NYC Radio: Mark Simone Re-Ups at iHM's Talker WOR-AM

710 WOR has signed legendary New York radio host Mark Simone to a long-term contract, locking in one of the market’s most recognizable voices for years ahead.

The deal, announced today, keeps The Mark Simone Show in its weekday 9 a.m. to noon slot on 710 WOR. The program will continue delivering Simone’s trademark mix of news, politics, entertainment and interviews with high-profile guests.

Simone has been a fixture of New York radio for decades, building a loyal audience through sharp commentary and wide-ranging conversations. Station executives said the multi-year extension underscores his ongoing influence with listeners across the New York market and reinforces WOR’s commitment to established local talent.

Peacock Premium To Be Bundled With YouTube TV

Peacock Premium will be bundled with YouTube Premium for U.S. subscribers beginning in early 2027, giving millions of people seamless access to Peacock’s full library of live sports, movies, and shows directly inside the YouTube experience. 

The multiyear deal between NBCUniversal and YouTube means all Peacock content—including NFL and NBA games, Universal films, Bravo originals such as the Real Housewives franchise, and series like Love Island USA—will be available to YouTube Premium members without leaving the platform. 

YouTube reports more than 125 million Premium subscribers globally; the U.S. portion of that base will gain the ad-supported Peacock Premium tier as part of their existing membership. 

Peacock Premium, which normally costs $10.99 per month on its own, will be ingested into YouTube so viewers can watch within the familiar YouTube interface rather than switching apps. The arrangement expands an existing partnership and also extends distribution deals involving YouTube TV and Comcast platforms. 

Separately, Peacock Premium will become available later this summer as a standalone add-on through YouTube Primetime Channels, joining the already-available Peacock Premium Plus tier (currently $16.99 per month with limited ads). 

This gives non-Premium YouTube users another convenient way to subscribe and watch Peacock content without leaving the YouTube app. The broader agreement aims to keep more entertainment in one place, pairing YouTube’s ad-free viewing, downloads, background play, and YouTube Music with Peacock’s sports, films, and series. 

Additional details on exact pricing for any bundled plans and precise launch timing are expected in the coming months.

Carly Simon Discloses Health Issues

Carly Simon has revealed that she has Parkinson’s disease and is preparing to release her first album of original material in nearly two decades. In a statement issued Monday, the 83-year-old singer-songwriter, best known for hits such as “You’re So Vain,” said she has been learning to live with the progressive neurological condition after a period of relative public silence. 

“I have not stopped living, and I have not stopped working,” she insisted. Simon explained that recording her new album, Comes in Waves (due Aug. 14), presented its own challenges amid her health struggles, which also included treatment for basal cell carcinoma. 

“That still feels mysterious to me. Music has always known when to arrive. It has rescued me more times than I can count. It is like a cat or dog that quietly appears beside you when it senses you are not quite yourself,” she said. The project draws on long-dormant material. 

“The album includes songs and fragments of songs that had been waiting for me, some for years. There were melodies, verses, and ideas written down and tucked away for some unknown future when I would have the time and attention to finish them. Apparently, that future is now,” she added. 

Simon noted that Parkinson’s is unpredictable—some days leave her exhausted and immobilized by apathy, while others allow more movement, thought, and a sense of self. She described joint-replacement surgeries that failed to resolve mobility issues, followed by a Mayo Clinic diagnosis, medication for stiffness and other symptoms, and facial surgery for the skin cancer that heightened her self-consciousness. 

She has withdrawn from public view at times but emphasized that the illness, while difficult, frustrating, and sometimes frightening, has not defined her entire life. Music, she said, gave shape to unstructured days and reminded her that illness need not become everything.

CBS To Shuffle Market Affiliates

CBS is switching its network affiliations in half a dozen U.S. markets effective Aug. 1, moving programming from Nexstar Media Group stations to outlets owned by Hearst Television and Forum Communications. 

The changes stem from a multi-year affiliation agreement in which Paramount (CBS’s parent) extended deals with Nexstar in 36 markets while shifting six others. Nexstar confirmed it will replace CBS with The CW in several of those markets or promote Fox to primary status, while expanding local news where possible. 

A Paramount spokesperson said the company was “pleased to have entered into several new CBS Television Network affiliation agreements, including extending our long-standing partnership with Nexstar, expanding our relationship with Hearst Television and welcoming Forum Communications Company into the CBS Family.” 

