said with a laugh. “I’ll be bothering you for a few more years… especially the male lonelies.”

Even with that clarity, Taylor’s exhaustion — physical, emotional, and creative — was evident.

“I’m exhausted. But I’m not exhausted from things I want to be exhausted from,” she explained. “I’m not leaving. But one day I’m going to shave my head and disappear.”

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.

Mike Chuthakieo Joins Dick Clark Productions As CCO

BMM Staff
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Mike Chuthakieo Joins Dick Clark Productions As CCO

Dick Clark Productions is adding a major player to its executive team. The company announced today that Mike Chuthakieo has been named its first-ever Chief Commercial Officer.

In the newly created role, Chuthakieo will oversee all commercial strategy and revenue generation for the company, including brand partnerships and the expansion of DCP’s intellectual property across media platforms. He’ll report directly to CEO Jay Penske and officially steps into the role on July 28, 2025. He’ll be based in Los Angeles.

“Mike brings a wealth of expertise in accelerating business growth for iconic brands and forging groundbreaking, innovative partnerships,” Penske said. “His broad experience across a diverse range of platforms makes him a key addition to our team and the ideal leader to help guide our next phase of global expansion.”

Chuthakieo arrives at DCP with over 20 years of experience spanning media, entertainment, and advertising. Most recently, he served as Chief Revenue Officer at 88rising. There, he led the company’s global commercial operations. Driving sponsorship and monetization efforts for significant events, including the Head in the Clouds music festival.

Before that, he held key leadership roles at Pinterest, Pandora, and MySpace. He helped to build advertising businesses from the ground up at each platform. His background also includes experience in adtech, sports marketing, and agency work. Giving him a wide-ranging view of how to build and scale commercial operations.

“I’ve long admired Dick Clark Productions for its rich legacy of shaping culture through live event programming,” Chuthakieo said. “I’m excited to join the team and expand the potential of these legendary properties while exploring new opportunities for growth in today’s dynamic media landscape.”

DCP is behind some of the biggest televised live events in the industry, including the Golden Globes, Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest, American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, and the Academy of Country Music Awards.

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WGAV/WAUB Anchor Greg Cotterill Dies

BNM Staff
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WGAV/WAUB Anchor Greg Cotterill Dies

Longtime Finger Lakes region news reporter and anchor Greg Cotterill, who worked at WGVA and WAUB, has died.

Cotterill had most recently served as the morning news anchor at WGVA and WAUB in Central New York. In addition to his work with the FLX Local Media stations, Greg Cotterill also worked at Hobart College and William Smith College for more than 20 years, where he mentored students, produced sports broadcasts, and managed the daily operations of the schools’ radio stations.

“We are deeply saddened by Greg’s passing,” said FLX Local Media President and CEO Alan Bishop. “His loss leaves a significant void not only in our newsroom but across the entire Finger Lakes community. Our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time.”

“Greg was a pillar in the local news community,” said FLX Local Media News Director Lucas Day. “If it was happening in the Finger Lakes and Greg heard about it, chances are he was on the scene reporting. He had a great ability to not only keep our listeners informed every day about the news that was important to them, but also could tell a story through the lens of his camera and share it with our readers on Finger Lakes Daily News. He was a tremendous photojournalist!”

“Greg was very proud of the acknowledgment our team received,” Day added. “He wore his medallion the entire ride home and talked about how he hoped we’d be back next year. He truly loved what he did, and his energy was contagious.”

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