Radio News Weekly: Aug. 30–Sept. 5, 2026

🗼The Supreme Court on Friday restored FCC guidance letting party committees buy TV and radio ads at candidate “lowest unit charge” rates during the 60-day midterm window that opened Sept. 4. Broadcasters had begun pulling the discount after a Fourth Circuit ruling limited it to candidates. Republicans are expected to benefit more because they hold more cash in party committees.

🗼House Majority Leader Steve Scalise scheduled a standalone floor vote the week of Sept. 14 on the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act, after the measure stalled inside a larger transportation bill. The bipartisan bill would require AM receivers in new cars, including EVs. The Senate is still the next test.

🗼The FCC opened FY 2026 regulatory-fee payments, due Sept. 24 at 11:59 p.m. ET. AM/FM fees are up about 2–3%. Late payers face a 25% penalty and “red light” status. The commission also revoked Montana FM KBOQ over unpaid fees of more than $6,700. NAB separately opposed an FCC plan to cut the EAS software-repair window from 60 days to 72 hours.

🗼iHeartMedia’s latest results showed digital and podcast growth, but broadcast-station revenue fell 1.6% (2.8% excluding political). The company extended a credit facility to 2029...Cumulus is still fighting Nielsen over national ratings access as a September contract deadline looms...Political radio spending is building into the post–Labor Day rush.

Deals and Local Moves:  MARC Radio Group bought three Florida FMs from Cumulus. Dan Patrick sold his last Texas station. Pittsburgh Community Broadcasting expanded. On the air: Dallas Mavericks radio moved to KRLD-FM; Memphis CHR Q107.5 is flipping to a sports simulcast; Tulsa news/talk KRMG completed its move to 96.5 FM; Audacy signed off 840 AM KXNT in Las Vegas after losing its transmitter site.

Programming and People: Westwood One will end America in the Morning on Sept. 18 after 42 years and replace it Sept. 21 with The Bongino Report AM. iHeart/Premiere renewed and expanded Clay Travis. Beasley’s Jack Daniel retires in Charlotte on Sept. 18 after 54 years. K-LOVE promoted Natalie Carlisle to chief revenue officer. Audacy will shut Creator Lab, its indie podcast platform, on Nov. 1.

What to Watch Next Week:  Sept. 14 AM-in-cars House vote, Sept. 24 FCC fee deadline, Sept. 29 EAS cybersecurity compliance, and the last two weeks of America in the Morning.

Radio History: Sept 6

Morgan Beatty

➦In 1902...radio newsman Morgan Beatty was born in Little Rock Arkansas.  He achieved fame as a correspondent for the National Broadcasting Company radio network for 25 years. He began his career as a newspaper reporter and worked for The Associated Press before and after his years with N.B.C.

For many years in the 1940′s & 50′s in particular, he was a senior news broadcaster for NBC Radio based in New York. “This is Morgan Beatty speaking for Alka Seltzer bringing you news of the world! and the news tonight is…”

When TV arrived he became news anchor for the short-lived Dumont Network.  A great radio presence with natural gravitas in his voice, he died July 4 1975 at age 72.

➦In 1920...WWJ Detroit is believed to be the first to broadcast news reports regularly dating back to August 31, 1920, the Detroit News announced on its front page that, starting that evening, nightly (except Sunday) broadcasts would be transmitted by the "Detroit News Radiophone" service. WWJ was the first to present regularly scheduled religious broadcasts and sports reports, including early fight results from the heavyweight championship bout between Jack Dempsey and Billy Miske on September 6, 1920.

➦In 1942...The radio comedy the Mayor of the Town made its debut. It starred Lionel Barrymore and aired until July 3, 1949 on ABC, CBS, Mutual and NBC at various times.

➦In 1954...1010 WINS NYC begins playing rock n roll with Alan Freed Show

➦In 1959...the hit radio sitcom “Fibber McGee and Molly” ended after almost 25 years. The situation comedy, a staple of the NBC Red Network for the show's entire run and one of the most popular and enduring radio series of its time. The show ran as a stand-alone series from 1935 to 1956, and then continued as a short-form series as part of the weekend Monitor from 1957 to 1959. The title characters were created and portrayed by Jim and Marian Jordan, a real-life husband and wife team that had been working in radio since the 1920s.

➦In 1965...Chuck Leonard started at WABC 770 AM.   From 1968...

Chuck Leonard

His deep voice and smoothness resonated across 38 states for 14 years at ABC. During his over 40-year career in broadcasting, Leonard worked virtually every shift and played all styles of music at stations including WWRL, WABC, WXLO, WRKS, WBLS, WQEW, WNSW-AM and WJUX. He has been inducted in the Museum of Television & Radio and is known as the first African-American disc jockey to work on a mainstream radio station.

