Good Morning! Check The Pulse for Tuesday, Sept 15

Radio Broadcasting

Vet Retires: Scott Masteller, program director of Beasley Media Group’s 97.5 The Fanatic (WPEN-FM) in Philadelphia, will retire Dec. 31, ending a radio career of more than 45 years. 

Groups Asking Nicely: Two U.S. radio groups have asked the FCC again to repeal its local radio ownership caps, adding to a growing industry push as the commission reviews media rules under a Republican majority. 

The Rules Are Changing: Mid-sized podcasts now outperform celebrity shows for many advertisers, delivering a 22% lower cost per action, according to Audacy’s new report, “State of Audio: The New Rules of Podcast Advertising.”

Dukes Has Partners: Collective Heads has announced that Tim Dukes, former president of Hope Media Group and a longtime Christian radio executive, has joined the company as a partner.

Media Industry

The Emmys: “Widow’s Bay,” a series about the eccentric residents of a haunted New England island, won outstanding comedy series at the Emmy Awards on Monday night, beating previous winner “Hacks.”

FCC Needs To Vote: Activists have has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to order the FCC to take a full-commission vote on the group’s challenge to the license renewal of Fox Television Stations’ WTXF (Fox 29) in Philadelphia. 

New Deal For Lib: Jessica Tarlov has signed a 3-year-deal with Fox To remain a panelist on The Five

U-S News

No Where To Go But Up: A new poll shows President Donald Trump’s approval rating edge up to 35%, but Democrats still lead Republicans by seven points in a generic congressional ballot and most voters disapprove of his $5,000 dividend proposal.

Don't Lets Techies Decide: Former President Barack Obama urged a broad public debate and regulatory action on AI, praising calls for a development slowdown while warning that the technology's benefits or harms will depend on decisions made now, not just by tech leaders.

Monday Night Football: The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Denver Broncos 31-10 on MNF, highlighted by Kenneth Walker III's breakout performance and Patrick Mahomes' return, while Denver's new offensive coordinator Davis Webb and the Broncos defense struggled.

“Widow’s Bay” Wins Best Comedy at the Emmys

“Widow’s Bay,” a series about the eccentric residents of a haunted New England island, won outstanding comedy series at the Emmy Awards on Monday night, beating previous winner “Hacks.”

Critics praised the show’s original premise in a television landscape crowded with reboots and revivals. 

“Widow’s Bay” collected 14 Emmys—more than any other series and a new high for a comedy—capping a late surge that made it an industry word-of-mouth hit.

Star Matthew Rhys, who plays a beleaguered mayor, won outstanding lead actor in a comedy series. It was the first of two acting Emmys he received Monday and made him the first performer to win lead acting awards in limited series, comedy, and drama. He previously won for “The Americans” in 2018.

“The Pitt” won outstanding drama series for the second straight year, becoming the first show to take the award for its first two seasons since “Mad Men” in 2009. Noah Wyle won outstanding lead actor in a drama series for the second consecutive year.

Seven more takeaways:

Study: The Rules of Podcasting Advertising Are Changing

Mid-sized podcasts now outperform celebrity shows for many advertisers, delivering a 22% lower cost per action, according to Audacy’s new report, “State of Audio: The New Rules of Podcast Advertising.”

The study says the old playbook of buying the biggest names for reach is giving way to a focus on influence. Listeners are 27% more likely to be swayed by topic experts than by well-known celebrities, Audacy found. 

Trust, expertise, and community, the report argues, have become the real currency of podcast ads.

Cumulus, Zimmer Owners Meet With FCC Over Market Caps

Two U.S. radio groups — national owner Cumulus Media and small-market operator Zimmer Radio of Mid Missouri — asked the FCC again last week to repeal its local radio ownership caps, adding to a growing industry push as the commission reviews media rules under a Republican majority. 

The meetings, disclosed in ex parte filings, came after the FCC eliminated the 39 percent national ownership cap on broadcast television stations. Industry officials say that move, plus a sympathetic commission, has raised expectations that radio limits could be next.

