Thursday, May 24, 2007

Nova M Radio snags Air America VP

From the press release:

Nova M Radio announced today that veteran talk-radio programming/operations specialist John Manzo has signed on as their new Chief Operating Officer.

Manzo brings nearly two decades of radio experience to Nova M, including successful stints with Saga Communications, Jacor, Clear Channel, and most recently with Air America Radio where he served as a vice president and then oversaw all aspects of "The Randi Rhodes Show."

"This is exciting -- Nova M's a young, plucky company eager to get to the next level the right way," said Manzo. "They truly understand the value of strong, productive relationships with their audience, clients and affiliates. Plus, I can't wait to work with Mike Malloy again!"

"We are very excited to have John Manzo join The Nova M Radio family," said CEO Anita Drobny. "We know Manzo is one of a kind professional radio veteran and will be a welcomed addition to our growing company."

John Manzo will oversee all aspects of helping the company add affiliates, growing the radio and web audience and sales, and the development of additional programming. Manzo will join the Nova M Radio Network in mid-June.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Manzo came to AAR with Randi. He was her producer in West Palm Beach. He's held various titles and performed various functions, including program director (both de jure and de facto).

Now the Greens have their own programming guru and Manzo was either invited to leave or saw the writing on the wall.

From personal experience, the guy's not as smart as he think he is and he's not as smart as he's convinced the Drobnys he is.

> John Manzo will oversee all
> aspects of helping the company
> add affiliates, growing the radio
> and web audience and sales, and
> the development of additional
> programming.

That's what he's supposedly been doing for AAR and his record does not inspire confidence.

If Nova M is recycling AAR's left overs, maybe they have a place for Sam Seder and Mark Maron, too.

But the interesting aspect here, if Randi's boy is gone, might Randi not be far behind. Now with recycled Randi, Nova M would have something.

hashfanatic said...

What is Randi's contractual obligation to stay with AAR, at this point?

Unknown said...

aar squeezed manzo out of his programming roll in 2005 and since then he's focused on just protecting randi from aar. he was always pro- malloy, maron, and seder. with manzo out of the way, the great ones fell. we're lucky randi is still on the air.

this is cool. worth watching. good for novam!

Anonymous said...

Randi signed a three year contract with Air America Radio December 08, 2004, which expires in six months and 10 days.

Franken signed a three-year deal at the same time and he was able to leave early. However, Franken was on the list of creditors published when Air America Radio entered bankruptcy, which gives the lawyers plenty to break a contract. Randi was not on the list.

Franken and his staff were reportedly very highly paid, so AAR may have saved a lot of money by putting Hartmann on in Franken's place.

Randi joined AAR without the "celebrity" status of Franken and Garofolo and her pay was never in the same league. AAR is almost certainly making a profit on Randi's service, so they would likely be less willing to lose her.

Still six months is not that long a time. And there is nothing to stop Randi from signing with Nova M tomorrow and playing out her AAR contract (while promoting her move); just like Howard Stern did.

Merry Christmas, Nova M. Santa may just give you what you want most for Christmas this year (Randi). And what you want second-most, too (the chance to stick it to AAR).

Now, Thom Hartmann has signed with WYD Media. WYD Media has a long history with Jones Radio (including Stephanie Miller's show). If Randi leaves, what incentive does Hartmann have to keep distributing his show through AAR? And if both Randi and Hartmann leave, can/will AAR survive? Lionel is out of his element in the morning. Nothing else AAR has tried lately has caught on.

Mother of Mercy, is this the end of liberal talk? No way. It may be the end of AAR.

Morrigan said...

I am too tired to leave a comment except LTR Tea Cheers, Job well done. ;-)


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