RadioInsight

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KEGL Dallas Afternoon Host Russ Martin Found Dead In Home

Posted: 27 Feb 2021 11:35 AM PST
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/2...-dead-in-home/



iHeartMedia Rock 97.1 The Eagle KEGL Dallas afternoon host Russ Martin was
found dead in his home early Saturday morning.

Frisco TX police responded to a call on Saturday at 12:30am after a friend
went to check on Martin and found him unresponsive. Martin was found dead
on the scene. The Frisco Police state that a cause of death has yet to be
determined but no foul play is suspected.

The 60 year old Martin spent his entire radio career in the Dallas area. He
began his career in the early 1980s as a board op at 1400 KGVL Greenville
and then was a weekender at 107.1 KTLR Terrell. After stints at 1310 KAAM,
92.5 KAFM and Satellite Music Network, Martin first joined KEGL in 1987
during its CHR days. He remained at the station through its shift to Rock
as took over mornings in 1997.

Martin joined CBS Radios 105.3 KYNG in 2000 as morning host when it flipped
to Hot Talk. He would later move to afternoons and remained through
rebrandings as Live 105.3 KLLI and 105.3 Free-FM. He exited KLLI when it
flipped to Sports 105.3 The Fan KRLD-FM in 2008.

Martin would return to KEGL in 2010 as morning host, before moving to
afternoons the following year. The show would be trimmed from 3-7pm to
5-7pm in February 2020 after the addition of former KRLD-FM hosts Ben
Rogers and Jeff ‘Skin’ Wade to the station. Martin has had multiple medical
leaves of absence in recent years, with co-hosts Dan O’Malley, Clo Raborn,
and Alfie Coy leading the show.

It’s with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of 97.1 The Eagle’s
Russ Martin. He will be dearly missed & we send our deepest condolences to
his family & friends during this difficult time. We’d love to hear your
favorite memory of Russ Martin below. #RIPRussMartin
pic.twitter.com/cdGBC1XYY9

- 97.1 The Eagle (@theeagledallas) February 27, 2021





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iHeartMedia Cuts Engineers Across The Country As It Begins Rolling Out New
Tech Initiatives

Posted: 26 Feb 2021 04:55 PM PST
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/2...h-initiatives/



iHeartMedia instituted a round of cuts today focusing on engineering
departments at its broadcast operations.

The cuts come as the company continues to implement operational changes
that began in the wake of the widescale cuts of January 2020. As the
company stated in Thursdays annual earnings report:
In January 2020, iHeartMedia announced key modernization initiatives
designed to take advantage of the significant investments that the Company
has made in new technologies to build an improved operating infrastructure
to upgrade products and deliver incremental cost efficiencies. This
modernization is a multi-pronged set of strategic initiatives that we
believe positions the Company for sustainable long-term growth, margin
expansion, and value creation for shareholders. As targeted, our
investments in modernization delivered approximately $50 million of in-year
savings in 2020, and we remain on track to deliver annualized run-rate cost
savings of approximately $100 million by mid-year 2021.

Many of these operations initiatives are beginning to be implemented and
will continue to do so over the course of this year. Over the course of
2020, iHeartMedias real estate team earmarked studio facilities that can
eliminate some of its space or be moved to smaller and cheaper locations.
With less staff and the pandemic showing that many employees can work
remotely, the new locations will be built with that in mind. The days of a
dedicated studio for a specific station will be replaced by rooms that can
be used by any station anywhere in the company. That style was implemented
at the corporate offices in San Antonio a few years ago.

These smaller studios will also have much less equipment as iHeart moves
most broadcast operations into a cloud based platform built off of
subsidiary RCS Zetta automation system. One server installed at the
transmitter site will take away many functions currently filling up racks
in the studios. Dubbed internally as SoundPlus, the system will allow any
on-air talent to broadcast through their personal laptop or tablet from
anywhere at any time.

The company has been installing remote control systems at its studios and
towers to enable monitoring of all their facilities. A Network Operations
Center in Cincinnati will serve as home to a dispatch center of sorts
notifying the companys remaining engineer or contract engineers when
something needs to be repaired onsite. Otherwise the companys NOC and IT
hubs will handle the issues remotely.

iHeartMedia began implementing a regional hub and spoke system in recent
years with engineers mostly shared between markets. Some made geographic
sense like all of the companys markets on the I-25 corridor in Colorado and
Wyoming, or those in Upstate New York. Others like Las Vegas, Riverside/San
Bernardino and San Diego were many hours apart. To help assist after the
first round of cuts last January, the company created Tiger Teams to travel
to other markets to help handle major issues and during emergencies such as
natural disasters.

The cuts that started today will see some engineers immediately brought
back on a contract basis as we heard took place in at least one PPM market
where they already were the only local engineer. They will now also assist
with a few neighboring markets in a similar basis.

Many of these operations initiatives are still in the build-out phase,
plans are to have them fully in place by later this year. Many of these
markets are planning on being in their new facilities by this fall.