Boston Radio: What Ever Happened to Matty in the Morning?

Matt Siegel is back in Boston this Wednesday for “An Evening with Matty in the Morning” at the Wilbur Theatre and he is using a new Boston Globe “Say More” interview to apologize for the messy end of his 41-year run on Kiss 108. 

He says he “f---- up,” stayed in “crazy-land,” and wants to make amends. He does not recant the gender-identity jokes that started the fight. Siegel hosted Matty in the Morning from 1981 until May 2022. 

The public rupture began in 2021, when management told him to stop joking about Demi Lovato’s pronouns after the singer came out as nonbinary. He answered with an on-air monologue attacking the station, then walked out. 

New Trump Taxpayer-Funded Ad Airs Over Weekend

The White House aired a taxpayer-funded television ad during Sunday NFL games featuring President Donald Trump declaring “this is the final battle” and vowing to “cast out the communists, Marxists, and fascists,” just over a month before the November midterms.

The commercial, captured by media tracker AdImpact, shows Trump walking down a hallway while audio plays of him saying the country will “throw off the sick political class that hates our country,” “rout the fake news media,” and “liberate America from these villains once and for all.” The language echoes remarks he made in a 2023 Veterans Day speech.

The ad ran on Fox during at least two games: Washington Commanders vs. Seattle Seahawks and Carolina Panthers vs. Cleveland Browns.

Research Mixed On Radio and Young Demos

Generation Z and Generation Alpha rarely tune in to FM radio and may barely know AM radio exists, according to a Ring study, a finding that fuels a long-running industry argument over whether traditional broadcast radio is fading among the young. 

The claim captures a common perception: digital natives raised on smartphones, streaming apps, YouTube, and TikTok have little reason to hunt for a radio dial. AM, in particular, is often treated as a relic associated with talk, sports, and older listeners rather than music or discovery. Yet the same data landscape that appears to support the Ring study also undercuts a simple “radio is dead for kids” narrative.

Where Things Stand: Radio By The Numbers

Total daily audio time is high and stable. Adults 18+ spend about 3 hours 54 minutes a day with audio. People 13–34 lead every age group at 4 hours 30 minutes; 35–54 spend 4:03; 55+ spend 3:17. Younger Americans are not leaving audio. They are listening more, on more platforms. 

On-demand now leads linear. By 2026, on-demand platforms (streaming music + podcasts and similar) account for about 56% of all audio time. Linear formats (AM/FM and satellite) have lost the majority they held as recently as 2020. That is the long-run structural shift. 

AM/FM is still the single largest platform in total time. Across 2025 data, AM/FM (over-the-air plus station streams) is about 33% of all audio time among 18+, more than double YouTube music/videos at 14%. Streaming music as a category is large, but it is fragmented across Spotify, Apple, Amazon, Pandora, and others. 

Illinois R&R Hall Inducts WXRT's Terri Hemmert

WXRT's Terri Hemmert

The Illinois Rock & Roll Hall of Fame held its fifth annual induction ceremony Sunday in Chicago for the first time, moving from Joliet to the Harris Theater in Millennium Park. The event honors artists, labels, stations and DJs with Illinois roots, including Survivor, American Breed, Curtis Mayfield, classic-rock station WDRV-FM 97.1 and longtime WXRT-FM 93.1 personality Terri Hemmert. 

Hemmert, 78, is the radio centerpiece of this year’s class. An Ohio native, she began overnights at WXRT in 1973 and became Chicago’s first woman in rock morning drive. She has spent more than 50 years on the air championing the Beatles, the blues and local acts. She says she got into radio “to meet the Beatles,” later interviewing Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. 

In the 1970s she slipped Cheap Trick onto overnight playlists; the Rockford band entered the Hall in its inaugural 2021 class. “We broke bands like Cheap Trick, for example,” she said.

She joined a line of Chicago radio names already in the Hall: Larry Lujack, John Records Landecker, recently retired Bob Stroud and WGN-AM 720 morning host Bob Sirott, a 2023 inductee who was emcee Sunday. “I think they did that so I’d be sure to say yes when they ask me to emcee this every year,” Sirott said. He started as a rock DJ at WLS-AM 890 in the 1970s.

