iHeartMedia Flips ‘Orange and Blue 760’ to ‘Freedom 93.7.’  Denver’s KDSP-AM changes calls to KDFD-AM and – with the addition of FM translator K229BS, Lakewood – flips to news/talk as “Freedom 93.7 Real News, Real Talk.”  The station had been a Denver Broncos-centric sports talk station for the past two years. It began stunting Monday (7/8) with a rotation of pop and rock songs with the word “freedom” in the title.  iHeartMedia has not issued a press release on the changes and it’s unclear exactly what the lineup will be but there’s been speculation that Premiere Networks’ Rush Limbaugh program will move from sister news/talk KOA to anchor the lineup.

News/Talk Radio Consultant Greg Moceri Is This Week’s Guest on Harrison Podcast.  One of the most influential programmers of the modern era in the news/talk radio format, Greg Moceri, is this week’s guest on the award-winning PodcastOne series “The Michael Harrison Interview.”  Moceri is the founder and owner of the Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Moceri Media, a national consultation firm that for the past 20 years has provided programming advice and talent coaching to a number of clients including Cox Media.  Prior to being a consultant, Moceri served eight years as program director of Cox Media’s WSB-AM, Atlanta.  For a couple of years before that he was news and program director of WTIC-AM, Hartford where he and Michael Harrison met and worked together in the early 1990s.  In this long-form conversation, Harrison and Moceri go deep into the nuts and bolts of the talk format (as well as their own backgrounds) discussing the direction and future of spoken word radio, the state of journalism, the role of podcasting as it relates to broadcasters, the care and nurturing of talent and more.  Don’t miss this!  To listen to the podcast in its entirety, please click here or click on the player box marked “The Michael Harrison Interview” located in the right-hand column of the TALKERS email newsletter and every page of Talkers.com.

CORRECTION: Yesterday, TALKERS magazine reported on the programming changes at Forever Media’s WXDE-FM, Lewes “Delaware 105.9.”  In doing so we wrote that Ed Tyll’s early afternoon show was cancelled by the station.  Program director Dan Gaffney tells TALKERS that Tyll was not let go but resigned from his program.

2020 Presidential Race, Epstein Arrest, Trump Tax Returns, UK Ambassador Leak, Immigration Policy/Detention Facilities; Iran Nuclear Ambitions, California Earthquakes, Women’s Soccer Pay Issue Among Top News/Talk Stories Yesterday (7/8). The 2020 presidential race and the Democrats running for their party’s nomination; the arrest of billionaire hedge fund managerJeffrey Epstein on charges of sex trafficking; New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signs law allowing Congress access to President Trump’s New York tax returns; the leak of a cable from UK Ambassador Kim Darroch calling President Trump “inept” and “clumsy”; the Trump Administration’s immigration policies and the controversy over conditions at border detention centers; Iran’s continuing progress in enriching uranium; the Southern California earthquakes; and the issue of pay disparity between the men’s and women’s U.S. Soccer team were some of the most-talked-about stories on news/talk radio yesterday, according to ongoing research from TALKERS magazine.

Tags: Atlanta, Cox Media, Dan Gaffney, Delaware, Denver, Ed Tyll, Forever Media, Greg Moceri, Hartford, iHeartMedia, KDSP-AM, Lewes, Michael Harrison, Moceri Media, news/talk, news/talk radio, Orange and Blue 760, Premiere Networks, Rush Limbaugh, Talkers Magazine, The Michael Harrison Interview, WSB-AM, WTIC-AM, WXDE-FM

Category: Front Page News, Industry News