Cumulus Media is revamping its sales leadership at its Dallas/Fort Worth cluster as Director of Sales Alec Drake will retire at the end of August.
Dawn Girocco, who moved to Dallas as Director of Sales of the cluster’s three music stations CHR “Hot 93.3” KLIF-FM and Country duo “New Country 96.3” KSCS and “99.5 The Wolf” KPLX has been promoted to Vice President of Sales for the entire cluster. Girocco previously served as VP/Market Manager for Cumulus’ KABC and KLOS and Entravision’s “Indie 103.1” KDLD/KDLE Los Angeles and Director of Sales for iHeartMedia’s KYSR and KIIS-FM.
Dean Canter joins the cluster as General Sales Manager for the three music stations. Canter most recently was SVP/Sales for iHeartMedia Riverside CA and previously held sales management roles at CBS Radio Los Angeles.
The company has also promoted RJ Lane from General Sales Manager for Sports “96.7 The Ticket” 1310 KTCK/96.7 KTCK-FM, and duo News/Talk 820 WBAP and 570 KLIF to Director of Sales for those three, while Steve Holm rises from Sales Manager to General Sales Manager of the trio.
CUMULUS MEDIA today announced that it has promoted and appointed senior sales executives to further strengthen its high-performing sales leadership team in Dallas. The promotions and appointment are effective on September 1, 2021, and were announced concurrent with the news that Alec Drake, Director of Sales, Cumulus Dallas, will retire at the end of August.
Dawn Girocco, Director of Sales for Cumulus Dallas’ three music stations, 99.5 The Wolf/PLX-FM (Country), Hot 93.3/KLIF-FM (CHR) and New Country 96.3/SCS-FM (Country), will rise to Vice President, Sales, Cumulus Dallas, overseeing the entire sales effort for the six-station group. Before joining Cumulus Dallas in December 2019, Girocco was Vice President/Market Manager for Cumulus Los Angeles. Prior to that, she was Director of Sales for iHeartMedia-Los Angeles’ Alt 98.7/KYSR-FM and 102.7 KIIS-FM in Los Angeles, guiding that station to the number one billing station in the country, and was General Manager of Indie 103.1/KDLD/KDLE-FM for Entravision in Los Angeles. Girocco has been honored by Radio Ink magazine as one of the Most Influential Women in Radio.
CUMULUS MEDIA has appointed Dean Canter as General Sales Manager for Cumulus Dallas’ three music stations. Canter, who will report to Dawn Girocco, joins CUMULUS MEDIA from iHeartMedia in Riverside, CA, where he was Senior Vice President, Sales. Prior to that, Canter was Sales Manager and National Sales Manager for CBS Radio-Los Angeles.
RJ Lane, General Sales Manager for spoken word stations The Ticket/KTCK-AM/FM (Sports), WBAP NewsTalk 820 AM/WBAP-AM (News/Talk), and KLIF 570/KLIF-AM (News/Talk), has been promoted to Director of Sales for those stations, while Steve Holm, Sales Manager, has been promoted to General Sales Manager for Cumulus Dallas’ spoken word stations. Janet Dupree, Digital Sales Manager, Cumulus Dallas, will remain in charge of the station cluster’s digital sales efforts, and will report to Dawn Girocco.
Dan Bennett, Regional Vice President, Cumulus Dallas/Houston, said: “Dawn Girocco’s vast experience as a DOS and Market Manager made her a great choice to lead our Dallas Sales operation as our new VP of Sales. Dawn is an around-the-clock engaged manager who is accessible to our sellers 24/7. She has earned this opportunity and our sales team will benefit greatly from her leadership.”
Bennett added: “I cannot begin to thank Alec Drake enough for his huge contributions over the years to our organization. He has been an incredible leader – especially through the Covid pandemic. Keeping Cumulus Dallas as the company’s top revenue market has always been our goal and Alec pushed the limits every day to ensure we kept that position. Thank you, Alec, from our entire team!”
Dawn Girocco commented: “It is an honor to lead our outstanding Cumulus Dallas sales team. I have enormous respect for our staff and am fortunate to work with strategic leaders throughout the building that have worked to build a successful culture. Thanks to Alec Drake for all he has done for this cluster. I am very grateful to Dan Bennett, Dave Milner and Mary Berner for this incredible opportunity.”