Good Morning: Here's The Pulse for Monday, Sep 28

Radio Broadcasting

More Listeners, Platforms: Total daily audio time is high and stable. Adults 18+ spend about 3 hours 54 minutes a day with audio. People 13–34 lead every age group at 4 hours 30 minutes; 35–54 spend 4:03; 55+ spend 3:17. Younger Americans are not leaving audio. MORE

Mixed Numbers: Generation Z and Generation Alpha rarely tune in to FM radio and may barely know AM radio exists, according to a Ring study, a finding that fuels a long-running industry argument over whether traditional broadcast radio is fading among the young. MORE

Boston Radio: What Ever Happened to Matty in the Morning? Matty Siegel is back in Boston. MORE

Madonna Wins 2026 MTV VMAs Artist of the Year

Madonna dominated the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards with seven wins, including Artist of the Year, after opening the show with a high-energy Confessions II medley featuring Sabrina Carpenter and Charli XCX, while Taylor Swift made history by taking Video of the Year and the inaugural Artist Director Honors. 

The ceremony aired Sunday night from the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, hosted by Snoop Dogg. 

Madonna, 68, returned to the VMA stage for the first time in 23 years and led all artists with 13 nominations. She collected trophies for Artist of the Year, Best Collaboration (“Bring Your Love” with Carpenter), Best Dance, Best Long Form Video, Best Album, Best Cinematography, and Best Choreography. Her opening set mixed new material with cameos, lasers, and visual nods to her catalog. 

Swift won Video of the Year for “The Fate of Ophelia,” dedicated the award to the late Dolly Parton, and received the new Artist Director Honors for her work behind the camera. Combined with additional wins including Best Direction, the night pushed her career total to 33 VMAs, making her the most-awarded artist in the show’s history. 

She also world-premiered her “Patient Zero” video. BTS won Song of the Year for “Swim.” 

Other major winners included Sienna Spiro (Best New Artist), LISA (Best Pop), and Nirvana, who received the Video Vanguard Award. Kacey Musgraves performed a tribute to Dolly Parton; RAYE, Sombr, and Teddy Swims honored George Michael. The two-hour broadcast on CBS, MTV, and Paramount+ followed an NFL delay.

Paramount Hopes For Favorable Decision This Week

A federal judge held a hearing Thursday on a proposed settlement that would allow Paramount’s merger with Warner Bros. to proceed, but she has not yet approved the deal and could still demand changes or send the parties back to the negotiating table.

Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin scheduled the session after the states and Paramount announced last Monday they had resolved the states’ antitrust lawsuit. She said the hearing would “address certain outstanding questions regarding the factual and legal underpinnings of” the agreement “as well as [its] implementation.”

The settlement does not require Paramount to sell any assets or give up control over parts of the media industry. Instead, it would require the combined company to meet film-production quotas, create an “independent editorial board” overseeing CNN and CBS News, and accept other limited restrictions for five years. Opponents of the merger have broadly criticized those terms as inadequate.

Paramount Priorities Begin Emerging

Paramount Skydance is reportedly preparing a free Paramount+ tier, microdramas, interactive ads, comments in its short-form feed, and AI-assisted clipping as it tries to lift engagement and ad revenue ahead of its planned $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery. 

Internal documents and a summer town hall for streaming staff, reported by Business Insider, list those items as product priorities. Several free-tier projects are marked for the fourth quarter of 2026 and the first quarter of 2027. The company has not announced launch dates. 

The free offering, described internally as a “free front porch,” would require an email before users can sample shows and movies. Registration would put viewers on marketing lists and, documents said, “lay the groundwork” for converting free users into paying subscribers. Free viewing would hit a limit after a set number of episodes or a set period of time so people could not “binge free content without friction.” Paramount is also testing other free formats, including short-form video, live channels, and user-generated content. 

AG Blanche: ‘One-Sided News’ Is National Security Issue

Attorney General Todd Blanche said Sunday that what the Trump administration views as “one-sided” or false reporting is a national security threat serious enough to bar journalists from the White House and Air Force One.

“By the way, that is what is a national security problem. When you have completely misinformation, complete misinformation coming out of the White House, that affects our relationship with our foreign partners. That affects our relationship with our foreign enemies,” Blanche said on ABC’s “This Week.”

🚨 HOLY CRAP! Todd Blanche just DESTROYED ABC after she tried defending fake news reports that jeopardize national security

RADDATZ: Give us an example.

