Girocco Upped To VP/Sales, Cumulus Dallas

• Cumulus Media announced several major changes and appointments within its sales leadership team in Dallas-Ft. Worth, starting with the news that Director of Sales Alec Drake will retire at the end of August. It was concurrently announced that Dawn Girocco, Director of Sales for the cluster’s three music stations — Top 40 KLIF-FM (Hot 93.3), and Country cousins KPLX (99.5 The Wolf) and KSCS (New Country 96.3), will succeed Drake as VP of Sales for the six-station group.

But wait! There’s more! Dean Canter joins Cumulus as General Sales Manager for the three Dallas music stations, reporting to Girocco. Canter was most recently SVP of Sales for iHeartMedia Riverside, CA. Prior to that, he was Sales Manager and National Sales Manager for CBS Radio Los Angeles. RJ Lane, General Sales Manager for cluster’s spoken word stations — Sports-Talk KTCK-AM/FM (The Ticket) and News-Talk duo WBAP 820 AM and KLIF 570-AM has been promoted to Director of Sales for those stations, while Sales Manager Steve Holm has been promoted to GSM, succeeding Lane. Janet Dupree, Digital Sales Manager, Cumulus Dallas, will remain in charge of the cluster’s digital sales efforts, reporting to Girocco.

Before joining Cumulus Dallas in December 2019, Girocco was VP/Market Manager for Cumulus Los Angeles. Prior to that, she was Director of Sales for iHeartMedia’s KIIS-FM and KYSR (ALT 98.7)/Los Angeles and GM of Entravision’s late KDLD/KDLE (Indie 103.1)/Los Angeles.

Dan Bennett, RVP, Cumulus Dallas/Houston, said, “Dawn’s vast experience as a DOS and Market Manager made her a great choice to lead our Dallas Sales operation as our new VP of Sales. Dawn is an around-the-clock engaged manager who is accessible to our sellers 24/7. She has earned this opportunity and our sales team will benefit greatly from her leadership.” Bennett continued, “I cannot begin to thank Alec Drake enough for his huge contributions over the years to our organization. He has been an incredible leader — especially through the pandemic. Keeping Cumulus Dallas as the company’s top revenue market has always been our goal and Alec pushed the limits every day to ensure we kept that position. Thank you, Alec, from our entire team!”

Girocco commented, “It’s an honor to lead our outstanding Cumulus Dallas sales team. I have enormous respect for our staff and am fortunate to work with strategic leaders throughout the building that have worked to build a successful culture. Thanks to Alec Drake for all he has done for this cluster. I am very grateful to Dan Bennett, Dave Milner and Mary Berner for this incredible opportunity.”