Good Morning! Check The Pulse For Tuesday, Aug 11

Radio Broadcasting

iHM Reports Another Loss: iHeartMedia reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $977.2 million, a 4.7% increase from $933.7 million a year earlier, as growth in its digital and podcast businesses offset weakness in its Multiplatform Group.

Levine To Retire: Ed Levine, founder, president and CEO of Galaxy Media Partners, has announced plans to retire later this year after nearly five decades in broadcasting and 36 years leading the independent media company he founded.

Not So Happy Birthday: Longtime Nashville country radio host Amy Paige was laid off by Cumulus Media on her birthday as part of nationwide company cutbacks. 

Media Industry

Social Media Lawsuits: A U.S. appeals court on Monday allowed ​thousands of lawsuits to move forward against Meta Platforms, Alphabet's Google, ByteDance's TikTok and Snap Inc's over claims they designed their products to be ‌addictive to young users.

Parental Concerns: A bipartisan majority of Americans favor stronger government regulation of social media companies, including requirements for age-verification tools to restrict younger children’s access, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll

TV Open To Multiple Affiliations: Television stations are increasingly affiliating with multiple networks at once, capturing extra revenue and audience share without building or buying new full-power stations.

U-S News

Hopes For Hormuz Deal Fade: President Donald Trump on Monday responded to Iran's conditions for a peace deal with his own demands ​that Iran pay compensation for people killed in wars, attacks and protests, in a rhetorical escalation likely to complicate efforts to reopen the Strait of ‌Hormuz.

Trump Orders Fewers Vaccines: President Trump signed a new executive order Monday calling for most children to receive fewer vaccines and made some of his most extensive comments yet linking childhood shots and autism—a connection that scientists have said is unfounded.

How Hot Was It? July was the hottest month ever recorded in the contiguous U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday, dramatically marking an already scorching summer. The average temperature was 76.9 degrees, the highest in the agency’s 132-year record and more than three degrees above the 20th-century average. 

Report: Trump Took Secret Flight Trom Turkey Amid Iranian Threat

A catering truck is parked beside the legacy Air Force One before departure from Ankara Esenboga Airport
in Turkey on July 8. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

An Iranian assassination threat against President Donald Trump prompted a previously unreported secret operation last month in which he departed Turkey aboard an alternate military aircraft while the White House publicly stated he was flying on Air Force One. Trump boarded the older Air Force One jumbo jet in full view of television cameras in Ankara on July 8 after a NATO summit. 

Minutes later, he was covertly transferred via an airport catering truck to a smaller Air Force C-32A, according to a U.S. official familiar with the operation, another person with knowledge of the president’s travel, and material reviewed by The Washington Post. 

iHM Reports 2Q Revenue Increases 4.7%, $82.5M Loss

iHeartMedia reported second-quarter 2026 revenue of $977.2 million, a 4.7% increase from $933.7 million a year earlier, as growth in its digital and podcast businesses offset weakness in its Multiplatform Group.

Excluding political advertising, consolidated revenue rose 3.5%. GAAP operating income held essentially flat at $35.5 million compared with $35.4 million in the second quarter of 2025, while Adjusted EBITDA fell 2.9% to $151.5 million from $156.1 million. 

The company posted a net loss of $82.5 million, narrowed slightly from a loss of $84.0 million a year ago. Cash from operating activities climbed to $64.9 million from $6.8 million, and Free Cash Flow improved to $46.0 million from a negative $13.2 million.

Disney+ and Hulu Are Expanding iHM Podcast Deal

Disney+ and Hulu are expanding their video podcast libraries through a new licensing agreement with iHeartMedia that will bring six iHeartPodcasts titles to the streaming platforms, beginning this month. 

The rollout starts August 14 with “Hey Jonas!,” the official Jonas Brothers podcast hosted by Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas. It will stream simultaneously on both Disney+ and Hulu, opening with a new episode focused on Camp Rock ahead of the Camp Rock 3 premiere, followed by additional episodes featuring the brothers live from D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event that same weekend. 

The remaining titles will arrive in phases over the coming months with new episodes streaming weekly. “Pod Meets World,” hosted by Boy Meets World stars Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle and Rider Strong, joins Disney+ on August 24. Headed to Hulu (and Hulu on Disney+ for U.S. bundle subscribers) are the Desperate Housewives rewatch series “Desperately Devoted” (debuting in video for the first time on November 2, hosted by Teri Hatcher, Andrea Bowen and Emerson Tenney), “Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald” from Scrubs stars Zach Braff and Donald Faison, “StraightioLab,” and “Thanks Dad with Ego Nwodim.” 

