Las Vegas Radio: Audacy To Silence N/T KXNT AM

News Talk 840 KXNT will end its nearly 40-year run on Las Vegas AM radio effective Sept. 1. Host Alan Stock announced the closure Friday at the start of his “News at 8” program, reading from a prepared statement while wearing headphones. 

“I have an important update for our listeners. Effective September 1, News Talk 840 KXNT will conclude its broadcast operation,” Stock said. “To put it simply, the station’s transmitter site is shutting down. Our parent company, Audacy, explored a number of alternative transmission options, but ultimately wasn’t able to identify a technically and financially viable long-term solution. This wasn’t an easy decision.”

Stock’s locally produced show, the only one of its kind on the otherwise nationally syndicated conservative talk station, will move to KDWN 101.5-FM in the 8 a.m. weekday slot beginning Tuesday, Sept. 1. 

National programs from hosts including Glenn Beck and Mark Levin will no longer air in Las Vegas but remain available elsewhere.

“I know KXNT has been a part of this community for a long time, and it’s been an honor to spend time with you every day,” Stock continued. “I’m incredibly grateful to our listeners, our advertisers, and everyone who has made the station such an important part of Las Vegas.”

Station Senior Vice President/Marketing Manager Gina Massenzi said the approximately 40 full- and part-time staffers will remain with Audacy.

KXNT 840 AM (50 Kw, DA2)

KXNT-AM 840 signed on in 1986 as KVEG, mixing talk and middle-of-the-road music. It became KXNT in 1997—the “NT” standing for News/Talk—and adopted a traditional talk-radio format whose signature national program was “The Rush Limbaugh Show.”

L-A Radio: Non-Com KCAL Flips to Classic Rock

As of today, KCAL-FM 96.7 is dropping its active rock format and live on-air personalities for an automated “All Music, All the Time” classic rock approach.

Anaheim Broadcasting Corporation, the station’s owner, announced the shift in a news release Friday, saying the change expands KCAL’s musical focus with a broader selection of classic rock spanning multiple generations while sharply reducing interruptions. 

The Inland Empire station, licensed to Redlands and serving the Riverside-San Bernardino market, will emphasize the songs and artists that defined the genre, delivering a more consistent, music-heavy listening experience.

“KCAL has a longstanding history in the Inland Empire, and this next chapter builds on the station’s strong rock heritage,” said Kelly Sanders, Chief Operating Officer of Anaheim Broadcasting Corporation. “We rebuilt KCAL around the music our listeners grew up on — the songs and the artists that made classic rock — and we built it right here at home. KCAL will deliver a focused, consistent listening experience with broader appeal for both our audience and advertising partners.”

The move also creates two complementary adult-targeted music brands for the company in the region. KCAL’s new classic rock programming will pair with sister station KOLA-FM 99.9’s classic hits format, giving advertisers distinct options for reaching established adult consumers.

The format change comes with the dismissal of the entire on-air staff. Among those let go were evening host and program director John DeSantis (six years with the station), longtime afternoon host and programming director Daryl Norsell (42 years at KCAL, including 36 years in afternoons), morning host and imaging director Patrick Tish (13 years), and midday host and public service director Nikki Preston (eight years). 

DeSantis confirmed the layoffs in a public Facebook post, describing the shift to an “automated, human-less format” as shocking and thanking listeners for their support.

KCAL-FM signed on in 1965 and has long been a rock fixture in the Inland Empire. It evolved from earlier rock formats into active rock (branded “96.7 KCAL Rocks”) that mixed current and recent rock with harder-edged classics. The station’s studios are in Redlands, with its transmitter near Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Newsom Urges CA To Settle With Paramount+

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office has urged state Attorney General Rob Bonta to settle California’s lawsuit challenging Paramount’s proposed $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, citing risks to Hollywood jobs if the deal is blocked.

Newsom has privately told people involved in the matter that preventing the merger could damage employment in the state’s entertainment industry. His office is pressing Bonta to seek an out-of-court resolution rather than continue litigation that could delay or derail the transaction.

Bonta retains independent authority to decide whether to settle, pursue the case, or take other action. The attorney general’s office has not publicly indicated whether it will follow the governor’s preference.

The lawsuit targets the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery deal on antitrust or related grounds under California law. Newsom’s intervention reflects concern that prolonged legal uncertainty or a successful challenge could harm the state’s film and television workforce, a key economic sector.

ESPN Layed-Off Baseball Voice Karl Ravech...Or Did They?

Karl Ravech was laid off by ESPN last week after 33 years and is already back on the air.

However, the longtime play-by-play announcer called Thursday night’s Atlanta Braves-Washington Nationals game and will handle additional summer assignments, including the Aug. 12 New York Yankees-Seattle Mariners contest and some Little League World Series coverage, where he has served as the lead voice, according to a source with direct knowledge of the matter who was granted anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.