On WABC, Leonard began in the 11 p.m. to midnight slot, and continued working late nights and Sundays at the station until November 27, 1979. He did the 10:30 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. shift following “Cousin” Bruce Morrow and later George Michael. He also gladly handled weekend and fill-in work.

Leonard was the host of "Sneak Preview," a five-minute Monday-through-Saturday evening program on ABC's American Contemporary Radio Network, which featured newly released songs. He stayed at WABC until 1979, before moving to WXLO and WRKS.

Leonard died on August 12, 2004, in Manhattan, following lung cancer. He was 67.

➦In 1987...Pat St. John left WPLJ NYC, and returned to his rock roots on WNEW 102.7 FM, which had been WPLJ's rival during its AOR years. He became the station's program director in the early 1990s while continuing his mid-day show until moving to morning-drive from 1994 through 1996. and then moved to afternoons. St. John remained with the station until it switched to a hot talk format in 1998.  From 1984...

Radio History: Sep 7

➦In 1929...the forerunner to 'Let’s Pretend', a Saturday morning radio show for kids was heard for the first time on CBS Radio Network. The Adventures of Helen & Mary became Let’s Pretend 5 years later. Let's Pretend, created and directed by Nila Mack, was a CBS radio series for children. In its most famous form, Let's Pretend, the Peabody Award-winning series ran from 1934 to 1954.

➦In 1934...Daniel Trombley "Dan" Ingram was born.  Ingram is an American radio icon with a fifty-year career on radio stations such as WABC 770 AM and WCBS 101.1 FM in New York. "Big Dan" started broadcasting at WHCH Hofstra College, Hempstead, New York, WNRC, New Rochelle, New York, and WALK-FM, Patchogue, New York.

Dan Ingram

Ingram mastered the talk-up, talking over the intro to a song, ending right before the vocals. Ingram could get the song title, the current temperature and a one-liner in his talk-ups. He wholeheartedly embraced one of radio's golden rules: When you're talking to the audience, do it like you're talking to one person.

Ingram was noted for his quick wit and ability to convey a humorous or satiric idea with quick pacing and an economy of words—a skill which has made him uniquely suited to, and successful within, modern personality-driven music radio.

He is among the most frequently emulated radio personalities, cited as an influence or inspiration by numerous current broadcasters.

He was well known for playing doctored versions of popular songs. The Paul McCartney & Wings song My Love Does it Good became My Glove Does it Good. The stuttering title refrain of Bennie and the Jets went from three or four repetitions to countless. In the same vein, the distinctive refrain added to Hooked on a Feeling by Blue Swede, Ooga-ooga-ooga-chucka would start repeating and listeners would never know when it would end. (Other examples include Paul Simon's 50 Ways to Leave Your Lover, and "rearranging" the spelling of "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y" on the Bay City Rollers' Saturday Night.)

Dan's longtime closing theme song was "Tri-Fi Drums" by Billy May. An edited version of the song was used for broadcast.

Dan commented occasionally about the pronunciation of his name: jingles often are heard pronouncing his last name as "Ing-ram," but Dan has said it is correctly pronounced "In-gram."

Ingram died June 24, 2018.

➦In 1936...Early rock & roll icon Buddy Holly was born Charles Hardin Holley in Lubbock Texas. His name was misspelled on his first record contract and he decided to leave it that way.   At age 22, he died in a plane crash Feb 3, 1959 along with Ritchie Valens and J.P.Richardson (The Big Bopper.)

➦In 1949...Windsor (Ont.) radio station CKLW, later to become Canada’s all-time most listened-to station (due to its huge US audience), increased power from 5000 to 50,000 watts. The station had moved from 1030 to 800 KHz, a Canada/Mexico clear channel, in the great frequency shuffle of 1941.

As television's popularity boomed, CKLW, like many other stations, coped with the changes by replacing the dying network radio fare with locally based disc-jockey shows. Throughout most of the 1950s and into the mid-1960s, CKLW was basically a "variety" radio station which filled in the cracks between full-service features with pop music played by announcers like Bud Davies, Ron Knowles (who had a rock-and-roll show on AM 800 as early as 1957), and Joe Van. For a few years in the early 1960s, CKLW also featured a country music program in the evenings called Sounds Like Nashville. This ended in 1963.

➦In 1979...ESPN, the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, made its debut on US cable TV as the world’s first full-time channel devoted to sports.

SCOTUS Sides With Republicans In Political Ad Ruling

Key Detail:

• The Supreme Court ruled Friday that political parties can receive the same discounted broadcast ad rates as candidates, a decision that benefits Republican committees ahead of the November midterm elections.