Conserative Advocacy Groups Fear Backlash

Conservative advocacy groups are defending Disney-owned ABC against the FCC, urging Chairman Brendan Carr to keep broadcast license renewals routine and avoid setting precedents that could later harm non-liberal broadcasters.

A coalition including the Center for Individual Freedom, Citizens Against Government Waste and Americans for Tax Reform sent a letter to Carr on Wednesday calling on the FCC to preserve the “well-established, routine, predictable, and presumptive nature” of license renewals. The groups warn that turning renewals into a discretionary political checkpoint would create a “powerful lever” future commissions—especially those hostile to conservative or religious broadcasters—could use against them.“

The surest protection against that future is to keep the renewal process predictable today,” the letter states. It notes that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 made renewals “effectively presumptive” so stations could serve their communities without constant fear of losing their licenses. Non-routine reviews, the groups argue, have historically been reserved for extraordinary failures or malfeasance, not content or policy disagreements.

Musk To Media: People Hate You

Elon Musk told The Economist editor-in-chief Zanny Minton Beddoes last week that the public hates the media far more than it hates him.

“I think a lot more people hate you and the media more than you realize,” the Tesla and SpaceX CEO fired back during the interview after Beddoes said people loathed him for trying to influence European politics. 

Musk rejected her criticism outright, arguing that distrust of journalists exceeds any opposition directed at him. “The shoe is on the other foot. They hate you. They hate you far more than they hate me,” he said. “I think you’re the problem. The media.” 

He asked whether she recognized the industry’s standing with the public: “Do you realize the media is despised? Do you realize that journalists, the view of journalists is like, it’s like a favorable view of journalists is like 15%?”

Beddoes had confronted Musk over his support for right-wing European political parties, pointing to his wealth, ownership of X, and large following as giving him unusual power to shape politics abroad. 

“Why should you be able to shape European politics? You don’t even live there,” she said. “But do you see why this makes people think that this man who has all this power, he’s the world’s richest man, he thinks he has a right to influence our politics? It’s why people loathe you. I mean, some people do loathe you.”

Where Things Stand: Combatting News Deserts

The closure of nearly 3,500 U.S. newspapers from 2005 to 2025 has left 50 million Americans in news deserts, correlating with higher municipal borrowing costs, increased loneliness, lower voter turnout, and reduced civic engagement, according to recent studies.

A Northwestern University analysis found 212 counties now have no local news source and another 1,525 are limited to just one, usually a weekly paper. Many remaining outlets feature consolidated ownership and reduced print frequency. Separately, 60 Minutes reported that nearly 60% of newsroom jobs have disappeared since 2008, with digital growth failing to replace most positions.

As newsrooms shrink, coverage shifts toward high-traffic topics like crime and sports while in-depth reporting on education, health, and the environment declines. A joint study by Rebuild Local News and Muck Rack of 4.2 million articles from 52,000 outlets in early 2026 documented a 75% drop in “local journalist equivalents” since 2022. 

States with fewer local journalists show elevated municipal borrowing costs and higher rates of loneliness; prior research links news closures to weaker government accountability and lower rates of voting, volunteering, and charitable giving.

Huntsville Radio: Major Changes At Non-Com WLRH

Huntsville’s public radio station WLRH is expanding its locally produced programming from 32% to 72% of its weekly schedule beginning today.

The shift makes the vast majority of the station’s content original and community-focused, a rarity even in public media. “It’s rare, even in public media, that over 70% of your programming is 100% local and original,” General Manager Erich Brukner said. 

“Ultimately, the common goal is to serve the community in ways that other media around here can’t.”

WLRH made the changes after declining to renew its National Public Radio programming in September 2025. Its parent company, Alabama Public Television, lost $2.8 million from federal funding cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in July 2025. Continuing NPR would have required the station to cover $192,000 itself.

NYC Radio: 77WABC Host Labels NYC Mayor 'Terrorist'

Fox & Friends Weekend co-host Griff Jenkins issued an on-air statement Saturday distancing the program from a guest who had labeled New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani a “terrorist.”

Conservative 77WABC radio host Sid Rosenberg made the remarks earlier in the show while discussing an Upper West Side stabbing attack earlier in the week in which a man allegedly stabbed two people while shouting “Allahu Akbar.” One victim was Jewish and the other Asian; the suspect, 51-year-old Raul Morales, faces attempted murder as a hate crime and other charges related to the Jewish victim. “This guy is a terrorist. That’s the bottom line, I’ll say it. You don’t want to say it, I’ll say it. He’s a terrorist, he’s a jihadist,” Rosenberg said of Mamdani. 