Ravech learned of his dismissal when a reporter contacted him Tuesday morning; an ESPN executive shortly afterward confirmed he had been let go.

Ravech, 61, had been earning well into seven figures annually as the lead play-by-play voice on “Sunday Night Baseball” and a college basketball announcer. ESPN lost “Sunday Night Baseball” rights to NBC this season but retains roughly 30 regular-season games, some of which Ravech will still call.

Network expectations are that once Ravech finishes these remaining baseball assignments, he will no longer appear on ESPN.

CBS Sports Puts Tony Romo On Leave

CBS has placed No. 1 NFL game analyst Tony Romo on indefinite leave eight days after his arrest for operating while under the influence.

“Tony Romo is on leave from his role at CBS Sports until further notice,” the network said in a statement Friday.

JJ Watt, who debuted as a game analyst on CBS’s No. 2 team last season, will fill in with play-by-play announcer Jim Nantz and sideline reporter Tracy Wolfson on the top broadcast team in Romo’s absence. 

CBS said it will announce its full talent roster for the 2026 NFL season at a later date.

Romo, the former Dallas Cowboys quarterback, was pulled over by police in Wisconsin on July 23 and charged with OWI. A police report said he failed field sobriety tests. TMZ posted bodycam footage of the arrest in which Romo declined a breathalyzer test. Police also found an open container of alcohol in his vehicle, according to the Associated Press. The 46-year-old has not publicly commented on the incident.

Romo joined CBS in 2017 after 13 seasons with the Cowboys and was set to begin his 10th season on the network’s top NFL team. He quickly became a media sensation, earning the nickname “Romostradamus” for his play predictions, and secured a 10-year, $180 million contract extension in 2020. 

In recent years he has faced growing criticism over on-air miscues and a perceived lack of work ethic. 

CBS could potentially save $72 million from the remaining four years of his deal if it uses the arrest to terminate the contract. Should the network move on from Romo, Watt—who earned praise working with Ian Eagle last season—would be the clearest full-time replacement as No. 1 game analyst.

FCC Chair Defends FCC Actions

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr on Friday defended his agency’s recent actions against ABC, saying broadcasters have a duty to “operate in the public interest” and that the FCC is simply working to restore that standard.

In a Fox Business Network interview with Maria Bartiromo, Carr said broadcasters “struck a deal with the American people. You broadcasters get subsidized access, free access to a valuable public resource, the airwaves, worth billions of dollars. In exchange, you have to operate in the public interest.”

“Look, as a country, we should have a trusted, respected news media, and we’re not there,” Carr said. “So I hope more broadcasters return to their public interest obligations.”

Americans have been subsidizing broadcast media to the tune of billions by giving TV stations free use of a valuable public resource—the airwaves.

In exchange, broadcasters are required to operate in the public interest.

The FCC is holding them accountable to that standard. pic.twitter.com/5jERd6dvv4

— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) July 31, 2026

The comments came one day after ABC, in its latest filing opposing the FCC’s early review of eight ABC local broadcast licenses, accused the agency of a brazen attempt to chill constitutionally protected free speech. ABC charged that the Commission is retaliating simply because it dislikes the political content of ABC’s shows.

“There is no question why the Commission is singling out these eight stations,” the network’s filing stated. “Each is owned by ABC, and the Administration has openly and repeatedly called for the revocation of ABC’s licenses, because it dislikes the content and viewpoints expressed on ABC network programs.”

FCC Concerned With Broadcast Network Affiliation Changes

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched investigations into a wave of Big Four network affiliation changes, warning that some recent moves by broadcasters may violate federal policy.

In a Thursday interview with Policyband, Carr said the FCC is “taking investigatory action right now on at least one, if not more, of these affiliation transactions.” 

Brendan Carr

He expressed particular concern that the flurry of affiliation activity risks leaving local television stations in a weaker bargaining position relative to the major networks that supply them with national news and entertainment programming.

Carr stressed that broadcasters cannot treat affiliation swaps as an unregulated free-for-all. “This is not the Wild West, or as I like to say, it’s not Nam. There are some rules of the road,” he said. “To the extent that some broadcasters are of the view that this is a complete and total Wild West, I think that they are mistaken in that position.”

The investigations underscore the FCC’s intent to enforce existing rules governing network-station relationships amid a period of significant realignment in the television industry.

Satellite Radio’s Decline Has Been Greatly Exaggerated

Three of Forbes’ 20 highest-paid podcasters of 2026 are on SiriusXM.  The satellite radio service claims SmartLess hosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes; motivational speaker Mel Robbins; and Call Her Daddy host Alex Cooper. 

