programming

NEW YORK – January 25, 2019 – iHeartMedia announced today that Brad Hardin has been named Chief Operating Officer of its National Programming Group, effective immediately. Hardin will report to Tom Poleman, Chief Programming Officer for iHeartMedia.

In his new role, Hardin will continue to manage programming efforts for iHeartMedia’s 850 radio brands in 150 markets and provide a vast array of national programming assets, services and resources to local programmers across the U.S. He will oversee iHeartMedia’s Executive Vice Presidents of Programming, the Brand Management in-house format team, Talent Development, Research and Marketing.

“I couldn’t ask for a better partner than Brad in leading the programming for our stations,” said Poleman. “His extensive programming experience gives us tremendous insights into the nuances of station dynamics and opportunities. I’m excited to get to collaborate with him for years to come as we continue to grow iHeart’s programming.”

Hardin has held programming leadership roles with iHeartMedia for over 20 years, most recently serving as Executive Vice President and General Manager for the National Programming Group. He previously served as Executive Vice President of Programming for Major Markets. Hardin’s extensive programming background also includes Senior Vice President of Programming for Major Markets, Regional Vice President of Programming for Southeast Markets and programming leadership positions in Tampa, Cincinnati, Dayton and Louisville.

“It’s an exciting time for iHeartMedia – audio has never been hotter,” said Hardin. “I look forward to continuing to work very closely with our programming leadership, market leading brands and influential talent.”

New York – September 10, 2018 – iHeartMedia announced today that its National Programming Group has elevated respected programming veteran Rod Phillips to the new position of Executive Vice President of Country Programming Strategy, effective immediately. He will continue to report to Tom Poleman, Chief Programming Officer for iHeartMedia, and Brad Hardin, Executive Vice President and General Manager of the iHeartMedia National Programming Group.

iHeartCountry has more than 150 Country broadcast radio stations across the U.S. reaching more than 110 million Country music listeners per month, making it the largest Country broadcast radio group in America.  In his new role, Phillips will continue to lead the Nashville-based iHeartCountry team in overseeing iHeartMedia’s Country formats, and further extend the company’s Country brands across multiple platforms including broadcast, digital, social and live events. He will continue to guide and develop the company’s roster of Country programmers and on-air talent, as well as book artists and produce events for iHeartMedia including the nationally-recognized iHeartCountry Music Festival. He will also continue to head up iHeartCountry’s music discovery and emerging artist initiatives, including the Artist Integration Program and the On the Verge program, which has played a key role in breaking artists like Granger Smith, Maren Morris, Luke Combs, Lauren Alaina, Devin Dawson, Carly Pearce and Morgan Evans.

In addition, under Phillips’ leadership, iHeartCountry recently launched "Women of iHeartCountry,” an hour-long, weekend program devoted exclusively to female artists. Executive produced and hosted by Bobby Bones, along with co-host Amy Brown, the show features music from both established female artists and promising up-and-comers, and includes weekly guest appearances by other iHeartMedia female on-air personalities. Listeners can tune in to the show on 125 iHeartCountry stations nationwide as well as on the iHeartRadio app.

“Rod has done an amazing job leading our iHeartCountry brand, which reaches millions of Country music fans across America each month,” said Tom Poleman.  “He’s been the key force in our continued success in the format and our continued position as the largest and most well-respected Country broadcast network in the U.S. We’re excited that he’ll be taking an even larger role here to help further guide our Country programming in over 150 markets.”

Phillips has led the iHeartCountry team since August 2015 and has more than 25 years’ programming experience. He previously served as iHeartMedia’s Senior Vice President of Programming for the Southeast Region, Program Director and on-air personality for KISS 103.5 in Chicago, and Operations Manager for iHeartMedia’s Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market. In 2011, Phillips helped develop “The Bobby Bones Show,” the top-rated nationally-syndicated Country music morning show, working closely with Bones to expand the show’s original format and moving “The Bobby Bones Show” from Austin to Nashville for its successful transition into Country radio in February 2013. He is a graduate of the University of Kentucky.

