➦In 1904...Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby born (some sources list May 2 – Died from heart attack October 14, 1977).
Bind Crosby
He was the first multimedia star, Crosby was a leader in record sales, radio ratings, and motion picture grosses from 1931 to 1954. His early career coincided with recording innovations that allowed him to develop an intimate singing style that influenced many male singers who followed him, including Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dick Haymes, and Dean Martin. Yank magazine said that he was "the person who had done the most for the morale of overseas servicemen" during World War II. In 1948, American polls declared him the "most admired man alive", ahead of Jackie Robinson and Pope Pius XII. Also in 1948, Music Digest estimated that his recordings filled more than half of the 80,000 weekly hours allocated to recorded radio music.
Crosby won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Father Chuck O'Malley in the 1944 motion picture Going My Way and was nominated for his reprise of the role in The Bells of St. Mary's opposite Ingrid Bergman the next year, becoming the first of six actors to be nominated twice for playing the same character. In 1963, Crosby received the first Grammy Global Achievement Award. He is one of 33 people to have three stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, in the categories of motion pictures, radio, and audio recording. He was also known for his collaborations with longtime friend Bob Hope, starring in the Road to... films from 1940 to 1962.
Crosby influenced the development of the postwar recording industry. After seeing a demonstration of a German broadcast quality reel-to-reel tape recorder brought to America by John T. Mullin, he invested $50,000 in a California electronics company called Ampex to build copies. He then convinced ABC to allow him to tape his shows. He became the first performer to pre-record his radio shows and master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape. Through the medium of recording, he constructed his radio programs with the same directorial tools and craftsmanship (editing, retaking, rehearsal, time shifting) used in motion picture production, a practice that became an industry standard. In addition to his work with early audio tape recording, he helped to finance the development of videotape, bought television stations, bred racehorses, and co-owned the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball team.
On September 2, 1931, Crosby made his nationwide solo radio debut. Before the end of the year, he signed with both Brunswick and CBS Radio. Doing a weekly 15-minute radio broadcast, Crosby became a hit.
Zimmer Radio of Mid-Missouri is calling on the FCC eliminate longstanding local radio ownership limits, arguing the decades-old rules are outdated and prevent broadcasters from competing effectively against digital streaming platforms and large online advertisers.
In a letter filed in MB Docket No. 22-459, company President John P. Zimmer said the current ownership caps, largely unchanged since 1996, no longer reflect marketplace realities. He urged the FCC to loosen or remove the restrictions as part of its ongoing review of media ownership rules.
Zimmer wrote that Congress has directed the FCC to periodically update these rules, yet the limits continue to block broadcasters from achieving economies of scale needed for stronger local service and long-term financial stability.
The company, which owns and operates 10 stations across six Missouri markets, faces intensifying revenue pressure as advertising dollars shift to digital platforms. Smaller and mid-sized market stations, in particular, struggle with limited local ad bases while still covering high operational, staffing, and programming costs.
Staffing reductions driven by these pressures can directly harm a station’s ability to deliver essential local services, especially during emergencies such as severe weather, when radio often provides continuous, life-saving information to communities.
Zimmer noted that his company has diversified by acquiring a local magazine and launching a digital advertising business. However, FCC rules still restrict further investment and growth in its core radio operations.
According to the filing, relaxing ownership caps would enable broadcasters to:
Acquire additional stations.
Spread programming and operational costs.
Increase content diversity.
Better compete for audiences and advertising revenue.
Boston-based GBH and Springfield-based New England Public Media (NEPM) announced plans Friday to formally merge their operations by summer 2026, creating one of the largest statewide public media organizations in Massachusetts while preserving separate branding, headquarters, and signature programming.
GBH President and CEO Susan Goldberg will continue leading the combined organization. The move builds on seven years of collaboration and aims to expand reach, improve efficiencies, and enhance sustainability amid challenges facing public media, including potential federal funding cuts.
The merger is expected to create a unified entity reaching more than 1.3 million people across Massachusetts each week with trusted local news, information, and entertainment. Both organizations’ boards have approved the deal. The transfer of NEPM’s broadcast licenses to GBH remains subject to approval by the FCC.
“This is a forward-thinking plan to scale our journalism while maintaining our focus on local coverage,” Goldberg said in a statement. “By becoming a more sustainable business operation, we ensure that every resident of the Commonwealth has access to fact-based reporting and stories that matter — even in the face of federal defunding.”
The chairman of the FCC has denied that the White House pressured the agency to open an early license review of Disney’s eight ABC television stations, saying the probe was driven solely by the company’s diversity practices.