BLANCHE: Wait, wait,wait — I'm sorry. Give you an example of when CNN doesn't report accurately You cannot be ASKING me that. pic.twitter.com/bLxOh9WjKn

— News Across USA (@chat2rono) September 27, 2026

The remarks expand on a Justice Department court filing defending President Donald Trump’s effort to revoke access for CNN, MSNOW and Politico. A federal judge has treated that national-security rationale with skepticism.

Judge Timothy Kelly ordered the administration to temporarily restore the three outlets’ credentials, finding the revocations lacked “constitutionally adequate due process.” He described the articles the government cited as “routine” and said officials “offer little to back up their asserted national security interest.”

Trump's Wrath: MS NOW Reporter Told To 'Be Quiet'

President Donald Trump told an MS NOW reporter to “be quiet” on Saturday and again branded CNN and MS NOW “fake news,” a day after the White House barred CNN from Air Force One pool coverage of his trip to Tennessee. 

As he left the White House, MS NOW White House correspondent Akayla Gardner asked: “Do you only want outlets that support you to be a part of the press pool?” Trump replied, “No, no, no. I want real news, not fake news – like you.” 

President Trump explains why he does not want CNN and MSNBC at the WH.

This obnoxious reporter keeps yelling at President Trump “do you not want tough questions?!”

Joe Biden didn’t want tough questions, you piece of crap.

None of you pressed him.

You even had to submit your…

— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) September 26, 2026

The exchange was not broadcast live because CNN had been removed as the designated television pool crew; the White House posted video on social media. Gardner followed up: “Do you not want tough questions?” Trump said, “Be quiet,” then repeated insults calling MS NOW “MS DNC.” 

iHM Insights: Radio Still Matters to Gen Z

About half of Gen Z’s time with ad-supported audio is spent on broadcast radio, according to iHeartMedia research cited by Lainie Fertick, president of iHeart Insights.

The rest of that time is split between streaming and podcasts, which serve different needs, Fertick told Beet.TV Editorial Director Lisa Granatstein. iHeart Insights, the company’s research and consumer intelligence unit, studies how people use audio and how advertisers can reach them across radio, podcasts and streaming.

Buyers often start in the wrong place, Fertick said. The more useful questions are what Gen Z is listening to, where they are listening, and why.

iHeart’s research found that Gen Z co-listens more than previous generations—in cars, around family or coworkers, and as shared cultural ground. Fertick called audio “this cultural experience.” That matters as mass culture has splintered and fewer people share the same media at the same time.

Clay Travis Offers Colin Kaepernick $2M For Interview

Clay Travis has publicly offered Colin Kaepernick $2 million for a one-hour, no-questions-off-limits interview. The challenge was issued Friday on The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, first as $1 million for 30 minutes and then doubled on air. 

Travis later framed the money as going to a mutually agreed charity, not to Kaepernick personally, and ruled out groups such as Black Lives Matter. There is no public sign that Kaepernick has accepted. 

“If I could pick one person to be able to do a sit-down interview with, it would be Colin Kaepernick,” Travis said. He predicted that half an hour with him would end Kaepernick’s role as a sports-and-politics spokesman. The terms he laid out were blunt: any question he deemed fit, answers required, one hour, $2 million. He did not specify whether the interview would air on his radio show, OutKick, or another platform. 

Podcasts Enlarging Political Ad Spending

Political podcast advertising is growing fast enough to look like a threat to television this midterm season. It is not stealing linear TV’s money at scale. It is enlarging the market. 

Ad spending on political podcasts jumped 42 percent in the first half of 2026 after rising 36 percent in the same period a year earlier, Magellan AI estimates show. Combined, that is about a 93 percent increase over two years — far ahead of the 17.6 percent rise in the broader U.S. podcast-ad market in 2025 and the 13.9 percent increase in overall digital advertising. That growth arrives as the 2026 cycle is on track to be the most expensive midterm on record. 

AdImpact projects $11.6 billion in political advertising, including $5.6 billion for broadcast television. Connected TV and streaming are expected to take about $2.7 billion. Those television numbers have been revised upward, not down, even as video podcasts look more like TV and compete for the same attention on YouTube and other screens. The reason this is not a simple cannibalization story is how agencies pay for the inventory. Political podcast buys can be funded from audio, digital video, creator, performance-marketing and integrated-media budgets. 

Linear television sits in a different bucket. A dollar that lands on a simulcast political show is often incremental to the campaign or brand, not a reallocation of a station-group buy. That is why the rise of political podcasts is hard to read as a direct raid on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC or local broadcast news. The advertiser mix reinforces that point. 