Good Morning: Start Monday, July 27 With The Pulse

Radio Broadcasting

Backlash Worries Conservarives: Conservative advocacy groups are defending Disney-owned ABC against the FCC, urging Chairman Brendan Carr to keep broadcast license renewals routine and avoid setting precedents that could later harm non-liberal broadcasters.

Automakers Lobbying: Automakers and Big Tech interests outspent broadcasters on second-quarter lobbying over the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, according to new disclosures, as Washington’s fight over requiring AM radio in cars continues.

Non-Com Drops NPR: Huntsville’s public radio station WLRH is expanding its locally produced programming from 32% to 72% of its weekly schedule beginning today.

PSKY Believes Pause Is Quickest Route To Closing

Paramount Skydance has agreed to pause its roughly $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery until five days after a federal court rules on antitrust claims brought by a coalition of 12 states—or until June 1, 2027, whichever comes first—because company officials concluded that moving straight to a full trial offers the fastest route to completing the deal. 

A flurry of negotiations late last week produced the joint stipulation filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which cancels a planned August hearing on a preliminary injunction and puts the companies under a standstill: they cannot close the transaction or begin integrating operations during the pause. 

The NYTimes reports Paramount described the outcome as a “significant win” that delivers “a direct path to a trial based on the evidence,” calling a trial “the fastest and clearest way to prove that this transaction is good for competition, good for consumers, and good for creators.” 

The agreement extends an earlier temporary restraining order issued by Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín after the states, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sued in mid-July. Those states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington—allege the combination would reduce competition among major film studios and in cable television distribution, potentially raising prices and limiting content choices for consumers. 

Car Makers Spend Millions To Lobby Against AM Radio Act

Automakers and Big Tech interests outspent broadcasters on second-quarter lobbying over the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, according to new disclosures, as Washington’s fight over requiring AM radio in cars continues.

Combined spending by Toyota, Honda, General Motors, and the Consumer Technology Association totaled approximately $4,907,500 in Q2, compared with about $3,990,457 from the radio industry. The gap reverses the first-quarter pattern, when pro-AM spending exceeded opposition by more than $2 million.

Toyota Motor North America led opponents with $2,020,500 in combined lobbying across two filings that listed the AM Act among other issues. American Honda Motor Company reported $1,477,000, while General Motors disclosed $40,000. The Consumer Technology Association spent $1,370,000, with its transportation and mobility filings naming both the AM Act and the BUILD America 250 Act.

Economic Pressures Hit Sports Media

Last week's numerous cuts at ESPN, the network’s biggest in three years, stemmed directly from Disney’s acquisition of NFL Network. Chairman Jimmy Pitaro made the connection explicit in an internal memo, stating that ESPN had made “significant progress” integrating the rival network it had competed against for more than two decades. 

As with any merger, he added, the company “had to make some difficult decisions.” When two organizations combine, executives and bean counters inevitably examine overlapping roles. Where two people perform the same job—or something close to it—one is typically shown the door. That process is now underway as ESPN absorbs NFL Network staff, creating redundancies between its existing talent roster and newly acquired NFLN employees. 

One former ESPN insider predicted the cuts will continue precisely because of those overlapping positions.

MN Radio: WELY The Community Station At 'The End Of The Road'

WELY (1450 AM and 94.5 FM, with a 103.9 FM translator) is a longtime community radio station based in Ely, Minnesota, serving the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW), the Arrowhead region of northeastern Minnesota, and nearby communities. It is widely known as “End of the Road Radio” because Ely sits at the end of the road network—a former mining town that became a gateway for canoeists, outdoor enthusiasts, and visitors to the remote wilderness along the Minnesota-Canada border.

Early History and Founding

A short-lived predecessor station, WXLT, operated on the same 1450 kHz frequency in Ely for roughly two years in the late 1940s before failing financially in the tough iron-mining economy. Engineer Charles B. Persons (who had worked on WXLT) later obtained a construction permit, reused the site and tower, and launched WELY on October 2, 1954 (some accounts note October 11). Persons and his family lived above the studios in what became known as Broadcast House; mail addressed simply to “Broadcast House, Ely” was delivered.

