A group of 13 states has expanded its antitrust lawsuit to block Nexstar Media Group’s $6.1 billion merger with Tegna, turning the challenge into a bipartisan effort.
Five new states — Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Vermont — joined the original eight on Thursday. Indiana, Kansas, and Pennsylvania have Republican attorneys general, broadening the case beyond an initially all-Democratic coalition.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Sacramento, California, seeks to prevent the deal that would create the nation’s largest local broadcast television group, reaching 80% of U.S. households.
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach (R) said the issue transcends party lines: “These aren’t Republican or Democratic issues. They are American issues.” Kobach criticized the merger for concentrating broadcast programming in fewer hands, cutting local jobs, raising cable bills, and harming news delivery nationwide.
The case gained momentum after Chief U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley issued a preliminary injunction on April 17, halting the merger while litigation continues.
Nexstar fired back Friday morning, posting on X that the attorneys general misunderstand the challenges facing local news. The company blamed Big Tech platforms, social media misinformation, and economic pressures for newsroom closures, warning: “The alternative to this deal is not more independently owned outlets – it’s the demise of your local broadcast station.”
Nexstar said it plans to expand local news coverage in many markets and announced a separate agreement with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R). Yost said Nexstar committed to upholding journalistic independence, calling it “a cornerstone principle of our democracy.”
Despite the legal pushback, FCC Chairman Brandon Carr supported the merger by waiving the agency’s 39% national ownership cap.
Local television and newspapers in the U.S. are experiencing a prolonged and accelerating decline, driven by media consolidation, intense competition from streaming platforms, plummeting traditional revenue streams, and shifting consumer habits.
This has created widespread "news deserts"—communities with limited or no access to reliable local information—and raised alarms about the erosion of civic engagement, government accountability, and community connection.
Several major U.S. radio companies filed for bankruptcy protection or launched aggressive cost-cutting drives in the first months of 2026, signaling deepening financial strain across an industry squeezed by massive debt, shrinking ad revenue, and listeners flocking to podcasts and streaming services.
Cumulus Media's Second Chapter 11 Filing
Cumulus Media, owner of more than 400 stations nationwide and the influential Westwood One network, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 5, 2026, its second such filing in just six years. The prepackaged restructuring targets roughly $592–600 million in corporate debt, aiming to slash obligations while keeping stations on the air and employees paid during the process. The filing comes as the company battles the same headwinds hammering legacy radio: cord-cutting, digital competition, and a ratings environment transformed by new measurement tools.
New research from nuVoodoo shows that radio and streaming reinforce each other among Country listeners rather than compete. The analysis, presented in a CRS360 webinar, expands on findings first shared at CRS 2026.
According to the study, 94% of Country fans use streaming services and 86% still listen to AM/FM radio. Among heavy streaming users, three in five are also heavy radio listeners.
Radio holds a strong edge in new music discovery. Overall, 58% of respondents said they were extremely interested in new Country songs. That number climbed to 65% among Country radio P1s but fell below 50% for heavy streamers with light AM/FM listening habits.
The test evaluated 427 songs across five decades. Pre-2010 titles delivered the strongest performance. Songs from 2015–2019 also scored well, while 2024 and 2025 releases showed wider variance. Fourteen streaming-dominant tracks with limited radio airplay were deliberately included; most ranked in the lower half of the results.
Radioactive LLC, owned by veteran radio executive Randy Michaels, is reviving the legendary WKRP call letters on FM radio in the Cincinnati market for the first time in decades.
Michaels filed Thursday to assign WKRP-FM to 97.7 WOXY in Mason, Ohio. At the same time, the calls will also appear on 94.5 WYDB in Englewood/Dayton. Both stations are part of the “The Oasis” oldies trimulcast alongside 106.7 WNKR in Williamstown, Kentucky, operated by Grant County Broadcasters.
The format change requests are scheduled to take effect Friday, May 8.
The FCC voted unanimously Thursday to advance a proposal that would ban Chinese labs from testing smartphones, computers, cameras, and other electronics for the U.S. market.