FCC Chair Brendan Carr stated the decision was made internally with “no pressure from the outside” and “no call for agency action from the outside.” He emphasized that “the FCC should not operate as the speech police.”
The announcement came one day after President Donald Trump publicly pressured Disney to remove ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, calling it a “serious mistake” to keep him on air.
“I don’t understand how he can be on air. I think ABC is putting themselves in great jeopardy, actually,” Trump told Newsmax on Thursday.
Carr opened the investigation into Disney’s diversity practices in March 2025. He said Disney submitted documents last week that he deemed insufficient, and he is considering additional early reviews. He declined to say whether similar scrutiny of Comcast and NBC is forthcoming.
Urban One, parent company of Radio One, is acquiring two prominent Dallas-Fort Worth FM stations from a longtime local owner, reshaping the market’s urban and R&B radio landscape while spinning off another signal to a Christian broadcaster.
On Friday, Urban One announced an agreement to purchase KKDA 104.5 FM (“K104,” hip-hop) and KRNB 105.7 FM (“Smooth R&B 105.7,” adult R&B) from Hymen Childs’ Service Broadcasting Group.
Simultaneously, Radio One is transferring its 94.5 KZMJ-FM (R&B) to the Encouragement Media Group (EMG), which plans to launch its Spanish Christian “Fuzión” format on that signal.
Both deals are subject to FCC approval, with financial terms undisclosed.
Curtis Media Group, a Raleigh-based broadcasting company, has closed on a $1.75 million deal to acquire five radio stations and two translators in and around Wilmington, significantly expanding its presence in coastal North Carolina.
The acquired stations include:
Modern Rock 98.7
Jammin 99.9
Sunny 103.7
Z107.5
ESPN Wilmington
95.9 The Breeze
The stations are located in Jacksonville (98.7 FM), Boiling Spring Lakes (99.9 FM), Southport (107.5 FM), Wrightsville Beach (103.7 FM), and Wilmington (95.9 FM).
Two new DJs are joining KCRW-FM 89.9 as the Santa Monica public radio station overhauls its music programming lineup and parts ways with a longtime on-air personality.
DJ J.Rocc, founder of the influential Beat Junkies turntablist collective, will host a new weekly show Sundays from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Olive Kimoto, a DJ and musician known for her work in the trip-hop band Locust, will follow with her own program Mondays from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
At the same time, the station let go of veteran DJ Dan Wilcox, who had been on staff for 19 years after years as a volunteer. His longtime slot is being replaced by J.Rocc’s new show as part of broader programming updates.
“The magic of KCRW’s music programming is that it’s made by people with something to say, not just something to play,” said Alejandro Cohen, KCRW’s music director. “While J.Rocc and Olive are equipped with deep musical expertise, what we’re most excited about is the way their specific voices and cultural authority will compel listeners to discover things they didn’t realize they were looking for.”
USA Today Co. reported first-quarter 2026 revenue of $548.5 million, down 4% from the prior year, but swung to a net income of $19.9 million — a $27.2 million improvement from a $7.3 million loss in Q1 2025 — driven by digital growth, higher subscription revenue per user, and significant cost reductions.
The company highlighted ongoing progress in its digital transformation, with digital revenue reaching $261.9 million (47.8% of total revenue) and growing 5.2% on a same-store basis.
Digital-only subscription revenue rose to $45.9 million, marking a return to year-over-year growth and the third consecutive quarter of sequential gains.
USA Today Co. ended the quarter with approximately 1.46 million paid digital subscriptions (some reports cite 1.33–1.5 million digital-only), supported by a record-high average revenue per user (ARPU) of $10.30, up sharply from the prior year.
At least 40% of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette newsroom is expected to lose their jobs Monday as the newspaper’s new nonprofit owners assume control, the Newspaper Guild of Pittsburgh said Friday.
The Guild anticipates the newsroom workforce could ultimately be cut in half once all employees receive formal notice. The reductions will significantly shrink coverage of local news, high school and college sports, arts, editing, and production at Pittsburgh’s oldest newspaper.
The Venetoulis Institute for Local Journalism — the nonprofit publisher of the Baltimore Banner — is acquiring the Post-Gazette from Block Communications Inc. The sale was announced April 14. Institute founder Stewart Bainum previously indicated the nonprofit would likely reduce the roughly 100-person newsroom due to industry pressures.
Staff were required to reapply for their positions and undergo 20-minute interviews with Institute leaders. Job offers went to about half the newsroom starting Wednesday, while others began receiving non-retention notices Thursday.