The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that political parties are entitled to the same discounted radio/ television advertising rates as candidates, handing Republicans a late-stage victory ahead of the midterm elections.

The unsigned emergency order said Republican Party committees were likely to suffer “irreparable harm” if they had to pay higher rates, which would hamper “their efforts to reach the electorate in the critical weeks leading up to the midterms.” 

The majority said that injury “implicates their First Amendment rights to speak and coordinate their political activities freely.”

The court did not release a vote count, as is common in emergency applications. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.

The case turns on the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which requires broadcasters to sell ad time to candidates at low rates in the weeks before an election. The statute does not expressly extend that lowest-unit-rate benefit to party committees. That distinction has generally favored Democrats, whose candidates typically raise more money than their party committees; Republicans have often seen the reverse.

Fox Firing of Maria Bartiromo Getting Messier

• Attorney Claims She's Still FOX Employee

Fox News Media announced Thursday that it has parted ways with Maria Bartiromo, one of its highest-profile anchors, calling the move “a business decision.” A person familiar with the matter said Bartiromo passed a Fox Business Network directive for executive producers to the White House — instructions that may have cautioned staff against amplifying outlandish claims made by President Donald Trump.

However, her attorney, Bryan Freedman, on Friday rejected reports that she had been fired or was no longer a Fox employee. “The irresponsible reports that have been published stating that Maria Bartiromo was fired or is no longer an employee of Fox are absolutely and unequivocally false,” Freedman said. “Make no mistake, we have the receipts and witnesses and they will come out whether through the courthouse or otherwise.” 

He said those accounts showed “a complete and utter reckless disregard for the truth.”

Sharing confidential internal guidance with an outside party would typically violate employment terms. Some details of Bartiromo’s actions were first reported by the media newsletter Status. Fox News declined to make executives available for comment.

Suspended 'Wheel' Announcer Now Terminated

Jim Thornton

Sony Pictures Television has fired “Wheel of Fortune” announcer Jim Thornton, effective immediately, after an investigation into a mid-flight incident in May.

“Following a thorough investigation, Jim Thornton’s employment with ‘Wheel of Fortune’ has been terminated, effective immediately,” the studio said in a statement.

The firing came three days after Sony suspended Thornton and said it would recast the role while it investigated. A spokesperson said at the time that the company had “recently been made aware of allegations concerning Jim Thornton.”

TMZ first reported the suspension and later published screenshots of chat-room activity a fellow passenger said was captured during the flight. That passenger’s complaint was relayed to a flight attendant and ultimately to the cockpit. 

US Diesel Prices Pushing Up Transportation Costs

Diesel jumped to a record U.S. average of $5.85 a gallon on Friday, the first time the fuel has reached that level, as a six-month war with Iran disrupts global fuel supplies.

Because diesel powers much of the nation’s freight and delivery system, the spike is already raising transportation costs for everyday goods. 

Some businesses have begun passing those costs to customers through extra fees on online orders and mailed packages, and more of the increase is expected to show up on store shelves.

Influential Analyst Bullish On SiriusXM

Deutsche Bank analyst Bryan Kraft this week issued a bullish report on SiriusXM, saying the satellite radio company’s stock is mispriced and that upcoming earnings are poised to beat expectations because Wall Street has overlooked growth in digital audio advertising.

Kraft said SiriusXM’s exclusive U.S. audio advertising deal with YouTube has been “completely disregarded” and could generate $2 billion in annual incremental revenue by 2029 at a high-teen margin, lifting EBITDA by $350 million to $400 million. Additional ad growth is expected from an expanded relationship with Amazon’s ad platform announced in July.

“We believe SiriusXM is mispriced based on a large disconnect between consensus estimates and what we believe the company can achieve in 2027 and 2028,” Kraft wrote. “The opportunity is further enhanced by SiriusXM’s return to allocating capital toward share repurchases in the second half of 2026, as well as what we view as conservative 2026 guidance.”

He raised his 2026 forecasts to $8.6 billion in revenue and $2.7 billion in EBITDA, above both his prior estimates and the company’s recently increased guidance of $8.5 billion in revenue and $2.6 billion in EBITDA.

Kraft also expects subscription revenue to remain steady as SiriusXM adds companion subscriptions, more sports programming and a price increase next year. 

Dolly's Tribute Specials Score Sizeable Numbers

Four broadcast networks have aired Dolly Parton tribute specials since her death on Aug. 25, drawing sizable audiences despite last-minute scheduling during a traditionally slow viewing period.

