An ayoda on radio

  Alex Silverman has been named Director of News and Programming for all-news KNX. He arrives from Philadelphia where he was brand manager for Audacy sister station KYW Newsradio. Previously he was Assistant Director of News and Programming at Audacy's WCBS Newsradio 880, New York where he won an Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the city's transportation crisis. He also worked at Bonneville's KIRO-FM Seattle as a reporter and news anchor. His first radio job was at WSYR Syracuse, New York where he graduated from Syracuse University.  Here's the official statements: Jeff Federman "Alex has led two of our company's leading news brands to newfound success and industry-wide recognition. We look forward to welcoming him to the team and further establishing KNX as the go-to news source for Southern Californians." - Jeff Federman , Regional President, Audacy Southern California "KNX News is iconic. I can't wait to work with the amazing team to...

(Finally getting back up to speed, the whole family "shared" the virus with one another. The actual symptoms weren't bad, but being off for a few days meant some catching up with my day job. It's good to be back!) KNX sendoff for Ken Charles  (photo courtesy of  Rob Archer  via Facebook) Signing off : With a brief “This is Your Life” retrospective, featuring some words from his second grade teacher, KNX’s “In Depth” program feted Ken Charles , Audacy’s VP of all-news programming and the station’s PD, who departed the station last Friday. Asked what words of wisdom he’d give to someone considering a career in broadcasting, he said “become a fry cook…people will always need to eat.” Interviewed by “In Depth” hosts Mike Simpson and Charles Feldman , Charles said aspiring journalism graduates “all want to be the next Robin Roberts, but there’s only one Robin Roberts. There’s only a thousand television newsrooms but there’s 11,000 radio station newsrooms – there’s much mo...

  Ken Charles has served at all-news KNX since 2015, first as Program Director, then as Audacy Brand Manager / Format VP All-News in Southern California. Today he announced he is leaving the company. Here's what he shared with his team: This is one of the hardest emails I have ever written. I've made the difficult professional and personal decision not to renew my contract and am stepping down as Brand Manager for KNX and Format VP for Audacy.  It has been an honor and a privilege to be part of the 102 year history of KNX and to lead this amazing group of professionals.  I am extremely proud of what we’ve accomplished together. We've covered every type of story imaginable, fires, earthquakes, a global pandemic, protests in the streets, two of the most intense elections ever, a Dodgers World Series victory, a Lakers NBA championship, the Rams first LA Super Bowl title (sorry Kings) and so many more.  We celebrated KNX's 100th anniversary and won the first two national...

  Radio Ink  and All Access  are reporting L.A. radio veterans  Jack Silver and Lon Helton  were part of a number of layoffs at Cumulus-owned Westwood One.  Silver had been in charge of the NBC Sports Radio Network until the pandemic, he continued as the operations manager for their Culver City broadcasting facility for the national syndicating service which produced music and talk programming and oversaw the production crews for NFL and collegiate sports broadcasts. Silver took over "Real Radio 97.1" (KLSX) in 1997 and transformed it into "97.1 the FM Talk Station," featuring KFI veteran  Tom Leykis . One of his challenges was having to replace Riki Rachtman for punching   Doug Steckler in the face in the station's hallway. Silver  stopped at KFWB and KRTH as an account executive before he was hired as program director at KABC, adding KLOS to his responsibilities a year later.  Silver told Radio Ink , “I had a great run with an ama...