Entravision Reports Surge In Net Revenue

Entravision Communications Corporation reported a 126% surge in consolidated net revenue for the second quarter of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, driven primarily by explosive growth in its Advertising Technology & Services segment.

Consolidated net revenue also rose 121% for the six months ended June 30, 2026, versus the year-earlier period. Segment operating profit jumped to $36.7 million in the second quarter from $5.5 million a year earlier and reached $65.8 million for the first half of 2026, up from $9.4 million.

Net revenue in the Advertising Technology & Services (ATS) segment soared 230% in the second quarter and 218% for the six-month period. The gains stemmed from higher monthly active advertisers and higher revenue per advertiser, fueled by investments in the platform’s AI capabilities and expanded sales capacity. ATS operating profit climbed to $40.0 million in the quarter from $5.2 million and to $74.3 million for the half-year from $11.7 million.

Media segment net revenue declined 1% in the second quarter, reflecting lower broadcast advertising and spectrum usage rights revenue that were partly offset by higher digital advertising and retransmission fees. 

Local advertising rose 1% while national advertising fell 19%, excluding political revenue. For the six months, Media net revenue edged up 1%. The Media segment posted an operating loss of $3.3 million in the quarter (versus a $0.4 million profit a year earlier) and an $8.5 million loss for the first half (versus a $2.3 million loss).

Syracuse Radio: Galaxy Communications' Ed Levine To Retire

Ed Levine, founder, president and CEO of Galaxy Media Partners, has announced plans to retire later this year after nearly five decades in broadcasting and 36 years leading the independent media company he founded. 

Levine, 70, launched what is now Galaxy Media Partners (formerly Galaxy Communications) in 1990 with a single radio station operating out of a diner in Utica, New York. Under his leadership, the Syracuse-based firm grew into one of New York’s largest independently owned media companies, operating 15 radio stations across Central and Upstate New York, including clusters in Syracuse and Utica/Rome, while also producing major regional events such as Taste of Syracuse and the Syracuse Nationals. 

“It’s been a wonderful ride over the past 36 years. It’s hard to believe I was 33 when I started the company, and now I’m 70,” Levine said. 

Nashville Radio: WSM-FM's Amy Paige Was Let Go On Her Birthday

Longtime Nashville country radio host Amy Paige was laid off by Cumulus Media on her birthday as part of nationwide company cutbacks. 

According to The Tennessean, the veteran midday personality at 95.5 WSM-FM was let go last week. Paige had previously hosted the same shift at sister station 103.3 Country (WKDF) for about three and a half years after joining Cumulus in 2022. 

Amy Paige

The move came amid broader layoffs at Cumulus Media affecting broadcast, network, sales, programming and digital roles across multiple markets as the company navigates its post-bankruptcy reorganization. 

In a Facebook post, Paige expressed gratitude for her four years with the company and described a “compassionate and gentle sendoff.” She noted it marked “a new year and a new era” for her. 

Paige built an 18-year presence on Nashville’s country airwaves. She spent nine years as midday host at iHeartMedia’s The Big 98 (WSIX-FM) before resigning in 2020, and earlier worked at SiriusXM’s Prime Country and The Highway, as well as stations in Washington, D.C., and New York. 

She is known for her engaging storytelling style and community involvement, including charity efforts and appearances with country artists.

Local Stations Open to More Than One Network

Television stations are increasingly affiliating with multiple networks at once, capturing extra revenue and audience share without building or buying new full-power stations.

In Miami, WSVN has become a dual affiliate of both Fox and ABC, carrying ABC programming on a low-power station. Gray Television has pursued the same approach in St. Louis, pairing CBS with ABC and again placing the secondary network on a low-power outlet. 

These arrangements let owners monetize additional network programming, advertising inventory, and retransmission consent fees while avoiding the high capital costs and spectrum constraints of launching separate full-power facilities. 

Low-power stations and digital multicast channels make the dual affiliations technically feasible and relatively inexpensive to operate. The practice appears to be spreading as broadcast groups seek ways to strengthen local market positions amid cord-cutting and intensified competition for viewers and ad dollars.

