Entercom Communications has appointed Jim McCloud as Executive Vice President of National Business Development. In this newly created role, McCloud (left) will work closely with Entercom's executive leadership team to initiate, develop and grow relationships with existing Entercom partners while also building a national client development team focused on identifying and engaging new potential Entercom advertising partners and providing comprehensive advertising solutions across Entercom's news, entertainment and sports portfolio.

McCloud joins Entercom after a nine-year run with Major League Baseball, where he most recently served as Group Director & VP of Sponsorship Sales & Client Services. "We are so pleased to welcome Jim to Entercom," said Weezie Kramer, Chief Operations Officer of Entercom. "Jim's deep experience in sports, corporate sponsorships and advertising will help us unlock the full potential of our national platform across radio, digital and events."

McCloud remarked, "I'm thrilled to be joining the talented Entercom team at this exciting time for the company. Entercom's powerful scale presents tremendous opportunities to create unique experiences for millions of consumers and drive results for our partners." McCloud holds an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and a Masters in Sports Management from Columbia University.

Alpha Media has named Ernie Martinez as National Director of Digital Content. His responsibilities will include managing all Digital Content Creators, working closely with the programming team to ensure on-air and digital platforms are complementary to each other, developing a national strategy, voice and aesthetic for each format, and more.

Originally from Dallas, Martinez began his radio career at the age of 19. In 1997, Martinez, a.k.a. Ernie D, joined Radio Disney in Dallas as a Producer and quickly worked his way up to Director, On-Air Programming. He relocated to Los Angeles with Radio Disney in 2008. After leaving Disney, Martinez jumped into the digital content space as a VP of Talent Partnerships at mitú, a digital media company creating short and long form content for an American Latino audience. 

In making the announcement, Alpha Media VP of Content Phil Becker commented, "The addition of Ernie to Alpha Media is yet another example of our commitment to our digital offerings. His strategic thinking and fan first approach are exactly what our industry needs to thrive."

Martinez, who will remain based in Los Angeles, remarked, "I'm extremely excited to join Alpha Media and lead this new group of creators. I'm looking forward to collaborating with Phil Becker, Scott Mahalick, Ronnie Stanton and the other great talent at Alpha to create digital strategies that engage our audiences and amplify the already successful music and on-air strategies, both on a national and local level."

• iHeartMedia Top 40 KIIS-FM/Los Angeles announced a realigned jock line-up -- Alex Gervasi (left) moves up from late nights to middays as Letty B (center) transitions to weekends/swing.

Replacing Alex in late nights is Edris "EJ" Jenkins (right), who earns the big transfer from AC sister KDMX (102.9 NOW)/Dallas.

• iHeartMedia Hartford has acquired the services of market vet David Fisch as the new morning host for Adult Hits WHCN (The River 105.9), starting today. Fisch was most recently APD and morning personality across the street on Red Wolf Alternative WMRQ (Radio 104.1) until October 2017. Fisch also served as the Producer for The Herd with Colin Cowherd on ESPN, and he began his radio career at WIOQ (Q102)/Philadelphia. 

Fisch's arrival will allow SVP of Programming Dave Symonds to come off the air and focus on his numerous programming duties... and maybe grab an extra hour of sleep once in a while. "After a long national search to find the perfect host for The River morning show, he's right here in Hartford," Symonds said of Fisch, adding, "Fisch has years of experience entertaining the Hartford audience and being completely engaged in the local community."

"We're excited to welcome Fisch to the iHeartMedia family," said Steve Honeycomb, President of iHeartMedia's Hartford Region. "His years of experience and knowledge of the market make him an outstanding talent that will be a perfect addition to mornings on The River 105.9." Fisch commented, "I'm looking forward to working for the largest media company on the planet. To be a part of the iHeartMedia talent roster is an amazing feeling, and to be the morning guy for the legendary WHCN is surreal. Growing up in Moodus, I never imagined this in my wildest dreams!"

• We want to send our very best wishes to our friend Kristin Yasuda, Manager of Music Programming at Radio Disney, whose last day is today. Yasuda (left) has accepted a position as Sr. Manager, Artist Partnerships at Bandsintown, which is billed as a "platform where artists and fans connect." The site allows users to receive notifications about tours and bands playing in their area and also has tools for artists to manage tour dates. In her new role, Yasuda will be leading company outreach across U.S. markets and directly managing relationships with artists, management companies and labels.

Yasuda had been with Radio Disney since 2011, moving up through the ranks from Executive Asst., Music Programming to her current position in January 2014. Earlier career stops include Jive Records and Columbia Records.

