iHeartMedia Hartford and New Haven has appointed Michael Johnson Jr. as Program Director for its sports and talk stations, effective immediately. In the new role, Johnson will oversee programming and brand strategy for \u201cFox Sports 97.9\u201d WUCS, home of the UConn Sports Radio Network, along with \u201cNewsRadio 1410\u201d WPOP in Hartford and talk WELI (960) and \u201cFox Sports 1300\u201d WAVZ in New Haven.<\/p>\n
The move gives iHeartMedia an experienced sports radio programmer with a background in both on-air and digital content development as the company continues focusing on audience growth across multiple platforms. Johnson will report to Dylan Sprague, Senior Vice President of Programming for iHeartMedia Boston\/Hartford.<\/p>\n
Sprague said Johnson\u2019s leadership style and passion for sports radio made him a strong fit for the company\u2019s Connecticut-based sports and spoken-word brands.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichael\u2019s energy, passion and leadership make him a strong fit to lead our Sports and Talk portfolio in Hartford and New Haven,\u201d Sprague said in the announcement. \u201cThese are powerful brands and we\u2019re excited to build on their success under Michael\u2019s leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson joins iHeartMedia from Townsquare Media Albany, where he most recently served as Brand Manager for \u201c104.5 ESPN \u2014 The Team\u201d WTMM. During his tenure, he also handled play-by-play duties for University at Albany football and men\u2019s basketball broadcasts, helping deepen the station\u2019s ties to local sports audiences.<\/p>\n
The appointment continues a steady career climb for Johnson within sports radio programming and management. In Hartford, he will oversee one of Connecticut\u2019s most prominent sports properties through WUCS\u2019 affiliation with University of Connecticut athletics, while also helping guide news and talk operations in both Hartford and New Haven.<\/p>\n
Johnson said he sees opportunities to further strengthen listener engagement while expanding the stations\u2019 digital footprint.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am thrilled to begin this next chapter at iHeart,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cSports fans are passionate and engaged. I am eager to grow all of the stations, deepen the connections with listeners and continue expanding our digital presence.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"iHeartMedia Hartford and New Haven has appointed Michael Johnson Jr. as Program Director for its sports and talk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659489,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[64,63,134,17846,136,44],"class_list":["post-659488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-free","tag-music","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}