All signed deals with SiriusXM within the past two years worth at least $32 million each.

Their presence among the top earners underscores the hosts’ proven ability to attract listeners and drive subscriptions. Companies of SiriusXM’s scale do not pay those sums without expecting returns, and the hosts’ choice of the platform over alternatives signals both the company’s forward-looking strategy and the podcasters’ substantial influence.

According to Forbes' contributor Toni Fitzgerald, this success challenges a decades-old narrative of satellite radio’s impending demise. Critics have predicted its end almost since launch, with Time naming it one of the 10 biggest tech failures of the prior decade in 2009 and Datamation delivering similar last rites around the same time. 

Both pointed to the medium’s expensive, limited technology: building, maintaining and launching satellites is far more capital-intensive than cloud-based internet delivery. Those high startup costs contributed to the 2008 merger of Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio into SiriusXM.

More recent challenges have included automakers’ growing preference for wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, which reduces demand for factory-installed satellite receivers. To retain its large subscriber base, SiriusXM has offered deep discounts—sometimes cutting monthly prices to just a few dollars—which temporarily increased churn when rates later rose.

Yet SiriusXM has navigated these pressures and secured high-profile talent including the SmartLess team, Cooper and Robbins. It remains the longtime home of Howard Stern, still one of radio’s most recognizable voices despite a relative decline in star power. Satellite radio has settled into a defined niche, stabilizing its subscriber numbers through exclusive early and ad-free access to popular podcast content. 

That resilience points to a more positive outlook for what increasingly appears to be a durable legacy platform.

Stern Staffers Fight For More Severance

Many of Howard Stern’s former employees are fighting for larger severance packages after being laid off from his SiriusXM show earlier this month.

Stern cut about a dozen staffers as he prepares to reduce his output to just one new show per week after Labor Day. The laid-off workers rejected an initial offer of roughly one week of pay for each year worked and are instead pressing for more money, according to a report from the U.S. Sun. 

Some declined to sign nondisclosure agreements attached to the packages and continue to negotiate their exits, a source told the outlet. Others are now “feeling OK” about their final deals after talks with HR executives, another insider said.

Page Six reached out to a representative for Stern but did not immediately receive a response.

The 72-year-old host signed a new three-year contract with SiriusXM in December 2025 that he said would give him greater “flexibility.” He retained a core team of veteran producers amid the cuts, explaining that he “just doesn’t need that much content anymore.”

On air, Stern told listeners he was pleased with the arrangement: “I am happy to announce that I have figured out a way to have it all. More free time and continuing to be on the radio. I do like my days off. You know me, I’m never bored. I’m busy every minute.”

NAB: Revoking ABC Station Licenses Threatens 1A Rights

The National Association of Broadcasters has filed comments urging the FCC to renew the licenses of eight ABC-owned television stations, arguing that denial would violate First Amendment rights, risk censoring news coverage, and threaten the broadcast industry’s financial future.

The filing responds to “petitions to deny” submitted by outside groups seeking to block the renewals of ABC’s owned-and-operated stations. NAB stressed that the station renewal process is not an open-ended tool for reviewing every aspect of a licensee’s business, resolving claims belonging to other agencies or courts, or second-guessing protected editorial decisions.

“Contrary to many renewal opponents’ claims, [the station renewal process]...is not designed to be an open-ended vehicle for reviewing every aspect of a licensee’s or its corporate affiliates’ businesses, resolving claims committed to other agencies and courts, or second-guessing constitutionally protected editorial decisions,” NAB wrote. 

“The filings opposing renewal of the ABC stations’ licenses stray well beyond these statutory boundaries. They invite the Commission to evaluate whether and how the stations covered news and public affairs, which is precisely the type of editorial judgment protected by the First Amendment and Section 326’s prohibition against censorship. Yet none of the filers makes the prima facie showing required to establish that any programming aired by the stations violated the Communications Act, the FCC’s rules, or the stations’ public interest obligations.”

NAB further noted that the FCC limits consideration of non-FCC misconduct to four specific areas of adjudicated conduct—none of which apply here—and that Section 309(k)(1) requires evaluation of each station’s performance during its license term, not unrelated corporate activities such as theme parks, studios, or streaming platforms. Allowing such claims to affect renewals would ignore the statute, established precedent, and the approach the FCC took just two years ago when rejecting challenges to FOX 29 Philadelphia’s renewal.

The association also warned that uncertainty created by early challenges to license renewals will discourage investment in the broadcast industry.

FCC Chair Brendan Carr has repeatedly stated the agency’s interest in strengthening the financial stability of local broadcasters so they can expand local news coverage, citing that goal in initiatives involving broadcast sports rights, network-affiliate relations, and ownership caps.