• Wes Styles has arrived in balmy Ft. Walton Beach, FL, hired by Community Broadcasters as the new PD of Alternative WZLB (103.1 The Blaze) and Adult Hits WWAV (102.1 The Wave). He succeeds Matt Stone, who resigned at the end of December to pursue a voiceover career and launch a non-radio business.

While introducing Styles to the staff, VP/Market Manager Ron Raybourne said, "Wes will be a great fit. He has programmed Rock stations very successfully around the country and is ready to help lead our brands to... [yup]... the next level™." We are excited to have Wes join the Community Broadcasters team on the Emerald Coast."

Styles most recently spent three years as OM/PD and afternoon drive personality on Mid-West Family Broadcasting Mainstream Rock WQLZ and former Triple A WLCE (Alice @ 97.7)/Springfield, IL. His previous PD stops include Townsquare Rock WQBK/Albany, NY, WWIZ/Youngstown, OH and WXQR/Greenville, NC. Weighing in on his sweet new Florida gig, Styles said, "'Thrilled' doesn't begin to describe how I feel about joining the team at Community Broadcasters Ft. Walton Beach. I'm looking forward to helping these brands grow and the opportunities ahead." 

Westwood One just seriously bolsters its national sales staff with the addition of four new execs -- Stephen Gary is named Director, National Sports Partnerships in Los Angeles, Gina LaBanco is Director, National Partnerships in Chicago, Wesley O'Dell is the newly named Director, National Partnerships and Craig Rossi is now Vice President, Spoken Word, also in Los Angeles.

Gary (left) most recently served as SVP, Global Sales CineTel Films. Prior to that he worked at Hyde Park International and IM Global. LaBanco (second from left) spent the past 13 years as an Account Exec with NBC 5 Chicago, responsible for the NHL, NFL, and PGA. Prior to that, she was VP, Local Broadcast at Zenith Media. O'Dell (second from right) provided digital solutions to Fortune 500 companies on behalf of powerhouse media brands Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Fox Sports and Rotten Tomatoes, to name a few. He spent the last five years gaining invaluable experience at programmatic and ad tech start-ups. Rossi (right) most recently acquired podcast and on-demand content experience working with multiple emerging tech companies.

Bryan Forbes, President of National Sales, Cumulus Media & President of Sales, Westwood One, said, "2017 was a transformative year for Westwood One as we made significant revenue gains, launched the Audio Active Group to focus on business development, and announced the Westwood One ROI Guarantee. In 2018, we continue our evolution with several key hires to our top-notch sales organization, with each bringing diverse and unique experiences. I have complete confidence that Stephen, Gina, Wes and Craig will hit the ground running to drive revenue growth while bringing maximum value to our clients and agency partners."

Veteran DC broadcaster Brian Wilson is moving to Music City as the newly named host of Nashville's Morning News on Cumulus News-Talk WWTN (SuperTalk 99.7 WTN)/Nashville. Wilson (left) is probably best known for his stretch as senior correspondent and anchor for the Fox News Channel and as a co-anchor of the FOX 5 Morning News on WTTG-TV/Washington. He most recently co-hosted Mornings On The Mall on News-Talk sibling WMAL/Washington until May of 2017.

Dan Mandis, PD of SuperTalk 99.7 said, "Brian has spent decades telling stories, whether covering the White House in Washington or local stories from America's heartland, and he's seen it all. As Brian has been covering Nashville's Morning News on WWTN, listeners have already been responding to his perspective and insights. I'm thrilled that he's committed to moving to Nashville and hosting Nashville's Morning News full time. He's a great addition to an already outstanding radio station."

Wilson said, "I'm thrilled to be out of the Washington swamp and to be establishing roots in Music City. I'm also pleased to renew my association with Cumulus. Thanks to my old Cumulus boss in D.C., Bill Hess, and Cumulus/Westwood One EVP of Content & Programming Mike McVay, for their instrumental role in making this happen. I look forward to working with my new Nashville bosses, Allison Warren, Charlie Cook, Dan Mandis -- and WTN's top-flight morning team -- to make Nashville's Morning News the dominant show in its time slot. In Nashville, they often say that the formula for a good Country song is 'three chords and the truth.' I'll leave the guitar playing to the Nashville Cats, but I'll do my very best to give Music City the truth as best I can discern it."

