The radio syndication company behind The O’Reilly Update with Bill O’Reilly that has dedicated itself to “unlocking the door” between syndication and marketing has expanded its offerings to include network audio advertising sales to producers and service/program providers.
As such, it has a new President/COO and an incoming EVP/Advertising Sales.
Jim Higgins, who has served as President/COO for United Stations Radio Networks for the last 15 years and for the prior 21 years was USRN’s EVP/GM, will now serve as President/COO for Key Networks.
Higgins has a resume that includes both ad agency and record label experience: He served as an Account Supervisor at Grey Advertising in 1979 and 1980 and ran Market Research for RCA Records from 1974-1979.
Joining Higgins as the Ad Sales EVP is another former USRN leader.
That would be Rich Baum, who spent 13 years as EVP/Sales at USRN and for 11 years before that was a SVP at the syndicator.
Baum has also been Manager for Southwest Network Sales and a Midwest Region Sr. AE for Westwood One, and an AE for Unistar Radio Networks.
Key Networks has dual headquarters in New York and Orlando and was launched in 2018 by affiliated company Sun & Fun Media, which named 22-year Westwood One veteran Dennis Green as its Chief Revenue Officer (RBR+TVBR, May 21, 2018).
The first nationally syndicated radio program from Key is the O’Reilly-helmed offering, heard on 165 affiliates across the U.S.
“We are excited to now be a full-service network company for our existing as well as new clients, with the addition of advertising sales capabilities and an experienced and knowledgeable senior executive team,” said Rob Koblasz, CEO for both Key Networks and Sun & Fun Media. “Our goal when we started Key Networks was to be best-in-class, from the talent we represent, the producers we work with and the professionals on our team. Both Jim and Rich fit that description perfectly. Their contacts in the ad sales and marketing world run deep and they are highly respected in the industry. We couldn’t be more pleased to welcome Jim and Rich to help build Key Networks into a successful full-service network audio company.”
Editor’s Note: An initial version appearing Sept. 17 contained a headline which inferred that the hires at Key presented USRN with Business challenges. This is false and we apologize for any misinformation resulting from the original headline.