“As Country music continues to increase in popularity with audiences across America, iHeartMedia has more Country brands than ever before and our station ratings are on the rise,” said Phillips. “I couldn’t be more excited to continue to lead the iHeartCountry brand based here in Nashville.”

On Air Special to include Exclusive Never-before-heard Audio From Taylor Swift’s Secret Session And Will Broadcast Across iHeartRadio Stations Nationwide On November 10
 
WHAT:

iHeartMedia presents an exclusive iHeartRadio reputation Album Release Party with Taylor Swift Presented by AT&T, in celebration of her new album, reputation, due out November 10 via Big Machine. Beginning at midnight ET on November 10, iHeartRadio’s Pop and Hot AC stations across the country will play a new track off of reputation at the top of every hour leading up to the hour long on air special at 8pm local time. Fans will have a chance to hear directly from Taylor Swift as she introduces songs and exclusively discusses never-before-heard details about the making of the year’s most anticipated album.
 
The on air, hour long special will broadcast to tens of millions of listeners nationwide across 126 iHeartRadio Pop and Hot AC stations and digitally on iHeartRadio.com.
 
WHO:

Taylor Swift’s chart-topping first single, “Look What You Made Me Do,” from her critically acclaimed sixth album, reputation, broke multiple records within hours of its release. With over 10 million streams, it is the most-streamed song in a one-day period ever, the lyric video for “Look What You Made Me Do” broke the standing record with over 19 million views, while the music video shattered the original most viewed video (28 million) record with 43.2 million views in only 24 hours.
 
Taylor is the only artist in history to have three albums selling over one million copies in their first week of release (2010's Speak Now, 2012's RED and 2014's 1989). Taylor is a ten-time GRAMMY winner, a singer, songwriter, musician and producer.  She is the youngest person in history to win the music industry's highest honor, The GRAMMY Award for Album of the year and she is the first female solo artist to win this prestigious award twice. Rolling Stone listed Taylor as one of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Time magazine has named her one the of the 100 Most Influential People in the world and one of only eight candidates for their most prestigious honor, 2014 Person of the Year. A Brit and Emmy award winner, Taylor is Billboard's youngest-ever Woman of the Year and the only artist to have been awarded this honor twice.
 
WHEN:

Radio Broadcast (60 minutes):
Friday, November 10 at 8pm local time on iHeartMedia’s Pop and Hot AC Radio Stations
 

New Roles Will Capitalize on the Success of the iHeartMedia Markets Group and Further Propel Its Growth
 
New York, NY – November 6, 2017 – iHeartMedia, the leading audio company in America with a greater reach in the U.S. than any other media outlet, announced today it has elevated Greg Ashlock and Hartley Adkins as the next step in the evolution of the iHeartMedia Markets Group.  Ashlock, previously President of iHeartMedia Markets Group West Division who also served as the senior business leader representing the company in the West, has been named President of the iHeartMedia Markets Group. In addition, Hartley Adkins, who most recently served as President of Northeast Division and Corporate Operations for the iHeartMedia Markets Group, has been named President of Integrated Revenue Strategy.
 
In his new role, Ashlock will now manage the entire iHeartMedia Markets Group, including the company’s more than 850 radio stations in over 150 markets. This consolidation under one leader will allow iHeartMedia to move quicker, be more responsive, communicate more clearly and best serve both listeners and advertisers based on each market’s unique needs. Division Presidents Kevin LeGrett and Tom McConnell will continue in their roles and report directly to Ashlock.
 
In the newly created position of President of Integrated Revenue Strategy, Adkins will join the Corporate group in New York and will be responsible for working with Group heads and other Corporate leaders to help develop innovative revenue initiatives that scale across multiple platforms as well as new strategic solutions specifically for the Markets Group that utilize the unique assets of iHeartMedia.  He will also have responsibility for certain strategic businesses and will oversee iHeartMedia’s mergers and acquisitions activity with stations and markets as well as represent the company within radio industry groups and associations.
 