Philly Radio: Scott Masteller to Retire From Beasley' Fanatic

Scott Masteller, program director of Beasley Media Group’s 97.5 The Fanatic (WPEN-FM) in Philadelphia, will retire Dec. 31, ending a radio career of more than 45 years. 

Masteller has programmed the sports-talk station since January 2024 after earlier consulting the brand. In that span he helped reset the station’s strategy, reshape its weekday lineup, and coach key hosts. Beasley said it will work with him to name a successor. 

Tim Dukes Joins Collective Heads as Partner

Tim Dukes Joins Collective Heads as PartnerCollective Heads, a media consulting, fractional management and marketing firm, announced Tuesday that Tim Dukes, former president of Hope Media Group and a longtime Christian radio executive, has joined the company as a partner.

Dukes will work with stations and organizations seeking growth in audience, impact and revenue, drawing on more than three decades in radio programming, operations and faith-based media. His addition expands Collective Heads’ bench of programming, management and marketing expertise, particularly in Contemporary Christian radio.Dukes most recently served as president of Hope Media Group after becoming the company’s chief operating officer in 2022, following Way Media’s merger with Hope Media Group. 

"Choosin' Texas" Ties All-Time Hot 100 No. 1 Hit

Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” has tied the all-time Billboard Hot 100 longevity record, logging a 22nd week at No. 1 and matching Mariah Carey’s holiday standard “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”

The country smash now shares the longest reign in the chart’s history, which dates to August 1958. Carey’s 1994 carol accumulated its 22 weeks across multiple holiday seasons from 2019 through 2026.

Langley’s hit reached the same mark in a single calendar year after first hitting No. 1 in February 2026. Two weeks earlier, “Choosin’ Texas” had already rewritten the record for non-holiday songs. Its 20th week at the summit passed the 19-week runs of Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” in 2024 and Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road,” featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, in 2019.

DejaVu Will Host NAB Marconi Awards

New York urban radio host DejaVu will emcee the 2026 NAB Marconi Radio Awards on Oct. 20 at the Edison Ballroom in Manhattan, the night before NAB Show New York. 

The ceremony, often called radio’s biggest night, honors stations, personalities, podcasts, and industry leaders.  Reception is set for 6 p.m. ET, with dinner and the show at 7 p.m.  Finalists were announced in July. 

DejaVu hosts middays on MediaCo’s WBLS (107.5) in New York and is nationally syndicated by Compass Media Networks. She also appears on “Live With Kelly and Mark” and works as a motivational speaker and mental-health advocate.

Jessica Tarlov Is The Liberal Voice on Fox News’

Jessica Tarlov, 42, is the principal liberal counterweight on Fox News’ “The Five,” a weekday panel that averages 3.5 million viewers, according to Nielsen. 

She arrives prepared with data-driven talking points and uses them to force often immovable co-hosts to engage—even as Jesse Watters and Greg Gutfeld try to knock her off stride with mockery and interruptions.

“Interruptions are an indication that you’re winning,” Tarlov said, echoing a theme from her book “I Disagree.”

She maps out multiple debate scenarios, including when to lean on statistics and when to ease off. She also argues for letting opponents vent, as she did when co-hosts grew emotional after the shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.Tarlov says the show’s durability rests on off-camera camaraderie. 

Activists Full FCC Vote On Fox 29 Philly

The Media and Democracy Project has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to order the FCC to take a full-commission vote on the group’s challenge to the license renewal of Fox Television Stations’ WTXF (Fox 29) in Philadelphia. 

The advocacy group wants the court to compel the agency either to grant or dismiss its pending Application for Review. 

Without a final commission decision, MAD says, it cannot seek judicial review of staff-level action that rejected its petition. MAD filed a Petition to Deny WTXF’s renewal in July 2023. It argued that findings from Fox’s Dominion Voting Systems litigation showed the company aired false claims about the 2020 election and therefore failed the Communications Act’s character standards for broadcast licensees. 

NWS Starts Renaming Lake Ontario In Forecasts, Maps

The National Weather Service on Monday began replacing “Lake Ontario” with “Lake America” across forecasts, maps and websites after President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to make the change. Trump signed the executive order Aug. 27 amid trade talks with Canada. 

