Radio-Info.com

The annual "Red book" rankings by metro population are out, and Arbitron says Atlanta just passed Philadelphia at the #7 spot. Philadelphia's 12+ population stayed around 4.35 million, but Atlanta's added 110,000 people since last year. Seattle passes Puerto Rico for the #13 spot, Tampa is the new #18, Denver's now bigger than Baltimore and takes over the #21 position, and Austin grows from #42 to #39, pushing Providence down two notches. Read Arbitron's new Fall 2008 market rankings for the 300 rated markets here. 

PD Lorrin Palagi and morning personality Jonathan "Weasel" Gilbert are both out at classic rock WTGB (94.7), with "Weasel" replaced by Washington veteran Albie Dee. The DCRTV.com site reports that Gilbert will still do special projects, features and other chores. But that Dee is definitely moving down to mornings from evenings at the Globe. Cluster programming VP Michael Hughes will take over programming from Palagi, and Jerry Hoyt will be ops manager. DCRTV also reports that CBS will re-locate WTGB (the onetime classic rock WARW) from Silver Spring, MD to Lanham, putting it together with WPGC/95.5 (where Albie Dee spent years) and "El Zol" WLZL (99.1). A CBS spokeswoman confirms the changes to Radio-Info.

Rosedale, Mississippi's WMJW-FM (107.5) morning man Jim Gregory has left the building for a job with WKXY-FM (92.1) in Clarksdale. OM Jim Thomas tells Radio-Info he's "looking for a new morning show ASAP." Send mp3's to rci@exceedtech.net ... KKAR-AM (1290) in Omaha, Nebraska drops the Omaha Morning News for the syndicated Don Imus, starting today ... Tulsa's KBEZ-FM (92.9) PD Dave Dallow is out, a victim of budget cuts. Tod Tucker takes over as PD, adding to his duties at sister KHTT (106.9) ... After 41 years as an engineer keeping a number of New York City radio stations on the air, last with WXRK-FM (92.3), Steve Freid has been handed a pink slip ... Traffic reporter Kyla Thomas of WMXB-FM (103.7) was one of 5 people cut loose by Cox Radio in Richmond ... In Chattanooga, WGOW-FM (102.3) mid-afternoon host Robert T. Nash may be planning a run for mayor. He recently filed papers with the Hamilton County Tennessee Election Commission to run for office. 

Winchester, Virginia's WTFX-AM (610) will go dark as the station loses its transmitter site - but the sports format remains on air as Clear Channel will move the format onto sister-station WMRE-AM (1550) in Charles Town, West Virginia ... Minnesota Twins baseball announcer John Gordon stays with the home team, signing a new 2-year deal ... In Indianapolis, WFNI-AM (1070) afternoon co-host Bob Kravitz will walk from Indianapolis to Kokomo to settle a bet. He wagered that the NBA Indiana Pacers wouldn't keep player Jama Tinsley on the roster by opening day. He lost, and he's taking three days this week to make the hike, raising money for an ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) charity.

Global Radio's Galaxy West Midlands (102.2) was forced to shut down early Monday morning when an unidentified man broke into the station, made his way into the studio, and started swearing on the air. The station released a statement saying, "A man forced his way into the station but was arrested by police at the scene." The man uttered a number of words not allowed on the radio, including saying "I'm still f****g here," before Galaxy Birmingham took itself off the air, replacing the local with the signal from their sister-station in Yorkshire. You can listen to Galaxy Birmingham by clicking here.

He flew in the famed Flying Fortresses as a B-17 bombadier during World War II, and when he returned from war he co-founded KBRK (1430) in Brookings, South Dakota. He was a part of KBRK spanning 4 decades until the station was sold. Gene Platek has recently passed away at age 90 ... Cindy Browne was Iowa Public Radio's first executive director following the merger of the public radio services of several Iowa universities. Browne oversaw a number of changes in her three years at the IPR helm, including co-hosting a national Democratic debate last year, and the development of the statewide "We're All Ears" listening project. Browne died after a battle with cancer. She was just 56.               

Cleveland's WDOK-FM (102.1) PD Dave Popovich checks in with Radio-Info, with daytime moves he calls a "budget realignment." Popovich says Desiray McCray will move into middays 10am-3pm, and Nancy Alden will segue from midday to afternoon drive 3-7pm. Dan Deely loses his afternoon drive slot - however, Popovich says he'll remain at the soft rock station in a part-time capacity, handling weekends and becoming the primary fill-in for all dayparts. Discuss It 