ABC’s Sunday, Aug. 30, airing of the 1980 film 9 to 5 averaged 4.275 million viewers in live-plus-same-day ratings, making it the most-watched movie on a broadcast network in nearly four years and ABC’s most-watched film since The Sound of Music on Dec. 20, 2020.

On the day Parton died, ABC’s Dolly Parton: An American Original — Special Edition of 20/20, hosted by David Muir, averaged 4.051 million viewers. It won its time slot, beating CBS’s competing Parton special, and was the highest-rated non-sports 10 p.m. telecast in three months, since NBC’s Chicago P.D. season finale in May.

Counting viewing on ABC, Disney+, Hulu and other digital platforms, that 20/20 special reached 6.556 million viewers and was the most-watched title on Disney+ and Hulu on Aug. 26.NBC’s Dolly: An NBC News Special, hosted by Lester Holt and aired the same day, started just under 4 million viewers and has grown to 4.5 million with Peacock included. CBS and The CW also aired tributes.

Joplin Radio: One Media to Acquire AM/FM Combo

A Pittsburg-based media company led by William Wachter has agreed to buy a Joplin, Mo.-area AM/FM combination and an FM translator for $225,000, expanding its footprint across the four-state region. 

One Media, headed by Wachter, is acquiring sports-formatted 1560 WMBH and its 101.3 K268CP translator in Joplin, along with 101.7 KHST in nearby Lamar, Mo., from Michael Landis’ Land Go Radio Group LLC. The stations are marketed as “SoMo Sports Radio.” 

The deal, reported in industry filings this week, would give Wachter’s company a stronger presence in the Joplin-Pittsburg market. WMBH is a historic Joplin AM signal; the FM translator provides a modern on-FM presence that industry observers often describe as a “revitalization” tool for AM stations facing reception challenges in cars and buildings. 

Rapid City Radio: Riverfront Broadcasting To Add KIMM To Holdings

Yankton-based Riverfront Broadcasting, led by Doyle and Carolyn Becker, has agreed to buy Fox Sports Rapid City from Nate Brown’s Black Hills Broadcasting, adding the sports station and its FM translator to the company’s growing South Dakota cluster. 

The $200,000 deal covers 1150 KIMM and 106.7 K294BT. Riverfront has already begun operating the station under a local marketing agreement that took effect Aug. 1, pending FCC approval and closing. 

Once the sale is complete, the Beckers will fold Fox Sports Rapid City into a new Riverfront Sports Network with news/talk 1380 KOTA and oldies 980 KDSJ. 

Fox News Media To Commemorate 9/11

FOX News Media will honor the 25th anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks with extensive multiplatform special programming. On Friday, September 11th and in the days leading up to it, network personalities and correspondents will present commemorative packages and interviews while reporting live from locations across New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

During the week of September 7th, FOX News Channel’s (FNC) signature morning show FOX & Friends (6-9 AM/ET) will broadcast live from several locations and feature interviews with guests about their experiences 25 years ago. Starting on Monday, co-host Steve Doocy, who was broadcasting live alongside co-host Brian Kilmeade on the morning of the attacks, will host the program’s flagship “Breakfast with Friends” series live from the historic O’Hara’s Pub in downtown Manhattan just two blocks from Ground Zero. Doocy will travel to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday and speak with Tunnels to Towers Foundation chairman and CEO Frank Siller, as the Steel Across America tour, a historic coast-to-coast campaign honoring those who sacrificed their lives on 9/11, arrives at the White House. Throughout the show on Thursday, Doocy will broadcast live from Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93.

On Friday, September 11th, special coverage will commence with FOX & Friends co-hosts Kilmeade, Ainsley Earhardt and Lawrence Jones broadcasting live from the Hyatt House in Jersey City, overlooking the New York City (NYC) skyline, while Doocy will contribute live from Ground Zero. America’s Newsroom (9-11 AM/ET) co-anchors Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino will broadcast live from Brookfield Place overlooking the World Trade Center campus in downtown Manhattan. The program will carry the live reading of the victims’ names from the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. From 11 AM – 3 PM/ET, The Faulkner Focus (11-12 PM/ET), Outnumbered (12-1 PM/ET), and America Reports (1-3 PM/ET) will all feature special segments and interviews with a wide range of guests including families of 9/11 victims, military officials, 9/11 survivors, and founders/CEOs of 9/11-related foundations. Martha MacCallum, host of The Story (3-4 PM/ET), will report live from the Hyatt House and feature interviews with Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the New York Police Department (NYPD) co-chief chaplain, and Jessica Tisch, the NYPD Commissioner. Additionally, The Will Cain Show (4-5 PM/ET) will honor the anniversary with guests who will recount their experiences on 9/11.