Ashlock and Adkins will report to Bob Pittman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of iHeartMedia, Inc. and Richard J. Bressler, President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer for iHeartMedia, Inc.
 
“We created our iHeartMedia Markets Group to bring decision-making and resources closer to our markets. This is the next step in that evolution to a fully-empowered Markets Group and is a reflection of the success we’ve had so far, not only in our Divisions but with our new Region President structure,” said Pittman. “This new consolidated leadership under Greg will be more nimble, more collaborative and more connected across the entire company, giving the benefit of iHeartMedia’s unparalleled size, scale, technology and data to every local market partner and advertiser as well as for the benefit of every listener.“
 
Pittman added, “Hartley’s new integrated revenue strategy corporate role will allow us to enjoy the benefits of integrated strategies for all of our revenue groups. Hartley will work across all groups at iHeartMedia to drive these new strategies for the benefit of our marketing and advertising partners through all of our revenue channels.”

New York, N.Y. – November 1, 2017 – iHeartMedia announced today a strategic station exchange with Entercom Communications (NYSE: ETM) across four U.S. markets.  Under the agreement, iHeartMedia will acquire seven radio stations from Entercom in Boston, MA and Seattle, WA and Entercom will acquire 10 stations from iHeartMedia in Richmond, VA and Chattanooga, TN.  The agreement is expected to close in the first quarter of 2018.
 
Under the agreement, WRKO-AM, WZLX-FM, WKAF-FM and WBZ-AM in Boston and KZOK-FM, KJAQ-FM and KFNQ-AM in Seattle will join iHeartMedia, which currently operates more than 850 radio stations in 150 markets that reach over a quarter of a billion monthly listeners to its broadcast stations alone; in addition to broadcast, the company reaches audiences across digital, mobile, social and live events. These seven stations will also be available on iHeartRadio, the all-in-one streaming music and live radio service with more than 1.4 billion downloads and 100 million registered users.

Entercom will acquire WRVA-AM, WRXL-FM, WTVR-FM, WBTJ-FM, WRNL-AM and WRVQ-FM in Richmond and WKXJ-FM, WLND-FM, WRXR-FM and WUSY-FM in Chattanooga.  The deal is part of Entercom’s broader divestiture and acquisition package to facilitate the company’s pending merger with CBS Radio.
 
“We’re excited to add these stations to iHeartMedia across broadcast, digital, mobile, social and our spectrum of iHeartRadio-branded live events,” said Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia.  “This exchange is an opportunity for us to expand our presence and further strengthen our position in two markets  – Seattle and Boston – even though we have to give up two smaller markets that have been an important part of this company.  This was a difficult decision for us, but we think we arrived at the best decision for our company, and we are pleased that we’ll continue to have a presence in the Richmond and Chattanooga markets through the iHeartRadio platform, Premiere Networks, the Total Traffic and Weather Network and the Virginia News Network.”

Pittman added, “These markets are two of the few where we did not have a full complement of stations; now we will have a full complement in Boston and a full complement of FM stations in Seattle.”
 

ALBUM AND VISUAL AVAILABLE NOW EXCLUSIVELY FOR SPRINT/TIDAL CUSTOMERS

IHEARTMEDIA TO EXCLUSIVELY PREMIERE ALBUM ACROSS 160 RADIO STATIONS IN THE U.S.

NEW YORK and OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – June 30, 2017 – Global music and entertainment platform TIDAL and Sprint (NYSE: S) are excited to share JAY-Z’s 4:44 and first visual are now available to the 45 million postpaid and prepaid Sprint/TIDAL customers.

In addition, Roc Nation, iHeartMedia and JAY-Z have teamed up to world premiere an exclusive one-of-a-kind historic radio launch of JAY-Z’s album, 4:44.  Beginning today at 12:01 a.m. ET June 30, iHeartMedia, in conjunction with TIDAL X Sprint, will world premiere the full album with an exclusive 35-minute Album Roadblock to tens of millions of listeners nationwide on more than 160 Pop, Rhythm and Urban stations with a record-breaking 43 million total audience spins. The album will continue to play across iHeartMedia’s Urban and Rhythm formats until 12:01 a.m. ET July 1, featuring never-before-heard audio from JAY-Z about the album.
 