Emmis Broadcasting names 38-year-old Alexandra Cameron the new Senior VP/GM for its New York Cluster, overseeing hip-hop WQHT “Hot 97”, Urban AC WRKS “98.7 Kiss FM” and Triple-A WRXP “101.9 New York’s Rock Experience.” Cameron has served as Director of Sales for the cluster since August 2006, and prior to that was the GSM for Hot 97. She replaces Dan Halyburton, who has decided to launch his own media technology company in his home state of Texas. “Halyburton Connected” will work with both new and traditional media to help harness technology to enhance profits and build more powerful brands. Halyburton arrived from Texas to manage cluster in May 2006. Emmis Radio division president Rick Cummings says “I have had the privilege of watching Alex since she took on the role as Hot 97's General Sales Manager, and I’ve seen her take on greater responsibilities and build a winning track record every step of the way. I’m certain she’ll take Emmis New York to even greater levels performance.” Discuss It

Cumulus has promoted MD/afternoon jock Mark Phillips to be the new PD of Country KPLX (99.5) in Dallas. He came to the Wolf a year ago, and he previously programmed in Ft. Myers, Springfield, IL and Galesburg, IL. He takes over from Jan Jeffries, who is the Sr. VP of programming at Cumulus, and who steps down after running the Wolf’s day-to-day operations for the past 9 months. Jeffries was sent to Dallas to oversee the station in February when then-PD John Sebastian left. Jeffries returns to Cumulus Corporate in Atlanta, effective November 24.

Arbitron is holding its annual Programmers Fly-In, Friday, December 5th. The all day event (from 8 am  to 4:30 pm), will include a presentation of the Coleman Research study, “Real PPM Panelists Tell All.” The learning session will also cover updates to the Diary service for markets not using PPM, and a review of how markets will benefit from cell phone-only measurement in the 2009 survey periods. For more information on attending, contact Arbitron’s Ron Rodrigues at 410-309-8822 or via email at ron.rodrigues@arbitron.com.

The 2009 Morning Show Boot Camp is set to take place July 30 – August 1st, in Nashville. 2008's event took place in Denver, and was attended by air talent from around the country. For more information on the 2009 event, in its 21st year and aptly titled MSBC XXI, visit the official website here. And for more details on all the radio-related events and conferences coming up in 2009, visit the Radio-Info.com events page.

Jeff Deminski and Bill Doyle are sitting out the last few weeks of a non-compete with CBS Radio - for whom they worked at now-defunct WKRK-FM/97.1 - and now they're slotted to take over mornings at classic rock WCSX just after New Year's. Last week Greater Media took Jim Johnson and Lynne Woodison off the air, months before the March 2009 expiration of their contracts. WCSX says Deminski & Doyle cover "a wide variety of topics, from serious issues to comedy, while also sharing with listeners more insight into their personal lives than most traditional radio shows." They mostly did afternoons on WKRK and discussed the prospect of staying at 97.1 to do mornings at the new sports "Ticket" WXYT-FM. But that deal didn't jell. Deminski says "We wanted so badly to stay in Detroit, we chose unemployment for a year to honor our non-compete clause." Discuss It

In Black Mountain, NC, HRN Broadcasting’s Oldies WZGM (1350) flips to Southern Gospel … In the Macon, GA area, Len Radio Broadcasting’s country/bluegrass hybrid WKTF (1550)  licensed to Vienna, flips to “Solid Gospel” using the 24-hour service from Salem Music Network Discuss It… What’s happening at WMPM (1270) Smithfield, NC? This morning’s Taylor on Radio-Info reports that the signal is suddenly  simulcasting the Lamm-owned News WTSB, Selma (1090). Carl Lamm of Raleigh-based Lamm Media Group holds an attributable interest in WMPM, but it’s licensed to a different company, Carolina Broadcasting Service. Last December, Carolina Broadcasting President Ellis Barbour filed to take WMPM silent because “on November 5 [2007], the manager and entire staff of our station left to join a competitor.” It eventually signed back on with a Country/Gospel format. Now the WMPM website takes you to the WTSB website.

Philadelphia’s WHAT (1340) drops the moniker “Martini Lounge Radio” but keeps the standards format. Station manager Dave DiRenzo tells the Philadelphia Inquirer that "Martini" did not register with listeners … Tim Fisher is out as PD of Citadel’s Des Moines cluster, where he programmed Sports KBGG “1700 the Champ” and FM talk KWQW “Wow 98.3 FM” … At Entercom San Francisco, KOIT (96.5) morning news anchor Sherry Brown is out, and is replaced by APD/MD Julie Shannon … At smooth jazz specialist Broadcast Architecture, Christine Brodie is promoted to manage the corporate offices in Sherman Oaks, as Senior VP/GM of corporate … As predicted here last week, Radio One puts the syndicated Rickey Smiley Show on urban WERQ “92Q" Baltimore, replacing the Big Phat Morning Show … In other Syndication One news, gospel’s Yolanda Adams Mornng Show adds KATZ-AM (1600) St. Louis … Rhythmic KWIN Stockton, CA adds Lucas to the Morning Block Party, with Amanda. He replaces Double J. Discuss It