The Department of the Interior and the U.S. Board on Geographic Names were given 30 days to make the new name official. Lake Ontario forms part of the U.S.–Canada border.

Chicago Radio: WGN, NHL Blackhawks Extend Media Rights Deal

The Chicago Blackhawks and WGN Radio have agreed to a multi-year extension of their radio rights deal, keeping live game broadcasts on the station that has been the team’s flagship since 2008-09.

Steve Konroyd will become the full-time radio analyst alongside play-by-play voice John Wiedeman, succeeding the late Troy Murray. Charlie Roumeliotis will continue to host pregame, intermission, and postgame shows. 

WGN will air preseason games on Sept. 21, 24, and 26 and all 84 regular-season games this season.

Radio History: Sep 15

➦In 1907...John Wesley "Jack" Bailey Jr. born in Hampton, Iowa (Died from cancer at age 72 in Santa Monica, CA– February 1, 1980).  He was an actor and daytime game show host.

Jack Bailey

Bailey is best remembered as the host of Queen for a Day, a daytime game show which first aired on the Mutual Broadcasting System in 1945 and later moved to television, where it ran locally in the Los Angeles area from 1948 through 1955, on the NBC Television network from January 3, 1956 to September 2, 1960, and on the ABC network from September 5, 1960 to October 2, 1964. Each episode started with a different introduction (some of which were parodies of other popular shows of the time period), but inevitably the opening would resolve when Bailey pointed to the camera (and the audience) and loudly asked, "Would you like to be Queen for a Day?" as the live audience, mostly women, cheered.

He was an announcer for several radio programs, including The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Duffy's Tavern, and Meet the Missus.

His other work in television included appearances in episodes of The Ford Show, Starring Tennessee Ernie Ford, Mister Ed, Green Acres, I Dream of Jeannie, Gunsmoke, and Ironside, plus narration for the Walt Disney organization. He had a small part in the Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life and he also toured the country in musical stage productions, such as Hello Dolly, The Sound of Music, and The Music Man.

Bailey was awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame—one for his radio career, at 1708 Vine Street, and one for his work in television, at 6411 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

➦In 1907...Announcer Jimmy Wallington was born in Rochester NY (Died at age 65 – December 22, 1972). After playing small roles in a few Hollywood films, he was the announcer for several popular radio shows in the 1940s and 1950s.

Jimmy Wallington

For his work on radio, Wallington has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6660 Hollywood Blvd.

He was the announcer for several popular radio shows in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, including Texaco Star Theatre with Fred Allen (1941–44) and Texaco Town with Eddie Cantor. As with most announcers, Wallington would announce the program's star, then read the sponsor's commercials. In addition, he was often given comedy lines. When radio shows moved to television, he continued as a television announcer in the 1950s.

After years as a radio announcer, he became a TV star in California doing Life Insurance and other commercials. He ended his professional radio career as a Voice of America radio announcer in the Worldwide English service.

Blondie, Dagwood

➦In 1908...Penny Singleton born Mariana Dorothy McNulty (Died at age 95 – November 12, 2003). During her 60-year career, she appeared as the comic-strip heroine Blondie Bumstead in a series of 28 motion pictures from 1938 until 1950 and the popular Blondie radio program from 1939 until 1950. Singleton also provided the voice of Jane Jetson in the animated series The Jetsons from 1962–1963 and 1985–1987.

She was cast opposite Arthur Lake (as Dagwood) in the feature film Blondie in 1938. They repeated their roles on a radio comedy beginning in 1939 and in guest appearances on other radio shows. As Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead, they proved so popular that a succession of 27 sequels was made from 1938 until 1950, with the radio show ending the same year. Singleton's husband Robert Sparks produced 12 of these sequels. Also in 1950, she had her own program, The Penny Singleton Show, on NBC radio.

Crucial Vote On Potential Future of AM Radio Expected This Week

A House vote this week on the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act is the radio industry’s highest-stakes policy test in years: a chance to lock AM receivers into new cars before more automakers, especially EV makers, drop them from the dashboard. 

