Pillar of Fire’s Pillar Media has announced the appointment of Skip Mahaffey as Director of Programming Operations and promotions of Kristen James to Music Director for their Christian AC duo of “Star 93.3” WAKW Cincinnati OH and “Star 99.1” WAWZ Zarepath NJ.
Mahaffey most recently served as morning host on Educational Media Foundation’s “K-Love” network from 2016 until exiting in August. He previously spent most of his career in Country radio hosting mornings at KPLX Dallas, WFUS and WQYK Tampa, and WCOL Columbus. He has also worked at stations Los Angeles, Phoenix, San Deigo, St. Louis, Tulsa, and Tucson. Mahaffey will be based at WAKW.
Kristen James, who currently hosts middays on both stations, rises to Music Director. James has spent her entire career at WAWZ rising from an intern to promotions, and weekend host before moving to afternoon co-host in 2018 and morning co-host in April 2020 before moving to middays earlier this year.
Pillar Media, parent organization for WAWZ/NYC-NJ (STAR 99.1), WAKW/Cincinnati (STAR 93.3), and KPOF/Denver is pleased to announce the addition of Skip Mahaffey to the team and the promotion of Midday Host, Kristen James.
Mahaffey joins as the new Director of Programming Operations, a position vacated in late
summer by Jeff Evans. He comes to Pillar Media with 40 years of experience in Broadcasting, most recently serving as K-LOVE Morning Show Co-Host for 7 years. Prior to EMF, Mahaffey served in markets such as Dallas, Phoenix, Tampa, and many others as an award-winning radio personality with experience in Music Programming and Operations Management.He says, “Anyone who knows me knows I’m a massive Bengals and Buckeyes fan. Toss in Major
League Baseball and I’m one happy camper. Seriously, this was an opportunity I could not pass up. New challenges, new role, new kinds of chaos (in a good way). Art Garza and Dick
Whitworth’s passion for Jesus and radio are infectious and you can feel it throughout the
ministry. I can’t wait to do what I can to help bring Jesus to the world through Pillar Media. I’m thrilled to be working for Matt Stockman again and for the first time ever, I’ll be working with my friend Chad Mitchell. I’m excited to meet the rest of this talented, dedicated team. God’s got some big stuff in store…stay tuned (always thought that was a lame statement but it works here ).”Pillar Media Brand Director Matt Stockman says, “Growing our team with the experience and
talent of someone like Skip Mahaffey is more than just the right next step for Pillar Media – Skip’s winning mindset and passion for reaching others with the Good News will fit perfectly into the Pillar Media programming strategy, and I am so excited to have him on our team!”In addition to adding Mahaffey, Kristen James is promoted to Music Director. She will continue her Midday on-air duties. James has been with Pillar Media since 2012 serving in various roles, including Promotions, Production, and On-Air.
About her new role, James says, “It has been such a joy to watch Pillar Media grow over the years and I’m so thankful that I’ve been able to be a part of it! I’m so excited to see how God will use me in this new position. STAR’s music has been the soundtrack through all my highs and lows. What a privilege it is to share the power of it with our listeners!”
About James’s promotion, Stockman says, “Kristen has been a tremendous asset to our team
and has quickly become a dynamic personality on both STAR 99.1 and STAR 93.3. Promoting her to the role of Music Director is just the first step – I believe that she will be an integral part of the future leadership of Pillar Media.”Mahaffey will be based at the Cincinnati location for Pillar Media beginning October 16 and James remains at the New Jersey location.