Who: JAY-Z
 
What: New Album - 4:44 and visual "The Story Of O.J." directed by Mark Romanek and JAY-Z
 
When: 12:01 a.m. ET Friday, June 30
 
Where: In the U.S., new and existing Sprint/TIDAL customers can visit Sprint.TIDAL.com to stream 4:44
 
Outside of the U.S., new and existing TIDAL members can visit TIDAL.com/Try-now to sign up.
 
U.S radio listeners can tune in to one of iHeartMedia’s 160 radio stations for a chance to hear the historic Album Roadblock.
 
How: New and existing Sprint customers can take advantage of the complimentary six-month trial of TIDAL HiFi at Sprint.TIDAL.com or by visiting a Sprint store.1 New Boost Mobile customers can subscribe during the activation process in store or online at boostmobile.com. Existing Boost customers can add the monthly subscription online via My Account (web and smartphone), in store, or by phone. New TIDAL members outside of the U.S. can visit TIDAL.com/Try-now.
 
Now is the perfect time to switch to Sprint. Get a six-month trial of TIDAL HiFi on Sprint and a Clean Slate.SM Sprint provides the best deals on the latest phones and will cover switching fees up to $650 per line via prepaid reward card.2 Sprint makes it easy.
 
More info: In addition, the TIDAL and Sprint partnership will support the 1Million Project, an initiative from Sprint and the Sprint Foundation that will connect 1 million low-income U.S. high school students who don’t have internet access at home to help level the playing field and eliminate the “homework gap.” Participating students will receive free mobile devices and free high-speed wireless internet connectivity while in high school for up to four years. Sprint will donate $2 from every new line activation with a device purchase or lease – up to $1 million – to support the 1Million Project.3 For more information about Sprint’s initiative to provide high school students the tools they need to succeed, visit sprint.com/1millionproject.  

Quotes: "This is a perfect storm of sharing music with fans," added JAY-Z. "Sprint allows for and promotes creative freedom. Every artist strives for support of their vision, and I have that in not just a partnership with Sprint but also in iHeart. The iHeart team are creating an experience for millions of fans across the country. On Friday, June 30, it will be day of firsts."
 
“JAY-Z fans couldn’t be more excited about the release of ‘4:44,’ and we’re incredibly thrilled that Sprint’s partnership with TIDAL puts our customers first in line to hear this long-awaited album,” said Marcelo Claure, Sprint president and CEO. “Together, Sprint and TIDAL are connecting people who are passionate about music with the world’s most iconic artists through special experiences like this – and there are many more to come.”

“We have a long history of partnering with JAY-Z in innovative ways, and he was one of the artists to join our first-ever iHeartRadio Music Festival in 2011,” said Bob Pittman, chairman and CEO for iHeartMedia Inc. “He's once again proved that he's a true innovator, and we are honored to partner with him on the historic launch of his first album in over four years. Our nationwide world premiere of 4:44 will reach tens of millions of JAY’s fans across the country – while creating millions of new ones."

About TIDAL
TIDAL is a global, experiential, entertainment platform built for fans, directly from artists around the world. TIDAL members enjoy exclusively curated content that directly connect artists with their fans in multiple ways. The service offers high-fidelity, CD sound quality music, high resolution video, an opportunity to discover new artists via TIDAL Rising and unique experiences via TIDAL X. TIDAL is available in more than 52 countries, with more than a 48.5 million song catalog and 175,000 high quality videos. For more information, please visit www.tidal.com.
Follow TIDAL at http://facebook.com/tidal, http://twitter.com/tidalhifi and https://instagram.com/tidal/
 
About Sprint
Sprint (NYSE: S) is a communications services company that creates more and better ways to connect its customers to the things they care about most. Sprint served 59.7 million connections as of March 31, 2017, and is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including the first wireless 4G service from a national carrier in the United States; leading no-contract brands including Virgin Mobile USA, Boost Mobile, and Assurance Wireless; instant national and international push-to-talk capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. Sprint has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) North America for the past five years. You can learn more and visit Sprint at www.sprint.com or www.facebook.com/sprint and www.twitter.com/sprint