The station started as a modest operation with limited power (initially around 250 watts) and poor coverage outside town due to low soil conductivity, but it quickly became a local favorite as the only radio outlet in a community of several thousand. Persons hosted a non-commercial Sunday “Hello Neighbor” fireside-chat program and successfully petitioned the FCC for permission to air third-party personal messages—critical in an era (and region) without telephones or cell service in the surrounding wilderness. This tradition of broadcasting personal and emergency messages to people in the BWCAW continues and is a distinctive feature of the station (one of only a couple in the U.S. with such a longstanding waiver).

Radio History: July 27

➦In 1901...Hubert Prior "Rudy" Vallée born (Died – July 3, 1986) He was a singer, actor, bandleader, radio host and was first modern pop stars of the teen idol type.

Rudy Vallee

In 1929, Vallée began hosting The Fleischmann's Yeast Hour, a popular radio show with guests such as Fay Wray and Richard Cromwell in dramatic skits. Vallée continued hosting radio shows such as the Royal Gelatin Hour, Vallee Varieties, and The Rudy Vallee Show through the 1930s and 1940s.

In 1929, Vallée made his first feature film, The Vagabond Lover for RKO Radio. His first films were made to cash in on his singing popularity. While his initial performances were rather wooden, his acting greatly improved in the late 1930s and 1940s, and by the time he began working with Preston Sturges in the 1940s, he had become a successful comedic supporting player. He appeared opposite Claudette Colbert in Sturges's 1942 screwball comedy The Palm Beach Story. Other films in which he appeared include I Remember Mama, Unfaithfully Yours and The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer.

In 1955, Vallée was featured in Gentlemen Marry Brunettes, co-starring Jane Russell, Alan Young, and Jeanne Crain. The production was filmed on location in Paris. The film was based on the Anita Loos novel that was a sequel to her acclaimed Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Gentlemen Marry Brunettes was popular throughout Europe at the time and was released in France as A Paris Pour les Quatre ("Paris for the Four"), and in Belgium as Tevieren Te Parijs.

Vallée performed on Broadway as J.B. Biggley in the 1961 musical How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying and reprised the role in the 1967 film version. He appeared in the 1960s Batman television show as the villain Lord Marmaduke Ffogg and in 1971 as a vindictive surgeon in the Night Gallery episode "Marmalade Wine".

He died July 3, 1986 at age 84.

➦In 1910...announcer Bill Goodwin was born in San Francisco. He was for years the announcer on The Burns & Allen Show, and as well was incorporated into the script playing a ladies man.  He was spokesman for Swan Soap and Maxwell House Coffee, among others, on radio; Carnation Evaporated Milk on television.  His last job was on The Bob Hope Radio Show (1953-55.)

Bill Goodwin

Goodwin was known for frequently promoting the item sold by the sponsor of the show (Swan Soap or Maxwell House Coffee, among others, on radio; Carnation Evaporated Milk on television). He was effective on radio in doing "integrated commercials", the first announcer to do so in which the advertisement was deftly woven into the show's storyline. In 1945, Goodwin was the "featured comedian" as a regular on The Frank Sinatra Show and The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show. In 1947, he had his own program, The Bill Goodwin Show, a situation comedy, also known as Leave It to Bill, which ran from April 26-December 13, 1947. He was the announcer for the Blondie radio program.

He died following a heart attack May 9 1958 at age 47.

➦In 1914...bandleader Carmen Dragon was born in Antioch Calif.  He conducted the Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra, and they performed on The Standard School Broadcast, broadcast on NBC radio in the western U.S. for elementary schools from 1928 through the 1970s. The show was sponsored by the Standard Oil Company of California (now the Chevron Corporation), but other than the name there were no commercials. The program featured a high quality introduction to classical music for young people growing up in the 1940s and early 1950s.

In the summer of 1947, Dragon and Frances Langford had a program on NBC. Langford sang, accompanied by Dragon and his 25-piece orchestra. The show began June 5 and ran for 13 weeks as a summer replacement for George Burns and Gracie Allen's program.

Dragon also hosted a regular classical music radio show broadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Network well into the 1980s.  Dragon's concert band arrangement of America the Beautiful is played by bands across the country in concerts of patriotic music.

He died Mar 28, 1984 at age 69.

➦In 1962...Westinghouse purchased then-Top40 WINS 1010 AM for $10 Million.