Survey: Radio Provides Soundtrack For Holiday Season

Radio remains the top source of holiday music, especially in the car, according to a new Katz Radio Group survey that finds more than half of consumers listen to seasonal songs while driving.

Sixty-nine percent of consumers say they listen to holiday music on the radio, and 52% do so behind the wheel, making the vehicle one of the most important places where holiday listening and AM/FM radio meet. The custom December survey found AM/FM outpacing other platforms for the season’s soundtrack.

ESPN Adds Taylor MacGegor Fulltime

Taylor MacGregor

Taylor McGregor is leaving Marquee Sports Network for a full-time role at ESPN, the Chicago Cubs reporter after working her final Cubs game last week.

McGregor has split time between Marquee and national ESPN assignments since 2020. She posted a three-page statement on social media explaining the move and thanking colleagues at the Cubs’ regional network. During the broadcast, she joined play-by-play announcer Jon “Boog” Sciambi and analyst Jim Deshaies in the booth and called her tenure “the ride of a lifetime.”

At ESPN, McGregor has worked primarily as a college football reporter. She recently drew national attention for covering a power outage that delayed the SMU-Florida State Labor Day game. She was also a recent guest on the “Sports Media Watch Podcast.”

Before Marquee and ESPN, McGregor reported on Colorado Rockies telecasts for AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain.

Marquee is keeping the rest of its Cubs broadcast team. In addition to Sciambi and Deshaies, that group includes Cole Wright, Elise Menaker and Alex Cohen. The Chicago Tribune’s Meghan Montemurro and Robert Channick reported that those contracts have been extended through the 2028 season.

R.I.P.: Peter Byrne, Lead Of Naked Eyes and Songwriter

Peter Byrne, the lead singer and co-founder of the 1980s synth-pop duo Naked Eyes, died Sept. 14 in Los Angeles after a brief illness. He was 74. The band announced his death on its website, saying Byrne died “peacefully.” A cause was not disclosed. 

A private family service is planned. Byrne was the voice of one of MTV’s signature British-invasion hits: Naked Eyes’ sleek 1983 cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Always Something There to Remind Me,” which reached No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. That same year, the original Byrne-Fisher song “Promises, Promises” climbed to No. 11. 

R.I.P.: Angela Stribling, Longtime WHUR Jazz Host

WHUR 96.3 FM is mourning the loss of longtime broadcaster, singer, television host and beloved member of the WHUR family, Angela Stribling, whose warm, soothing voice became part of the soundtrack of Washington-area radio for decades.

This statement was released Sunday morning from her husband Ken Washington, Ph.D. “It is with broken heart that I share that my beloved wife, Angela Marie Stribling passed away peacefully at home on Saturday, September 26, after a courageous two-year battle with brain cancer. Her sister Darlene and I were by her side.” Dr. Washington went on to say “A Celebration of Life” for Angela will be held in Washington, D.C. A date and venue will be announced.

For generations of WHUR listeners, Angela Stribling was more than a radio personality. She was a familiar voice, a trusted presence and a gentle spirit whose warmth came through whether she was behind a microphone, on television or performing on stage.

According to a posting on its website, Angela became an important part of the legacy of WHUR’s Original Quiet Storm, the groundbreaking format that began at Howard University in 1976 with the late Melvin Lindsey. Stribling became the first woman to host the Original Quiet Storm, carrying forward a tradition that has become an enduring part of Black radio and Washington’s cultural history.

Radio History: Sep 28

➦In 1901...William S. Paley, the chief executive, who built Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States, was born.

Will Paley

In 1927, Paley's father, brother-in-law and some business partners bought a struggling Philadelphia-based radio network of 16 station called the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. Samuel Paley's intention was to use his acquisition as an advertising medium for promoting the family's cigar business, which included the La Palina brand. Within a year, under William's leadership, cigar sales had more than doubled, and, in 1928, the Paley family secured majority ownership of the network from their partners. Within a decade, William S. Paley had expanded the network to 114 affiliate stations.

Paley quickly grasped the earnings potential of radio and recognized that good programming was the key to selling advertising time and, in turn, bringing in profits to the network and to affiliate owners. Before Paley, most businessmen viewed stations as stand-alone local outlets or, in other words, as the broadcast equivalent of local newspapers. Individual stations originally bought programming from the network and, thus, were considered the network's clients.