RAB and BMI Continue Training Scholarships with
Rising through the Ranks,
the 2008 Women in Radio Management & Leadership Training Seminar

MIW Radio Group Supports Program

New York, New York – June 6, 2008 -- The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB), in conjunction with U.S. performing right organization BMI and the Mentoring and Inspiring Women (MIW) in Radio Group, is pleased to announce a new program to promote advancement of women in Radio management. 

Titled Rising through the Ranks, this will be a two-day training program designed to support women in obtaining positions in Radio sales management and enhancing their overall management knowledge and skills.

BMI will provide 15 scholarships to the training course, which will be conducted at RAB’s Gary Fries Radio Training Academy in Dallas September 9-10 and is limited to a total of 30 participants.  Scholarship applications and registration are available at www.RAB.com. Scholarship applications will be accepted through July 25, 2008, and scholarship selection based on need and desire will be made by a selection team consisting of representatives of BMI, MIW, and the RAB.

Rising through the Ranks is designed for relatively new and soon-to-be sales managers with an emphasis on the specific needs of women.  Past courses have garnered rave reviews from attendees, including participants from Disney, ABC Radio Networks, Anchorage Media Group, BMI, Clear Channel, Cromwell Group, Emmis Communications, Katz Radio, Morris Communications, Nassau Broadcasting, Piedmont Communications, Regent Communications, and Telemedia Broadcasting.

“We are delighted to provide these 15 scholarships to promote the advancement of women in Radio management,” noted Mike O’Neill, BMI Senior Vice President, Licensing.  “The RAB continues to provide the highest caliber of training in the Radio industry.”

“Recent industry reports have revealed that while progress has been made over the past few years, there is still much more that needs to be done to ensure that women have the opportunity to advance to management positions within our industry,” commented Heidi Raphael, VP of Corporate Communication for Greater Media and spokesperson for the MIW Radio Group.

“The RAB is committed to the advancement of women in Radio,” said Mike Mahone, RAB Executive Vice President.  “I’m very pleased that BMI has graciously offered to underwrite this program and for the opportunity to work with the MIWs on this important endeavor.”

Over 160 BMI-funded FastStart minority scholarships have been awarded since the BMI/RAB partnership began seven years ago.  As with all RAB Academy’s management classes, Rising through the Ranks will focus on critical sales management skills and techniques and cover areas like time management, effective superior and subordinate communications, and public speaking.

The RAB Radio Training Academy in Dallas, Texas, and the Academy Off-Campus Extension Program offer a variety of sales and management courses at beginner and advanced levels. For information on any of the RAB Training Academy programs, call 972-753-6756.

Broadcast Music, Inc.® (BMI) is an American performing right organization that represents more than 375,000 songwriters, composers and publishers in all genres of music. For more than 65 years, BMI has represented the most popular and beloved music from around the world, a vast repertoire that includes more than 6.5 million works. The non-profit-making corporation collects license fees from businesses that use music, which it then distributes as royalties to the musical creators and copyright owners it represents.

The MIW Radio Group consists of top-level Radio women across the country that are dedicated to using their influence and resources to help put more women in positions of leadership in Radio. For contact information for each MIW, along with interviews, articles and MIW presentations, or to join the MIW Network or learn about the MIW Mentoring Program, go to http://www.Radiomiw.com/.

The Radio Advertising Bureau serves more than 6,000 member Radio stations in the U.S. and over 1,000 member networks, representative firms, broadcast vendors, and international organizations. RAB leads and participates in educational, research, sales, and advocacy programs that promote and advance Radio as a primary advertising medium.             

Contacts:

For the RAB:

Renee Cassis, Vice President, Corporate Marketing, Radio Advertising Bureau

212-681-7205; renee@rab.com

For BMI:

Hanna Pantle, Assistant Vice President, Corporate & Media Relations, BMI

310-289-6328; hpantle@bmi.com

Jerry Bailey, Senior Director, Media Relations & Business Communications, BMI

615-401-2825; jbailey@bmi.com

For the MIW Radio Group:

Heidi Raphael, VP of Corporate Communication, Greater Media, Inc.

781-348-8612; hraphael@greatermedia.com