Beasley press release: 

Beasley Media Group announces Paul Blake has been promoted to Cluster Manager at Beasley Media Group Philadelphia.

Blake most recently served as Vice President/Director of Sales and has been with the cluster for the past 22 years. In his new role, he will report directly to President Bruce Beasley and will be responsible for overseeing the company’s Philly-based radio properties, including WMMR-FM, WMGK-FM, WXTU-FM, BEN-FM, 97.5 The Fanatic, WWDB 860 and Camden’s WTMR 800.

“I am deeply honored and thrilled to take on the role of Cluster Manager for Beasley Media Philadelphia,” said Blake. “I extend my heartfelt gratitude to the Beasley family for their unwavering trust and confidence in me. It is an incredible privilege to lead one of America’s premier groups of radio stations and digital content creators, and I look forward to continuing our tradition of excellence and innovation in the media industry.”

“Paul is the perfect person to take our Philly-based radio cluster to the next level,” said Beasley Media Group President Bruce Beasley. “His longstanding dedication, insight and leadership is the perfect fit to lead our team into the future. We are thrilled to have him on our team.”

What’s interesting is that there’s zero mention of the previous VP/Market Manager Joe Bell, who I’m told had his office already cleaned out when employees were notified of Blake’s promotion on Wednesday morning. Bell is a radio veteran and on the doorstep of retirement, though I talked to a couple of people over there who said they were surprised by the timing of the news and weren’t aware of any sort of pending announcement. Maybe something happened, maybe not. I’ll keep asking around. I know Bell was getting ready to call it a career, but people are telling me this was somewhat abrupt and unexpected, even if Blake was considered the heir apparent to the job.

For some additional context, Bell had recently brought in 97.5 the Fanatic’s new program director, Scott Masteller, who directed the recent lineup shuffle that saw Andrew Salciunas move to mornings and Bob Cooney shift to the midday slot. A short time later, Jen Scordo and Pat Egan were laid off, though I’m hearing that they continue to have talks with various people about joining the station. Nothing new on the Mike Missanelli front, though it’s worth pointing out that Bell was still in charge when Mike left in frustration two years ago, so maybe Blake stepping in opens the door to a Mikey Miss return. I have no clue. Just thinking aloud there, but something to consider. The Fanatic is lagging behind WIP and needs to make up a lot of ground, but the rest of the Beasley cluster does well. They’ve got Preston and Steve, Pierre Robert, WMGK, and a bunch of other viable stations.

Maybe there’s something more to this, maybe not. If someone retires, they normally get at least a mention, but nothing from Beasley in this case. I’ll ask around. Seems a little odd.