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise scheduled a standalone vote after a plan to tuck the measure into a larger transportation bill stalled. The bill — H.R. 979 in the House and S. 315 in the Senate — would require the Transportation Department to mandate AM radio as standard equipment in new vehicles, including electric models, at no extra cost to buyers. Even after a House win, the Senate would still have to act before the measure could reach President Trump, who has said he supports keeping AM in cars.

The Newer 60-Minutes: A Bit Sleeker, The Content Formula Remains

“60 Minutes” returned Sunday looking a lot like itself. After months of firings, accusations of political interference, and a high-profile overhaul under CBS News editor in chief Bari Weiss, the season premiere of America’s most-watched news program delivered the same mix that has kept it in the weekly Top 10 for decades: a battlefield rescue, an accountability investigation, and a sports profile.

Norah O’Donnell opened with an exclusive interview with an Air Force colonel — identified only as “Bravo” — who described being shot down over Iran, surviving behind enemy lines with serious injuries, climbing a 7,000-foot ridgeline, and being rescued two days later. He called it a “modern-day miracle.” 

CBS Says Tony Romo Is On Leave 'Until Further Notice'

CBS Sports has placed NFL analyst Tony Romo on leave “until further notice,” the network said, after he pleaded no contest to an operating-while-intoxicated charge from a July arrest in Wisconsin.

Romo, 46, wrote on Instagram that he is focusing on “my health, my family and, in time, my return to CBS.” 

He lost his driving privileges for six months. His blood-alcohol level was measured at .15, nearly twice Wisconsin’s legal limit. Video from the arrest has circulated widely.

Romo still has four years and $72 million remaining on the 10-year, $180 million contract he signed in 2020. That deal followed a three-year, $10 million rookie TV pact and came as CBS sought a long-term No. 1 analyst with NFL media rights talks approaching.

Report: PSKY Exit Would Devastate Calif Economy

A leaked Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation report warns that moving Paramount Skydance out of California would cost the state thousands of jobs and billions of dollars, with immediate losses of 2,750 to 5,550 job-years and $1.01 billion to $2.03 billion in economic output from Oct. 1, 2026, through Sept. 30, 2031.

Once a full relocation of headquarters and other operations was complete, California would permanently lose about 28,990 to 57,980 full-time jobs across all industries and $10.6 billion to $21.2 billion in annual economic output, according to the report published by Variety.

Trump: 'Whoever Wins AI, Wins'

President Donald Trump dismissed apocalyptic warnings about artificial intelligence on Sunday, calling them “things that won’t happen” and arguing the United States must keep racing ahead because “whoever wins AI, wins.” 

Speaking to reporters at his golf course in Doonbeg, Ireland, Trump said the United States is already ahead of China and that staying there matters more than slowing development. “We’re leading China in AI. We’re the most sophisticated country in the world, and frankly, I want to keep it that way because whoever wins AI wins,” he said.  He added that “we can put guardrails” but that “a lot of negative voices” are “bringing up things that won’t happen.” 

The remarks came a day after Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay urging the industry to pace frontier development, arguing safety work is lagging as models advance faster. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and xAI’s Elon Musk publicy backed a slowdown. 

Report: AI Doomsday Scare Looks Like Climate Change 2.0

A coordinated “AI apocalypse” scare campaign has erupted at the exact start of the 2026 midterm election season, looking suspiciously like the climate hoax that once demanded global control over energy. New York Post columnist Miranda Devine argues the timing is no accident. 

Just as voters begin focusing on November races, a low-level 27-year-old AI researcher named Jacob Coxon quit Anthropic last week and announced it in a Wall Street Journal exclusive plus a viral X thread claiming the people building AI “earnestly believe that it could kill us all by the end of the decade” and “are gambling with our lives.” 

His boss, Democrat-aligned Anthropic founder and CEO Dario Amodei, immediately amplified the message. On Saturday he published a 3,800-word essay calling for the industry to slow the pace of AI capabilities. On Sunday CBS aired an interview in which Amodei essentially argued for one-world-style regulation: “the right combination of governments” providing “some kind of joint governance” to control the technology. He said a single government or company could abuse it equally, so democratically elected governments should share oversight. 

