The rumors from the past few weeks are starting to become a reality as Audacy has begun the process of restructuring their sixteen CHR stations, much like they did at Alternative and Country last September.
Milwaukee based Brian Kelly remains as Format Captain overseeing the CHRs for the company. His new national programming team for CHR and Rhythmic CHR will include five Regional Vice Presidents of Programming and five Regional Brand Managers overseeing multiple stations.
The five Regional VP/Programming are WZMX Hartford’s DJ Buck, WEZB New Orleans’ Tom ‘Jammer’ Naylor, WTDY-FM Philadelphia’s Nathan Graham, WKSE/WTSS Buffalo’s Sue O’Neil, and WBBM-FM Chicago’s Todd Cavanah. The Regional Brand Managers are WBBM-FM’s Erik Bradley, KSFM Sacramento’s ‘Big Mic’ Buhrman, WPXY Rochester’s Mike Danger, WKRZ Scranton’s Mike O’Donnell, and WXSS-FM/WMYX Milwaukee’s Molly Cruz.
While the full effects are not yet known, we can confirm that many on-air staffers have been fired today.
Some of the affected stations have begun to update their websites with new on-air lineups, most of which feature “B96” WBBM-FM Chicago afternoon host Julia Lepidi in middays, “Now 97.1” KNOU Los Angeles’ Josh ‘Bru’ Brubaker in afternoons or nights, while “104.3 Jams” WBMX Chicago’s Sean ‘Sonic’ Lecke will host nights in a few markets.
Julia will host middays in fifteen markets, while remaining in afternoons in Chicago. Brubaker will host afternoons at WKSE Buffalo, WKXJ Chattanooga, WFBC-FM Greenville, KLUC Las Vegas, WXSS Milwaukee, WNVZ Norfolk and WRVQ Richmond in addition to KNOU Los Angeles. He will also be heard at night at WBBM-FM Chicago, WPOW Miami, WEZB New Orleans, WTDY-FM Philadelphia, KALV Phoenix, WPXY Rochester, and KUDL Sacramento.
We will update this story with more details as they come available.
Among those making their departures public so far are “B93.7” WFBC-FM Greenville SC afternoon host Sean ‘Shorty’ McGroarty. Shorty joined WFBC-FM in 2013 as night host after stints at “Hot 98.1” WHZT in the market and “Q92” WECQ Destin FL.