Radio History: August 1

➦In 1905...Radio actress Alice Dorothy Margaret Frost born (Died  at age 92 – January 6, 1998). She was an inaugural member of Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre on radio and the stage, she later performed the role of Pamela North on the radio series Mr. and Mrs. North for nearly 10 years

Alice Frost

Frost debuted on radio at age 16 as a singer, participating in a duet with a friend on a Minneapolis station. By 1933, she was a member of the cast of The Criminal Court. In 1934, she was "one of the ghost voices during CBS-WABC's Forty-Five Minutes In Hollywood."

➦In 1937...Mutual radio debuted “The Goodwill Hour”, with its familiar phrase, “You have a friend and advisor in John J. Anthony.”  The show began in 1932 as a 30-minute talk program, possibly  the first advice program of any kind. He offered advice and counseling on domestic problems. It was loosely based on a radio show called the Goodwill Court.

➦In 1940...WOR-FM NYC signed-on as W2XOR

➦In 1963...WABC 95.5 FM first aired stereo programming.

In the early 1960s, WABC-FM began to program itself separately from WABC-AM. During the 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike, the station carried an news format for 17 hours daily. Two-and-a-half years before WINS launched its own around-the-clock, all-news format in April 1965, it was the first attempt at an all-news format in the New York market.

Wolfman Jack, Richard Dreyfuss

➦In 1973…"American Graffiti" premiered in Los Angeles.  It starred Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Cindy Williams, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips, Harrison Ford, and Wolfman Jack.

➦In 1973...DJ John R Richbourg aired his final show on WLAC 1510 AM, Nashville, Tennessee after refusing to go along with a format change from R&B to Top 40. He resigned.

John R

In the mid-1950s, John R. became an influential figure in the fledgling black music trade by featuring ground-breaking R&B and early rock performers like Chuck Berry and Fats Domino on his program. Later John R capitalized on his reputation by becoming a manager to several artists, an occasional record producer, and later entrepreneur in Nashville's booming studio industry. Nashville has long had a national reputation for country music. It. also has always had studio facilities devoted to soul, R&B, and gospel.

Richbourg may have gained his most enduring reputation as a pitchman who used "down-home" phrasing to ad-lib copy for advertisers. One example: Now, friends, I know you got some soul. If you didn't, you wouldn't be listenin' to ol' John R., 'cause I got me some soul. I'll tell you somethin', friends. You can really tell the world you got soul with this brand-new Swinging Soul Medallion, a jewelry pendant.

John R sold exotic or unusual products, such as baby chicks from a Pennsylvania hatchery, family Bibles, hot-rod mufflers, and so on. According Wes Smith's book, The Pied Pipers of Rock 'n' Roll: Radio Deejays of the 50s and 60s (Longstreet Press, 1989), many such products turned out to be defective and/or scams, but few irate customers ever sought action against the station or manufacturers. One legitimate sponsor was Ernie's Record Mart, owned by a record label entrepreneur who specialized in recording local Nashville R&B acts.

Despite the popularity of newer Euro-American performers such as Elvis Presley and The Beatles, Richbourg continued to play chiefly African-American artists.

➦In 1981...MTV premiered. "Video Killed The Radio Star".

Howard Stern Hostile Work Environment Lawsuit Dismissed

A New York judge has granted Howard Stern’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by his former executive assistant. New York State Supreme Court Justice Melissa A. Crane ruled Wednesday in favor of the radio host, his wife Beth Stern, and their production company One Twelve. 

In the order, Crane stated that some of Leslie Kuhn’s claims “are moot” and declared: “Defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint is granted and the complaint is dismissed in its entirety, with costs and disbursements to defendants as taxed by the Clerk of the Court, and the Clerk is directed to enter judgment accordingly in favor of defendants.”

Kuhn sued on April 5, accusing the Sterns of creating a “hostile work environment” and engaging in “questionable business operations” before her February 2026 termination. She sought a declaratory judgment valued at “not less than $2.5 million” and aimed to void confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements she said were forced on her at the time of what she called a “manufactured” firing, rendering them “fraudulent and unenforceable.”

According to the complaint, Kuhn was promoted in January 2024 from office manager of SiriusXM’s The Howard Stern Show to Stern’s personal executive assistant. The Sterns then asked her to move to their Southampton, N.Y., residence, where she said she was required to manage mansion staff schedules and payroll, handle general household operations, and assist with Beth Stern’s at-home feline rescue and fostering efforts.

Stern’s side filed the motion to dismiss on April 29, 2026, describing the suit as “a thinly veiled attempted shakedown” in which Kuhn allegedly “hatched a plan to extract a staggering ‘hush-money’ payment.”