Alex Jones signed off from Infowars on Thursday night after nearly three decades on air, but immediately vowed to continue his broadcasts on a new platform.
In a defiant final episode from the Austin studio, Jones told viewers the power would be cut at midnight and framed the shutdown not as an end, but as the start of a renewed fight. He directed his audience to AlexJonesLive.com and a companion app, which he said were already operational, along with plans for a new studio.
“We’ve only just begun to fight,” Jones declared, urging followers to join him on the new venture while promoting merchandise, supplements, and donations. Less than a day later, he relaunched under the Alex Jones Network banner.
The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has announced that the 2026 Marconi Radio Award nomination window is open through May 31. The prestigious NAB Marconi Radio Awards, established in 1989 and named after inventor and Nobel Prize winner Guglielmo Marconi, recognize stations and individuals for their excellence and performance in radio.
The winners of the 2026 Marconi Radio Awards will be announced during a special dinner program on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, at the Edison Ballroom the night before NAB Show New York held on Oct. 21 – 22.
The Marconi Radio Award finalists are selected by an independent body of broadcasters and will be announced in summer 2026.
All nominations must be submitted through the NAB member portal. The complete list of entry rules and qualifications can be found here.
Contact Tobi Hall at thall@nab.org for questions regarding the NAB Marconi Radio Awards, nomination process or station eligibility.
FOX News Channel’s (FNC) FOX & Friends (weekdays, 6-9 AM/ET) has set off on an all-American road trip in celebration of America250.
Co-hosts Steve Doocy, Brian Kilmeade, Ainsley Earhardt and Lawrence Jones are traveling across the country in a branded RV to host the top-rated morning show from local restaurants and establishments in six different cities. The seven-week tour will conclude in Wildwood, New Jersey on June 12th, following which the fully outfitted RV will be given away to one lucky fan live during July 3rd’s edition of FOX & Friends.
The “For All America” road trip kicked off this past week at the Armadillo Palace in Houston, Texas and will visit five additional cities over the next six weeks, including:
The Big Biscuit in Lenexa, Kansas, on May 6
Fudpuckers in Destin, Florida, on May 15
Tortuga Jacks in Jekyll Island, Georgia, on May 28
Lulus in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on June 5
Duffer’s Restaurant and Homemade Ice Cream Parlor in Wildwood, New Jersey, on June 12
The station shared time with Dallas stations WFAA and WRR. It was the first station in the United States to have an audible logo signal similar to the NBC chimes, the WBAP cowbell. According to President Herbert Hoover, the station's call letters stood for "We Bring A Program".
On May 15, 1923, the Federal Radio Commission expanded the broadcast band, and WBAP and WFAA moved to 630 kHz. Another expansion moved WBAP to 600 kHz effective April 15, 1927, and this frequency was shared with WOAI in San Antonio. On November 11, 1928, WBAP moved to 800 kHz, and on June 1, 1929, WFAA also moved to 800 kHz, sharing time (and NBC Red network affiliation) with WBAP.
Station owner Amon G. Carter was unhappy with having to share time on 800 kHz with WFAA. In May 1938, Carter Publishing purchased KGKO Wichita Falls (570 kHz) and moved it to Fort Worth as an affiliate of the NBC Blue network (which became ABC), and more importantly as a second frequency to be used when 800 kHz was not available. On March 29, 1941, as a consequence of the Treaty of Havana, WBAP and WFAA moved one last time, to 820 kHz.
Carter eventually sold half of KGKO to A.H. Belo, owners of WFAA, and on April 27, 1947, KGKO was replaced by a second shared frequency between WBAP and WFAA.
The dual frequency sharing arrangement between WBAP and WFAA continued through the 1950s and 1960s, with the stations switching frequencies several times a day. When WBAP changed frequencies, it signaled the change with a cowbell, which became widely associated with the station.
Even though the stations swapped frequencies several times each day, the network affiliations remained constant: NBC network programming stayed on 820 kHz and ABC network programming stayed on 570 kHz. This frequently proved confusing for announcers and listeners alike.
On May 1, 1970, the unique dual split-frequency lives of WBAP and WFAA ended when WBAP paid $3.5 million to WFAA in exchange for sole occupancy of 820 kHz (and the NBC affiliation).
WFAA took on 570 kHz (and the ABC affiliation) full-time. Once the frequency-sharing with WFAA ended in 1970, both stations were free to program musical formats, and WBAP began programming country music.
It also gained the added benefit of 820's clear-channel signal; previously WFAA controlled it during these prime nighttime hours. After a series of network affiliation changes in the late 1970s among WBAP, KRLD and WFAA, WBAP switched affiliations to ABC.
