Radio Honors Hall of Fame Inductees For 2026

The Radio Hall of Fame inducts its 2026 class Thursday night in Chicago, honoring eight living broadcasters and nine posthumous Legends at a ceremony hosted by Bobby Bones.

The Museum of Broadcast Communications holds the induction at the Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park. Bones, a 2017 inductee and host of iHeartMedia’s The Bobby Bones Show, serves as master of ceremonies. A portion of ticket sales is a tax-deductible gift to the museum, which houses the hall.

The living inductees are iHeartMedia Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman; Boomer Esiason of WFAN-AM/FM in New York; Helen Little of WLTW-FM in New York; Rickey Smiley of Urban One/Reach Media; Shotgun Tom Kelly of SiriusXM’s ’60s on 6; Dennis Green, chief operating officer of Sun & Fun Media/Key Networks and co-chair of the hall; Charlie Van Dyke; and Fred Winston. 

Six were chosen by a confidential ballot of more than 950 industry professionals, run by Votem.com and overseen by Miller Kaplan’s Andrew Rosen. The 2026 Nominating Committee selected the other two.

The hall is also recognizing nine Legends, an honor given only after death and decided by the nominating committee. They are on-air personalities Lin Brehmer, Dale Dorman, B. Mitchell Reed, Pierre Robert, and Polito Vega; on-air personality, game-show host, and producer Wink Martindale; on-air personality and record executive Vivian Carter; network and syndication executive Gary Krantz; and station owner and executive D. E. “Duke” Wright. 

Co-chair Kraig Kitchin said the class had performed at the highest levels for a sustained period and made radio more valuable to listeners and advertisers.

The ceremony follows a Broadcasters Foundation of America mixer on October 7 at the Museum of Broadcast Communications. That event included a Q&A with Pittman, conducted by Premiere Networks host Fred of The Fred Show, and was timed to the industry gathering around the induction.