Coxon, a Brit who previously worked at OpenAI on pretraining models, spent only four months at Anthropic and left before his equity vested. He described colleagues using terms like “crunchtime” and “endgame” for the race toward self-improving systems that could spiral out of human control by the end of next year. Anthropic’s own alignment lead publicly agreed that researchers sincerely believe AI could kill all humans, with some putting the chance above 10 percent this decade. 

Devine notes the pattern matches earlier climate alarmism: dire, near-term predictions of catastrophe used to justify transferring power to international or unelected bodies. Amodei’s call for coordinated “speed limits” on AI progress, embedded third-party evaluators inside companies, and eventual global coordination with even authoritarian governments follows the same playbook. 

The campaign launched with a relatively junior researcher’s dramatic resignation, then the CEO’s lengthy essay and prime-time interview—classic amplification tactics.

Critics, including Elon Musk, immediately questioned whether Coxon’s high-profile exit was a setup to push regulation. Coxon insisted his beliefs are genuine and that he had no prior coordination with advocacy groups. Meanwhile President Trump has dismissed such doom predictions as “things that won’t happen” and said the United States must win the AI race because “whoever wins AI, wins.” 

The sudden intensity of existential warnings from inside the very labs racing to build the technology, arriving the week midterm campaigning ramps up, raises the same questions Devine has long asked about climate messaging: who benefits from the panic, and why now?

FCC's Carr Slams TX Candidate as Running a ‘Hoax’

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr accused Texas Democratic Senate candidate James Talarico of staging a “hoax” to generate clicks and campaign donations after ABC moved Talarico’s interview with Jimmy Kimmel off broadcast television and onto YouTube. In a Saturday night post on X, Carr said Talarico was “just running the same hoax he did a few months ago on Colbert for the purpose of getting clicks and donations — he’s banking on people not understanding the statute or operating as partisan lemmings.” 

Carr attached a meme showing Kimmel carrying Talarico in a baby backpack before crashing the bicycle. The YouTube interview had drawn about 6.8 million views by Saturday evening, after Kimmel announced Wednesday that it would not air on ABC. 

Study: NYTimes Coverage Grossly Pro-Palestinian, Anti-Israel

A peer-reviewed study of 1,559 New York Times articles found that the paper’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas war after October 7, 2023, systematically minimized Israeli deaths, Hamas’s continuing role, and Palestinian violence while amplifying Palestinian civilian suffering.

Yale School of Management professor Edieal Pinker published the analysis in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism. He examined articles that appeared from October 7, 2023, through June 7, 2024, and concluded that the dominant frame assigned “near-exclusive agency and responsibility to Israel while diminishing Hamas’s role in sustaining the conflict.” 

Ninety-one percent of the articles did not mention Israeli casualties after October 7. A total of 1,423 pieces omitted both those later Israeli losses and deaths among Hamas combatants. Half the articles made no reference to Israeli hostages held by Hamas, and 41 percent did not mention the Israeli dead from the initial October 7 attack. 

Personal accounts of Palestinian and Lebanese suffering appeared on average two out of every three days. Comparable stories of Israeli suffering not tied directly to October 7 were rare. 

Atlanta Radio: Big Tigger Returns To WVEE Morning Show

Charges against WVEE V-103 morning host Big Tigger have been dropped, and he will return to the air Monday after more than two months off.

The Fulton County district attorney’s office decided not to prosecute after reviewing the case, according to a Sept. 4 court document obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The facts and evidence of this case have been reviewed and after full consideration of the evidence, it is the decision of the District Attorney not to prosecute,” the filing said. It was signed by Simone N. Hylton, an executive district attorney in the office’s domestic violence division.

V-103 announced Friday that Big Tigger, whose real name is Darian Morgan, will be back on the morning show. His attorney, Gabe Banks, said his client is “excited to get back to work.” Banks said the station and the host “knew from the beginning that Big Tigger was innocent, and the dismissal of charges only affirms what he has maintained all along.”

