Good Morning: The Pulse Has your Briefing For Thursday, Aug 27

Radio Broadcasting

The Kids Are Listening: According to Share of Ear®, daily audio listening has held steady at roughly four hours per day for several years, with Americans ages 13+ spending an average of 3 hours and 57 minutes listening each day in Q2 2026

WBEN Shuffles: WBEN-AM Buffalo is shrinking its weekday local talk roster from three hosts to two after firing afternoon host Tom Bauerle, station owner Audacy confirmed, with Joe Beamer and David Bellavia swapping time slots starting Monday. 

Aloha Rick: Rick Thomas has been named Senior Vice President of Programming at Malama Media Group, where he will oversee the company’s Hawaii radio cluster and guide programming strategies for future acquisitions.

Dolly Honored: Tennessee radio stations will play Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” at the same moment Thursday morning in a statewide tribute organized by the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters.

Media News

TV Ratings: FOX News Channel (FNC) ended the week of August 17th with nearly 2.4 million weekday primetime viewers and 212,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo, outpacing broadcast networks ABC (2.3 million viewers) and CBS (2 million viewers) according to Nielsen.

WNT Keeps Rolling: For the 19th week running, ABC's “World News Tonight with David Muir” stood as the No. 1 program in Total Viewers (8.462 million) on all of broadcast and cable (excluding sports) during the week of Aug 17, 2026

Rift Between States: The Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery fight moved to a new venue: Iowa and Montana attorneys general asked the U.S. Supreme Court to throw out the multi-state antitrust case blocking the ~$111 billion deal. California AG Rob Bonta remains the lead opponent and has canceled settlement talks. 

U-S News

Nepal Disaster: As a ferocious roar grew louder, people at the imposing customs checkpoint that sits at 6,000 feet on the border between China and Nepal started running. In seconds, video shows, a monstrous wave surged over and around the Gyirong Port building, burying everything in mud. Flash floods killed at least 165 people and left hundreds missing, including dozens of foreign tourists such as 47 Americans, prompting rescue efforts and humanitarian aid.

Russia Warned: The surprise visit by the director of the Central Intelligence Agency to Moscow this week was to deliver a warning to Russia not to attack NATO countries, according to people briefed on the visit. The trip was spy-agency chief John Ratcliffe’s first publicly known visit to the Russian capital.

U-S Cattleman Have Beef: The Trump administration’s decision to temporarily lower tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of foreign beef has angered Montana cattle ranchers and some Republican lawmakers, who fear it will drive down prices for domestic producers amid already challenging market conditions.