The move targets national security risks posed by China, the country where roughly three-quarters of U.S. electronics are currently tested, according to the FCC. Devices must pass FCC authorization tests for radio emissions, network compatibility, and other regulatory requirements before they can be sold in the United States.
Under the proposal, testing labs in China would be barred from conducting these evaluations. Labs in the U.S. or allied countries would receive a streamlined approval process instead.
The Daily Wire has confirmed layoffs across multiple teams as part of a major restructuring at the conservative media company co-founded by Ben Shapiro.
The cuts were announced Friday and are largely concentrated at the company’s Nashville production office. A spokesperson told The Wrap on May 1, 2026, that the restructuring aims to support investment in new production formats and geographic expansion, including a recently opened Washington, D.C. bureau with White House briefing room credentials. The company stated it will continue prioritizing editorial and investigative journalism.
No official headcount was released.Independent tracker layoffhedge.com estimated approximately 100 roles were eliminated, representing roughly half the workforce.
A new national survey reveals that influencers and independent creators have become a major source of news and information for Americans, with particularly strong adoption among younger people and signaling a significant generational shift in media consumption.
Key Findings from the Poll
57% of U.S. teens and adults say they get at least some news and information from influencers or independent creators. The figure jumps dramatically among teens aged 13 to 17, with 81% reporting they turn to these sources at least sometimes.
Teens are far more likely than older adults to rely on local influencers for community-level information as well.
The survey, part of the Media Insight Project—a collaboration of The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, the American Press Institute, Northwestern University’s Medill School, and other partners, highlights how non-traditional voices now rival or supplement legacy media, especially for topics like national news, pop culture, and wellness.
The former head of security for Charlie Kirk has filed a defamation lawsuit against podcaster Candace Owens, accusing her of falsely implicating him in a conspiracy to assassinate the conservative activist.
Brian Harpole, who served as Kirk’s security chief for several years and now owns a private security firm, claims Owens wrongly accused him of meeting with Kirk’s wife, Erika, at a military base one day before Kirk was shot at Utah Valley University in September.
The NY Times reports Harpole is also suing Mitch Snow, a retired Army sergeant who appeared on Owens’s podcast and claimed he witnessed the alleged secret meeting.
Howard Stern is seeking to dismiss a $2.5 million lawsuit filed by his former executive assistant, labeling the case a “shakedown” and a “transparent sham.”
The radio host and his wife, Beth Stern, are accused in the suit of fostering a hostile work environment, applying workplace pressure, and abruptly terminating the employee despite earlier promises of a raise and bonus. The former assistant, who started as an office manager in 2022 before becoming Stern’s executive assistant, is also asking the court to invalidate non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements so she can publicly defend her reputation.
A child sexual assault lawsuit against Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler will proceed to trial in Los Angeles County Superior Court on a limited portion of the claims.
A judge dismissed most of the case this week, citing the statute of limitations under Massachusetts law, where Tyler and accuser Julia Misley lived during much of their three-year relationship in the 1970s.
However, because the pair allegedly crossed state lines—including into California—while Tyler toured with the band, one claim remains viable under California’s Child Victims Act. That 2020 law created a “lookback window” allowing survivors to file civil suits regardless of expired statutes of limitations.
the LA Times reports Tyler’s attorney, David Long-Daniels, called the ruling “a massive win,” stating the court dismissed “with prejudice 99.9% of the claims” and allowed only “one night, 50-plus years ago, out of a three-year relationship” to proceed.
➦In 1886...The graphophone, the bridge between the earlier gramophone and the modern phonograph, was patented, featuring wax cylinders which conducted music better than Thomas Edison's original tinfoil ones.
It was invented at the Volta Laboratory established by Alexander Graham Bell in Washington, D.C., United States.
Its trademark usage was acquired successively by the Volta Graphophone Company, then the American Graphophone Company, the North American Phonograph Company, and finally by the Columbia Phonograph Company (later to become Columbia Records), all of which either produced or sold Graphophones.
It took five years of research under the directorship of Charles Sumner Tainter and Chichester Bell at the Volta Laboratory to develop and distinguish their machine from Thomas Edison's phonograph.