Cincy Radio: Mollie Watson Joins WRRM-FM For PM Drive

Cumulus Media announces that it has appointed Mollie Watson to On-Air Host, Afternoon Drive, and Account Executive for Cincinnati AC station, Warm 98/WRRM-FM. Watson joins Cumulus Cincinnati from Q102/WKRQ-FM in Cincinnati, where she was Midday Host and served the station for the past 16 years. She can be heard on Warm 98 Monday through Friday from 3:00PM-7:00PM.

A native Cincinnatian, Watson started with Q102 in 2011 as a reporter and promotions coordinator and worked her way up to On-Air Host for the station, making her one of the most recognizable voices on the station. She is a graduate of Northern Kentucky University.

Trey Dolle, Vice President/Market Manager, Cumulus Cincinnati, said: “Throughout her career, Mollie has built strong relationships with listeners and advertisers alike, making her a tremendous addition to our team both on-air and in sales. We are pleased to have Mollie on the Warm 98 and Cumulus Cincinnati team. Her talent, experience, and enthusiasm are making an impact across the organization that is infectious.”

Mollie Watson commented: “I couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the Warm 98 family. I’m so thankful for this opportunity and it’s been a thrill to be behind the mic. Love spending my afternoons with Cincinnati!”

For more information or to stream Warm 98, visit: https://www.warm98.com/.

K-C Radio KCMO Launches Local Talk Show “Miranda’s Right”

Cumulus Media's KCMO Talk Radio 95.7 FM in Kansas City announced today that veteran broadcaster and Kansas City native Miranda Khan will join the station's expanding local lineup as host of a new weekday afternoon talk show. "Miranda's Right.” The program launches on Monday, September 14th, airing weekdays from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. and gives Kansas Citians another live, local destination for the news, opinions, and conversations shaping the community.

Khan was previously News Anchor for WPTV Newschannel 5 in West Palm Beach, FL, and was also a Television Host for NewsMax TV in Boynton Beach, FL. Most recently, she was Lead Host and Executive Producer for “Special Report” on America’s News Voice Network. She holds a B.S. degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Kansas.

Miranda

KCMO Talk Radio’s new weekday lineup features:

• Mundo in the Morning: 6:00am-10:00am
• Kevin Kietzman Uncanceled: 10:00am-11:00am
• Vince Coglianese: 11:00am-2:00pm
• Guy Benson: 2:00pm-4:00pm
• Miranda’s Right: 4:00pm-7:00pm
• Mark Levin: 7:00pm-8:00pm
• America at Night with McGraw Milhaven: 8:00pm-10:00pm
• The Ramsey Show: 10:00pm-12:00am

BIA Forecast: Better Billing In 2026

Key Takeaways:

• First Look at 2027 Points to Continued Underlying Growth
• Mobile continues to compound

BIA Advisory Services has updated its 2026 U.S. Local Advertising Forecast, projecting total local ad revenue to reach $186.1 billion, up $1.6 billion (+0.9%) from the firm's April 2026 estimate of $184.5 billion and approximately 9% year over year from 2025. The increase is driven primarily by higher political ad spending heading into the midterms, along with continued strength in mobile.

Excluding political advertising, the 2026 forecast is now $176.4 billion, up $0.3 billion (+0.2%) from the prior estimate of $176.1 billion and 3.9% over 2025, reflecting steady, broad-based growth across the underlying local ad market.

“Political spending came in higher than we anticipated in April, with most of the incremental spending flowing into TV OTA and TV OTT,” said Senan Mele, VP of Forecasting and Data Analysis, BIA Advisory Services. “Legal Services was also notable in this update, reaching $9.3 billion, up 4.6% from the prior forecast. Despite higher media costs and a more fragmented media environment, law firms continue to invest heavily in television, both linear and streaming, where the ability to reach large audiences and generate qualified leads continues to drive demand.”

The New Week Starts With The Pulse For Monday, Sep 14

Radio Broadcasting

It's A Big Deal: A House vote this week on the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act is the radio industry’s highest-stakes policy test in years: a chance to lock AM receivers into new cars before more automakers, especially EV makers, drop them from the dashboard. 