Industry observers note that the model offers clear financial and ratings upside with limited incremental risk, suggesting more stations may follow the Miami and St. Louis examples in the coming years.

Syracuse Radio: Tom “Goz” Goslowski Rejoins The Score 1260

Cumulus Media announces that popular sports media personality Tom “Goz” Goslowski will host a new football program, “Bills Gameday With Goz,” kicking off this fall on Cumulus Syracuse Sports/Talk station The Score 1260/WSKO-AM. This marks a return to Cumulus and to The Score 1260 for Goslowski, a Syracuse native who was host of the station’s morning drive show, “The First Quarter,” before relocating to Albany, where he became one of the Capital Region’s most recognizable sports media personalities.

Goslowski is a two-time New York State Broadcasting Award winner and has worked with UAlbany, Siena College, the Albany Empire, and the AF1 Champion Albany Firebirds, while also co-hosting the popular “Levack and Goz” show on ESPN and Fox Sports Radio affiliates. A longtime voter for college football’s top honors, including the Heisman Trophy, he brings more than a decade of nationally recognized football expertise to the mic. His deep Central New York roots, award-winning broadcasting background, and passion for the game make him the perfect voice for Buffalo Bills fans this season.

Poll: Americans Favor Stronger Oversight of Social Media Companies

A bipartisan majority of Americans favor stronger government regulation of social media companies, including requirements for age-verification tools to restrict younger children’s access, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The survey, conducted over the six days ending August 3, comes amid growing legal challenges for companies such as Meta Platforms and Google’s YouTube over their handling of young users. A trial is set to begin Wednesday on claims by state prosecutors that Meta deliberately designed its products to addict minors.

Meta denies the allegations and has warned it could face penalties of up to $1.4 trillion if the states succeed. Separately, a New Mexico state court ordered Meta on Thursday to pay $567 million into a teen mental health fund and alter how its platforms operate for young users, after ruling that the company was responsible for harming children’s wellbeing.

USA Today Co. Employees Want End To New Palantir Partnership

More than 800 unionized USA Today Co. employees are demanding the company immediately end its newly announced partnership with data analytics firm Palantir, citing significant ethical concerns and an inherent conflict of interest. 

In a joint statement released Monday by 31 NewsGuild-CWA-represented newsrooms, the workers—most of them journalists—said the deal threatens reader trust, raises serious questions about data security, and clashes with journalistic principles. 

“While USA Today Co. CEO Mike Reed championed this partnership as a way to drive revenue, we believe it threatens to undermine trust in our news outlets and raises serious questions about the data security of our readers,” the statement reads. 

“We have significant ethical issues with Palantir, whose artificial intelligence software has been used to advance widespread surveillance and power immigration crackdowns.” 

Radio History: Aug 11

➦In 1942...Actress Hedy Lamarr, born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, and composer George Anthiel received U.S. patent for Frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS), a method of transmitting radio signals by rapidly switching a carrier among many frequency channels, using a pseudorandom sequence known to both transmitter and receiver. It is used as a multiple access method in the frequency-hopping code division multiple access (FH-CDMA) scheme. It eventually led to today's Wi-Fi, GPS, and Bluetooth.

Hedy Lamarr

Spread-spectrum signals are highly resistant to deliberate jamming, unless the adversary has knowledge of the spreading characteristics. Military radios use cryptographic techniques to generate the channel sequence under the control of a secret Transmission Security Key (TRANSEC) that the sender and receiver share in advance.

By itself, frequency hopping provides only limited protection against eavesdropping and jamming. Most modern military frequency hopping radios also employ separate encryption devices such as the KY-57. U.S. military radios that use frequency hopping include the JTIDS/MIDS family, HAVE QUICK and SINCGARS.

In the US, since the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) amended rules to allow frequency hopping spread spectrum systems in the unregulated 2.4 GHz band, many consumer devices in that band have employed various spread-spectrum modes.

Some walkie-talkies that employ frequency-hopping spread spectrum technology have been developed for unlicensed use on the 900 MHz band.

Lamarr died in Casselberry, FL on January 19, 2000, of heart disease, aged 85.

The Beatles in Chicago

➦In 1966…The Beatles staged their fourth concert tour of America, and it was the last commercial tour they undertook.