1 After 6 months, pay $9.99/mo. for Tidal Premium.  Sprint plan sold separately. Data rates will apply for usage on plans other than Unlimited Data.
2 Via Prepaid Rewards Card (less phone trade-in credit provided) after online registration and new phone activation. Amount based on early termination fee charged or remaining phone balance. Prepaid Card: is issued by MetaBank®.
3 From June 9 to Dec. 9, Sprint will donate $2 to the Sprint Foundation in connection with the purchase or lease of any Android or iOS phone with the activation of a new line of service, with a maximum donation of $1 million. For more information, visit http://goodworks.sprint.com/content/1022/files/SprintTidal1MPInfoFINAL….

New Long-Term Agreement Extends Poleman’s Central Role at iHeartMedia Leading its National Programming Group

New York, NY – June 5, 2017 – iHeartMedia, the leading media company in America with a greater reach in the U.S. than any other radio or television outlet, announced today that widely respected radio and music industry veteran Tom Poleman has been named its Chief Programming Officer, effective immediately. Under a new long-term agreement, Poleman will also remain President of iHeartMedia’s National Programming Group. He will continue to report to Bob Pittman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of iHeartMedia, Inc.

In addition to co-producing iHeartMedia’s major national marquee events including the iHeartRadio Music Festival, the iHeartRadio Music Awards, the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball Tour, the iHeartCountry Festival, iHeart80s Party, the iHeartSummer ’17 Weekend by AT&T and iHeartRadio Fiesta Latina, Poleman and his team will continue to oversee programming and music strategy, talent development and artist relations for iHeartMedia’s more than 850 radio stations, which reach more than a quarter of a billion listeners a month, and provide key support for its national team of programmers across the country. He will also continue to head up iHeartMedia's music discovery and emerging artist initiatives, including the Artist Integration Program and the On the Verge program, which have championed artists like Sam Smith, Maren Morris, Fifth Harmony and James Bay, as well as Sam Hunt, Bleachers and Lukas Graham, early in their careers.

“No one understands the intricate relationship between programming, on-air talent, artist relationships and live music events like Tom Poleman,” said Pittman. “He has always been a key part of the team that has shaped iHeartMedia into a multiplatform company. Tom’s unique vision has turned our National Programing Group into what it is today, an innovative nationwide network of the most talented people working as a team to bring constant innovation to our company and our industry. I’m thrilled that he will remain a key contributor in our company’s continued evolution and success.”

Poleman was named President of iHeartMedia’s National Programming Group in August 2011, where he was tasked with unifying iHeartMedia’s programming initiatives and capabilities and magnifying the company’s size and scale. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Programming for iHeartMedia and oversaw programming and marketing for all iHeartMedia radio properties in New York, Philadelphia, Miami, Boston and Providence. Poleman’s extensive programming background includes overseeing Z100/New York, one of the most successful pop stations in the history of the medium. He has also led programming at Top 40 radio stations in New Haven, Connecticut and Houston, Texas and was named the youngest corporate programming executive for AMFM Broadcasting in 1999. Poleman has received numerous accolades throughout his 30-year career, including being inducted into the FMQB CHR Programmer Hall of Fame and being honored numerous times as Major Market Mainstream Top 40 Program Director of the Year at the Radio Music Awards. He has also made multiple appearances on Billboard Magazine’s Power 100 list, including being listed in the top 20 in 2017.

“From the moment I stepped foot into WVBR at Cornell University in 1983, I knew I’d found my passion,” said Poleman. “I’ve seen a lot in the ensuing thirty five years, but nothing has made me more excited for our industry’s future than iHeartMedia’s continued evolution as a leader in media and entertainment across multiple platforms. We have the best stations, events and media assets in the world, including our amazing personalities and programmers. It’s an honor to be part of this amazing team.”