Tigger Returns: Charges against WVEE V-103 morning host Big Tigger have been dropped, and he will return to the air Monday after more than two months off.

3 Loses: RIP...MN Station Owner Steve Gretsch, a Lehigh Valley Radio Vet, Former WXRT, WGN Personality

NFL Sunday Ticket: Higer Price, Fewer Games

NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers are paying more for fewer games as the league moves more matchups into stand-alone national windows.

The package carried 191 games last season, down nearly 10% from 211 in 2021, according to Wall Street Journal research. Early Sunday afternoon games fell 13% to 127 over that span. Sunday Ticket is expected to offer about 200 games this season, still below the 2021 total.

The regular price for YouTube TV subscribers is now $378, nearly 30% higher than the $293.94 DirecTV charged existing customers in its final years with the package. Viewers without YouTube TV can pay as much as $480, though promotional discounts are common.

The NFL has shifted games to Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Monday and added international and holiday contests. Netflix carries Christmas games and will add a Thanksgiving Eve matchup this season. Amazon has the Black Friday game. Those contests are sold separately and are not part of Sunday Ticket, which is limited to out-of-market Sunday afternoon games. Popular teams also appear more often in national broadcasts, leaving the package with fewer high-profile matchups.

Here's Where Viewers Are Watching TV

Most U.S. TV households still treat the living room as the main screen, but bedroom sets are common and, in about one in seven homes, they are the most-watched TV, according to the DASH Mid-Year 2026 release.

Among households with at least one TV, 86% have a set in the living room, and in 71% of those homes that living-room TV is the most-watched. Nearly two-thirds of TV households also have at least one bedroom set. In 15% of TV households — roughly one in seven — a bedroom TV, not the living-room set, draws the most viewing.

R.I.P.: Steve Gretsch, MN Radio Station Owner

Steve Gretsch (1962-2026)

Steve Gretsch, the 64-year-old owner and on-air voice of KLFD Radio in Litchfield,  MN known to listeners as “the Giant,” died Sept. 4, 2026, after a motorcycle crash near Cold Spring. 

Gretsch, of Albany, was riding south on a county road with two other motorcyclists shortly before noon when his motorcycle failed to follow a curve, left the roadway and went into a ditch, striking a fiber-optic cable box and a utility pole. He died at the scene. 

For more than 20 years, Gretsch was the familiar voice of KLFD (AM 1410 / FM 95.9), hosting the morning show, calling local sports and voicing countless commercials. He and his wife, Patty, bought the station in 2005. Colleagues said he was not merely part of the station; he was its voice. 

He began in radio at KASM in Albany.  Off the air he was a golfer who rarely missed a season at Albany Golf Club, a hunter and fisherman, and a motorcyclist who looked forward to the ABATE State Motorcycle Rally each Labor Day weekend in Litchfield.

R.I.P.: Jonathan Roth, Longtime WDIY Lehigh Valley Radio Vet

Roth (1976-2026)

Jonathan Roth, a longtime WDIY on-air music host and veteran of college and community radio, died Aug. 27, 2026. He was 50. Roth spent the past 13 years as a rotating Saturday-night host of WDIY’s Good Clean Fun, playing a mix of new and classic indie and alternative rock. He also filled in occasionally on the station’s weekday afternoon AAA program, The Blend.

He arrived at WDIY already seasoned by earlier stints at WXJM in Harrisonburg, Va., and WMUH in Allentown, Pa., which allowed him to start hosting soon after joining the station.

Roth graduated from Allentown Central Catholic High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English from James Madison University, where he played in the award-winning marching band, and a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from Moravian University.

Drums remained a lifelong outlet. He performed with Speedwell, Meredith Bragg and the Terminals, Ghost Wounds, and Blank Stares, including a notable appearance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.

He also acted with Muhlenberg College Summer Theater and Civic Little Theatre while living in Allentown. Roth wrote freelance music coverage for Philadelphia’s two.one.five Magazine, The Morning Call in the Lehigh Valley, and The Aquarian Weekly in Little Falls, N.J. He worked as senior technical writer and blog lead at Dorman Products in Colmar, Pa., and as a freelance graphic designer.

R.I.P. Garry Lee Wright, Former Personality At WXRT, WGN Chicago

Garry Lee Wright

Garry Lee Wright, a radio host, stand-up comic and writer who spent two stretches at Chicago’s WXRT-FM and later co-hosted overnight shows on WGN-AM, died Aug. 14 of heart failure. He was 74.

His daughter, Amanda, confirmed the death at her home in St. Charles, where Wright had been receiving palliative care for congestive heart failure and cardiac disease. 

Wright was best known locally for his WGN work and, earlier, as WXRT’s morning host before Terri Hemmert.

Wright and longtime WGN contributor Nick Digilio co-hosted an overnight program for eight years even though they had not met until their first broadcast. Each also hosted solo shows on the 50,000-watt station. “Incredibly, we had never met before the first night we went on the air together, and somehow it worked beautifully,” Digilio said. “We had a great time on the air together."

Radio History: Sep 14

➦In 1814...Attorney Francis Scott Key wrote the lyrics to the "Star-Spangled Banner" after witnessing the British bombardment of Fort McHenry, Maryland during the War of 1812.

Key, accompanied by the British Prisoner Exchange Agent Colonel John Stuart Skinner, dined aboard the British ship HMS Tonnant as the guests of three British officers: Vice Admiral Alexander Cochrane, Rear Admiral George Cockburn, and Major General Robert Ross. Skinner and Key were there to negotiate the release of prisoners, one of whom was Dr. William Beanes, a resident of Upper Marlboro, MD, who had been arrested after jailing marauding British troops who were looting local farms.

Skinner, Key, and Beanes were not allowed to return to their own sloop because they had become familiar with the strength and position of the British units and with the British intent to attack Baltimore. Thus, Key was unable to do anything but watch the bombarding of the American forces at Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore on the night of September 13–14, 1814.

At dawn, Key was able to see an American flag still waving.

Back in Baltimore and inspired, Key wrote a poem about his experience, "Defence of Fort McHenry", which was soon published in William Pechin's American and Commercial Daily Advertiser on September 21, 1814. He took it to Thomas Carr, a music publisher, who adapted it to the rhythms of composer John Stafford Smith's "To Anacreon in Heaven".  It has become better known as "The Star-Spangled Banner". Though somewhat difficult to sing, it became increasingly popular, competing with "Hail, Columbia" (1796) as the de facto national anthem by the time of the Mexican–American War and American Civil War.

More than a century after its first publication, the song was adopted as the American national anthem, first by an Executive Order from President Woodrow Wilson in 1916 and then by a Congressional resolution on March 31, 1931, signed by President Herbert Hoover.

Cecil Brown

➦In 1907...Cecil Brown, radio newsman & commentator, was born in New Brighton, PA.  Some of his most important broadcasts were from the Pacific war front during the early days of World War II. One of the correspondents known as ‘Murrow’s Boys,’ he resigned from CBS in 1943 after being rebuked by CBS news director Paul White for expressing an editorial opinion during an August 25 news broadcast. Brown had stated that "a good deal of the enthusiasm for this war is evaporating into thin air." Announcing his resignation Brown said that he could not subscribe to what he characterized as CBS' policy of "non-opinionated" news.

Brown continued his commentaries with Mutual, NBC and ABC. For his contributions to radio he has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He died Oct. 25 1987 at age 80.

Jerry Coleman

➦In 1924...Gerald Francis Coleman born in NYC (Died at age 89 after a fall – January 5, 2014),  Jerry Coleman was a MLB second baseman for the New York Yankees and manager of the San Diego Padres for one year.

Coleman was named the rookie of the year in 1949 by Associated Press, and was an All-Star in 1950 and later that year was named the World Series Most Valuable Player. Yankees teams on which he was a player appeared in six World Series during his career, winning four times. Coleman served as a Marine Corps pilot in World War II and the Korean War, flying combat missions.

He later became a broadcaster, and he was honored in 2005 by the Baseball Hall of Fame with the Ford C. Frick Award for his broadcasting contributions.