The original license for what would become KPQ was granted in 1927 to radio station entrepreneur Louis Wasmer, who named Seattle as the city of license and chose the call letters KGCL. He sold the not-yet-broadcasting station to a local sporting goods store, who officially changed the calls to KPQ. The store then resold it to Westcoast Broadcasting, who in 1928 "moved out" the station to Wenatchee.
➦In 1932...the first scheduled radio show featuring Jack Benny debuted on the NBC Blue Network. Here's a video clip from 1942.
Jack Benny first appeared on radio as a guest of Ed Sullivan in March 1932. He was then given his own show later that year, with Canada Dry Ginger Ale as a sponsor —The Canada Dry Ginger Ale Program, beginning May 2, 1932, on the NBC Blue Network and continuing there for six months until October 26, moving the show to CBS on October 30. Benny stayed on CBS until January 26, 1933.
Arriving at NBC on March 17, Benny did The Chevrolet Program until April 1, 1934 with Frank Black leading the band. He continued with The General Tire Revue for the rest of that season, and in the fall of 1934, for General Foods as The Jell-O Program Starring Jack Benny (1934–42) and, when sales of Jell-O were affected by sugar rationing during World War II, The Grape Nuts Flakes Program Starring Jack Benny (later the Grape Nuts and Grape Nuts Flakes Program) (1942–44). On October 1, 1944, the show became The Lucky Strike Program Starring Jack Benny, when American Tobacco's Lucky Strike cigarettes took over as his radio sponsor, through the mid-1950s. By that time, the practice of using the sponsor's name as the title began to fade.
The show returned to CBS on January 2, 1949, as part of CBS president William S. Paley's "raid" of NBC talent in 1948-49. There it stayed for the remainder of its radio run, which ended on May 22, 1955. CBS aired repeats of previous 1953-55 radio episodes from 1956 to 1958 as The Best of Benny for State Farm Insurance, who later sponsored his television program from 1960 through 1965.
➦In 1941...the FCC okayed the regular scheduling of TV broadcasts by commercial TV stations to begin on July 1. But the onset in the US of WW2 delayed the effective start television until the end of the decade.
➦In 1960...WLS 890 AM, Chicago, Illinois, flipped its format from Country to Top 40.
WLS had been wholly owned and operated by the radio division of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) since the purchase of its parent company in 1959. Five years earlier WLS was merged with WENR, a station with which WLS had shared its frequency since the 1920s
Press Gazette’s latest annual ranking of the biggest English-language news publishers on YouTube shows strong subscriber growth across the board, with the platform solidifying its role as a key destination for news consumption.
The analysis highlights how traditional broadcasters, newspapers, and digital outlets are expanding their audiences on the video platform.
The BBC now leads with 19.7 million subscribers, climbing four spots since the previous ranking in January 2025 to surpass Vice News (19.1 million), ABC News (19.5 million), and CNN (19.5 million). USA Today remains the largest U.S. newspaper on YouTube with 7.5 million subscribers (up 3%), while The Sun leads U.K. newspapers with 6.4 million (up 7%).
Key Highlights from the Ranking
Press Gazette identified 122 English-language news publishers with more than one million YouTube subscribers, up from previous counts, with seven new entrants crossing the threshold (including LBC, The Independent, Novara Media, and others). A separate list of 28–31 major news influencers also showed even faster growth.
Overall growth:
The 115 publishers tracked from the prior ranking grew subscribers by an average of 16%. News influencers averaged 20% growth.
Top performers: Fifteen publishers now exceed 10 million subscribers, including Al Jazeera English (18 million), NDTV (15.7 million), and Fox News (15.2 million).
U.S. and U.K. newspaper leaders: USA Today and The Sun hold their positions as the biggest in their respective markets.
YouTube’s importance for news continues to rise. The platform reported over 15 billion hours of news watched in the first half of 2025 alone, with half of polled voters now getting more news from YouTube than traditional TV. Publishers plan to invest heavily in the platform this year, according to industry reports.
The ranking, Press Gazette’s third since 2022, also tracks views, upload volume, and fastest-growing channels. For instance, Indian outlet Firstpost added the most subscribers (2.9 million, +45%), while channels like India Today lead in video output.
Among influencers, figures like Johnny Harris and Joe Rogan (20.9 million subscribers) draw massive engagement.
This data underscores YouTube’s shift from a supplementary platform to a core distribution channel for news organizations worldwide, driving both subscriber gains and strategic pivots toward video content tailored for younger audiences.
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