Jeff Blumenthal of the Philly Business Journal reports on the hiring of former Padres and Dolphins CEO Mike Dee by Entercom, the company that is acquiring CBS Radio, owners of WIP:

Dee will serve as president of Entercom Sports and will report to Entercom CEO David Field. He will work out of the company’s Bala Cynwyd headquarters. The company said Dee will focus on revenue development from national sales and marketing programs, new platform opportunities, key partnerships, expanded sports distribution, direct-to-consumer offerings and other entrepreneurial initiatives at the national level. He will be responsible for elevating Entercom’s position as a sports media partner in support of the company’s suite of local sports radio stations and personalities and sports play-by-play relationships.

We talked at length about this very topic on the podcast this morning– new platforms and distribution. The thing holding up podcasting and on-demand listening mediums from being fully embraced by content producers and advertisers alike, as crazy as this sounds because the Nielsen ratings that drive the radio industry are so flawed, is the inability to accurately track listener stats and ad impressions. Right now, marketers have little insight into whether someone who downloaded or subscribed to a podcast actually made it to an ad. Once that changes, I think you’ll see sports talk radio stations, which are uniquely positioned from a talent, technology and relationship perspective, embrace new platforms and distribution.

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Dee, it sounds like, will be charged with navigating this course, which is ultimately a good thing for WIP and its aging business incentives. They do have arm’s length partnerships with podcasts now – Spike Eskin’s Right to Ricky Sanchez and, to a greater extent, John Barchard’s BGN Radio – but it will require much more than that to stay relevant in a changing landscape. Entercom seems to be working on it. WHO SHALL RULE: