Ah, it’s good to be a college student. Very good if you’re Sarah Scroggins, senior at Texas Tech University.

The broadcast journalism major told The New York Post while working for 92.3 FM’s digital media department she got to see Justin Bieber and will.i.am, but more importantly she got an experience to bolster her resume. Read more

As many as 15 staffers from WABC and WPLJ in New York were let go Friday as new owner Cumulus officially completed its acquisition of Citadel Broadcasting, reports FishbowlNY. That includes overnight WPLJ DJ Dave Stewart, who had racked up 22 years at the station, Sunday host Mancow Miller at WABC, and more.

In Atlanta, Ga., Cumulus-owned stations cut Spiff Carner and Randy Cook, co-hosts of the morning show “Randy & Spiff” on WYAY as well as WKHX afternoon host Tim Michaels and a handful of others.

KABC/KLOS, Los Angeles manager Bob Moore is also out and senior VP Carl Anderson left earlier this month.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Citadel required Cumulus to void its non-compete clauses in the contracts of anyone it let go before approving the sale, so any laid-off employees are free to begin work again immediately.

The Salt Lake City Council has approved a $250,000 loan for KCPW, which will allow the public radio station to pay its debts and remain on the air, reports the Salt Lake Tribune.

The company which owns the station, Wasatch Public Media, must pay $250,000 by the end of October, but the poor economy has cut into KCPW’s expected revenue from pledge drives.

The council’s loan terms include the provision that it will forgive the 5 percent interest in exchange for free advertising; the station will air short spots promoting city events.

“It would be a travesty if you guys went away. I have full confidence that you can pay back our loan,” one councilmember said to KCPW execs.

General manager Ed Sweeney says he’ll hold another pledge drive to cover the loan.

After New Jersey governor Chris Christie signed legislation last year that defunded New Jersey Network, the state’s public broadcaster, it looked like the station’s 129 employees would lose their jobs.

But then Christie suspended the layoffs, the plan apparently being that whatever existing public broadcaster purchased NJN would also receive those employees.

However, the New Jersey Assembly has just rejected a plan that would have sold NJN’s public TV to a subsidiary of WNET, which is based in New York.

“Giving NJN to New York makes no sense,” said Patrick Diegnan (D-Middlesex) before the vote. “We need to make NJN stronger and not give it away.”

The NJ Senate also needs to vote to block the sale by Tuesday, or the sale will proceed as planned.

Without the sale, though, the station’s employees will lose their jobs and “NJN as we know it will cease to exist,” as State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff said.

In addition to the deal with WNET, Sidamon-Eristoff negotiated the sale of New Jersey’s nine public radio licenses; those deals have not generated opposition and will likely proceed, the New Jersey Star-Ledger said.

Maine governor Paul LePage (R) has proposed zeroing out $2 million in state funding for the Maine Public Broadcasting Network, reports Current Public Media.

If passed, Maine would be the second state to privatize public media (an oxymoron if we’ve ever heard one), following New Jersey last year.

MPBN officials were “shocked” by the proposal. “My focus right now, my total energy, is on making sure we don’t lose that money,” Jim Dowe, MPBN president, told the Portland Press Herald.

According to the network’s annual report, state contributions account for about 1/6 of the network’s annual budget, or about half of what members kick in.

The temporary budget Congress approved at the last minute last week allocates $445 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, close to what the CPB got last year, and $445 million more than some people wanted.

But the permanent budget is yet to be passed and NPR and PBS funding will likely end up back on the chopping block.

At the same time the government-funded Voice of America may be cutting its Chinese-language broadcasts, notes the WSJ’s Gordon Crovitz. This could save $8 million a year not to mention about as many headaches, as Beijing jams radio broadcasts and refuses to allow VOA to open a bureau in Shanghai.

Congress has held hearings on the plan, which would eliminate the Cantonese-language broadcast entirely and cut half the Mandarin reporters. VOA says it would place higher emphasis on the Internet, which it already helps users in China and Iran access by providing firewall-skipping tools.

“Firing the journalists who create the content in languages like Mandarin undermines both Web and radio efforts,” Crovitz writes.

With all the different formats a journalist can tell a story these days, like blogs, television, web video and even on dead trees, it’s important to know how to use them all. But one platform that often gets overlooked is radio.

Still, with Bloomberg Businessweek Radio’s recent launch, it brings up a decent question: Do journalists make for good performers on the old FM? You mostly hear about boisterous talking heads on the tubes, but can journalists bring quality content to the table as well?

Talking Biz News spoke with Bloomberg Radio’s GM Al Mayers about this issue. His response was rather practical.

“Journalists from any medium can be top performers in radio, as long as they have a solid understanding of the content, know how to tell a story and can engage the listener in a lively and conversational manner.”

I would think you would also need a smooth silky voice or sound as if you’ve been drinking scotch and smoking cigarettes for 20 years, but maybe that’s simply my tastes’ talking.

NextMedia, which owns 33 radio stations in eight states, exited bankruptcy today, the company reported today.

No layoffs were associated with the Chapter 11 filing, said Steve Dinetz, President and CEO, in a statement, and the bankruptcy took six months to resolve.

Meanwhile, Citadel Broadcasting, which filed for bankruptcy one day before NextMedia, “should be exiting Chapter 11 any day now as well,” says Radio Business Report.

Clear Channel Communications may be saved from a possible bankruptcy, thanks to Moody’s Investment Services raising its credit rating on the radio broadcaster, MediaDailyNews reports.

Moody’s raised Clear Channel’s rating from Caa3 to Caa2 and called the company “stable,” at least in the near future.

In 2014, Clear Channel, which employs 18,000 people worldwide, will need to make a scheduled $3.7 billion repayment on its $23 billion of debt; if the company hopes to make that payment, it will probably have to restructure its debt before 2014, Moody’s said.

More: Clear Channel’s Trouble May Be Over
Clear Channel In Trouble?

Clear Channel filed documents with the SEC today that indicate the company’s financial troubles may be lessening.

2009 revenues are expected to be down 17 percent from 2008; but the fourth quarter of 2009 should be down just 6 percent from Q4 2008.

Within the last few months, radio revenue decline slowed from 19 percent in October to a projected 1 percent decline in December.

At the same time, Clear Channel Outdoor is selling $750 million in bonds to pay down the debt it owes to its owner, Clear Channel Communications.

Clear Channel Communications is treading a thin line between solvency and bankruptcy; the company, which employs 18,000 people worldwide, looked like it might be in serious trouble a few months ago. (Clear Channel In Trouble? – Oct 8, 2009)