It was June of last year when we told you Nada Taha was stepping down as Director of Digital for the Premiere-syndicated The Bobby Bones Show and closing the book on a ten-year radio career to "chase some new dreams," as she explained at the time. Now, some eight months later, as initially reported by Forbes, Ms. Taha (left) announced the launch of Blind Copy Creative, LLC, a creative services company. Taha's vision for Blind Copy Creative is to work with artists at all levels of their career to help create and execute their brand and extensively expand their reach and grow their revenue.

"Having worked in radio for 10+ years, I've had the opportunity to see a lot of artists with potential that were being stifled because the dots of who they wanted to be and who they were portraying themselves to be weren't connecting in their brand," said Taha, who previously served as Social Media Manager for iHeartMedia Orlando and Content Manager for Top 40 WXXL (XL106.7) and later transferred to iHeartMedia Nashville as Digital PD for the cluster and MD of Top 40 WRVW (107.5 The River). She explained, "I left the comfort of my corporate job to not only challenge myself, but to inject creativity in the ecosystem."

Taha, who earned a spot last year on the Nashville Business Journal's prestigious "40 Under 40" list, added, "I'm never going to be satisfied with the status quo or living in the middle. I have a passion to help lead people to the growing edge. There is a desperate need to tell someone's story in an authentic way that reaches an audience on a deeper level, and I want to be the person who does that." As Taha so eloquently states in the final paragraph of the Forbes piece, "'I'm aggressive, and I think that's a good thing. I'm not going to take 'no' for an answer. I'm going to be loud and get shit done." Nada can now be reached at nada@blindcopycreative.com and on Twitter @nadameansnothin.

iHeartMedia Top 40 WKQI (Channel 955)/Detroit has parted company with APD/MD/afternoon drive talent Nick Wize. For now, we understand that night jock Joe Carballo, host of The Joe Show will cover afternoons.

Wize (left) had been with Channel 955 since the spring of 2016 -- it was his second tour of duty with WKQI, where he had worked earlier in his career, along with a stop at former CBS Radio Top 40 rival WDZH (98.7 Amp Radio).

Wize's resume also includes a stint as co-host/producer of the night show on the former WNOW (92.3 Now)/New York and he worked for iHeartMedia Jacksonville as afternoon talent on Top 40 WKSL (97.9 Kiss FM) and Digital PD for the cluster. In his earlier on-air incarnation as "Stylz," Wize hosted Stylz In The Morning at Powell Broadcasting Top 40 WPFM (Hot 107.9)/Panama City, FL until September 2014. Wize is now seeking his next broadcasting adventure and can be reached at 917-531-3464 and nickwize@gmail.com. 

Cumulus Media has appointed radio sales pro Eric Jewell as General Sales Manager of the company's eight-station Kansas City group and the Kansas City Chiefs Radio Network. Jewell (left) segues from iHeartMedia Memphis, where he was Senior Vice President of Sales. He brings over 20 years of radio sales management experience to Cumulus, and previously served as Director of Sales for Entercom in Gainesville, FL, and General Manager of Rocket City Broadcasting in Huntsville, AL.

Donna Baker, who doubles as Cumulus Midwest Regional VP and Kansas City Market Manager, said, "Eric is a passionate leader with a history of delivering revenue goals while building strong teams and having fun doing it. Cumulus stations in Kansas City have enjoyed record-level audience growth. We are thrilled to welcome Eric to our talented GSM team to lead the expansion our sales force and create even more results for advertisers."

Jewell said, "I'm thrilled to join this outstanding Cumulus KC team. Creating the sales team expansion with the passion and excitement that these brands deserve is going to be fun, and we are going to move fast!"

Last week's horrific school shooting in Parkland, FL has sparked a renewed call for lawmakers to take action, and some of the loudest voices demanding change are not even old enough to vote. Tonight, Westwood One News will provide a live simulcast of the CNN Town Hall, Stand Up: The Students of Stoneman Douglas Demand Action from 9-11pm ET.

Led by the students, the South Florida community is demanding answers on how the shooting at their school could have occurred and what steps federal and state authorities will take to prevent such a tragedy from happening again. To help facilitate the discussion, Westwood One will simulcast CNN's nationally broadcast Town Hall with the victims' classmates, parents and community members, live from the BB&T Center in Sunrise, FL.

Participants are still being finalized, but so far, Florida Rep. Ted Deutch and Senators Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio have accepted invitations to participate. CNN anchor Jake Tapper will moderate. This Town Hall event will be available to Westwood One News stations for live broadcast or excerpting. For more information, contact Jim Jones at 202-840-7933 or jimjones@westwoodone.com.