Among their other innovations, the researchers experimented with lateral recording techniques as early as 1881. Contrary to the vertically-cut grooves of Edison phonographs, the lateral recording method used a cutting stylus that moved from side to side in a "zig zag" pattern across the record. While cylinder phonographs never employed the lateral cutting process commercially, this was later to become the primary method of phonograph disc recording.
Bell and Tainter also developed wax-coated cardboard cylinders for their record cylinders, instead of Edison's cast iron cylinder which was covered with a removable film of tinfoil (the actual recording medium) which was prone to damage during installation or removal. Tainter received a separate patent for a tube assembly machine to automatically produce the coiled cardboard tubes which served as the foundation for the wax cylinder records. The shift from tinfoil to wax resulted in increased sound fidelity as well as record longevity.
Besides being far easier to handle, the wax recording medium also allowed for lengthier recordings and created superior playback quality. Additionally the Graphophones initially deployed foot treadles to rotate the recordings, then wind-up clockwork drive mechanisms, and finally migrated to electric motors, instead of the manual crank that was used on Edison's phonograph.
➦In 1922...WJR Detroit sign-on as WCX, owned by the Detroit Free Press newspaper, operating at 580 kHz from the Free Press Building. It shared this frequency with WWJ, another station owned by The Detroit News. In 1925, the Jewett Radio & Phonograph Company of Pontiac, Michigan purchased WCX. Sometime thereafter the station became known as WCX/WJR. Also by 1925, WWJ was at 850 kHz, and both stations were broadcasting with 5000 watts of power. On November 11, 1928, it moved to 750 as a result of the FRC's General Order 40 (it has broadcast on 950 AM since 1941).
On December 16, 1928, the station moved from the newspaper's offices to its current location in the Fisher Building. It began identifying as "WJR Detroit, from the Golden Tower of the Fisher Building," which soon became famous across the country. Goodwill Stations Inc., formed by George A. Richards (who also owned the Detroit Lions), acquired WJR in 1929, and it became known as "The Goodwill Station" (along with WGAR in Cleveland and KMPC in Los Angeles).
WCX ceased to exist, and WJR acquired all its assets. In 1931, the station raised its power to 10,000 watts; four years later, it would broadcast with 50,000 watts. On March 29, 1941, WJR moved from 750 to 760 kHz in accordance with the NARBA frequency reallocations. Before North American Regional Broadcasting Agreement of 1941, 750 kHz was a clear channel under 1928 rules.
The Fisher Building, a National Historic site in the City's New Center area, is home to the Fisher Theatre, with the WJR radio antenna
Logo '70s-'80s
WJR became a CBS affiliate on September 29, 1935, after having been affiliated with NBC-Blue. On the same date, WJR's officials formally dedicated the station's new 50,000 W transmitter.
Richards died in May 1951, and in 1964, Goodwill Stations was sold to Capital Cities Communications, which later merged with ABC and later with the Walt Disney Company. Upon the sale, WJR's air slogan became "The Great Voice of the Great Lakes". Also in 1964, WJR acquired full rights to Detroit Tigers baseball games with announcers Ernie Harwell and George Kell. The station became the flagship of the "Tiger Baseball Network." In the late 1960s, WJR also became the flagship station for Detroit Red Wings hockey and Detroit Pistons basketball.
Logo Today
The station is also remembered among many Metro Detroiters for its advertising campaigns and jingles including "W-J-R ... Radio 76 ... Cares About Detroit." Another: "This is America's finest - AM stereo 76." Regularly on his show, J.P. McCarthy would state in a nonchalant way "This is the world's greatest radio station, WJR Detroit," with a manner that made it seem like the most obvious of facts.
WJR signed on an FM outlet in 1948 at 96.3 MHz. The station was known as WJR-FM until 1982 when it became WHYT. It is now WDVD.
Music programming on WJR has been phased out almost entirely over the past two decades. As of June 2014.
WJR was sold with other ABC Radio stations to Citadel Broadcasting in January 2006. Citadel merged with Cumulus Media on September 16, 2011.
➦In 1922...KNX-AM, Los Angeles, California signed-on.
