🗼On Capitol Hill: The House passed the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act on a voice vote Tuesday and sent H.R. 979 to the Senate, where it was placed on the calendar. Broadcasters and the NAB framed it as a public-safety win. The Senate companion already has a large bipartisan cosponsor list; the fight now is floor time before the midterm recess.
🗼Public safety: FEMA and the FCC set the first nationwide EAS test since October 2023 for Nov. 17 at 2:20 p.m. ET (backup Dec. 3). This year’s test covers EAS only, not Wireless Emergency Alerts. Stations must file ETRS Form One by Oct. 30.
🗼Ratings fight: The Second Circuit paused a district-court order that would have forced Nielsen to sell its Nationwide product to Cumulus on court-set terms, with a $50,000-a-day fine attached. Briefing runs through late October.
🗼Revenue: BIA lifted its 2026 local-ad outlook again, to $186.1 billion, on midterm political spending. Over-the-air radio is projected at $9.79 billion (+1.6%); digital radio at $2.41 billion (+0.8%). Regional buyers kept picking up clusters as national groups sold.
🗼Acquisitions: MARC Media expanded in Tampa and Gainesville-Ocala; Civic Media added Iowa. Nielsen also issued August 2026 ratings on Friday.
🗼Programming and People: Westwood One ended America in the Morning after 42 years on Sept. 18 and will replace it Monday with a morning edition of Dan Bongino’s Bongino Report. Bill Mick retired from iHeart’s WMMB Melbourne. Abbi Hess was named GM of Joy 99 and Joy Worship in Western Michigan.
🗼More News: Country Radio Broadcasters set its 2026–27 board...DejaVu will host the NAB Marconi Awards on Oct. 20 in New York...Ideastream Public Media and PBS Western Reserve agreed to merge, covering more than 4 million people in Northeast Ohio and Western Pennsylvania...ESPN Radio’s return to Buffalo, and the Sacramento Kings leaving KHTK after 32 years...SiriusXM’s SXM-11 satellite entered service.
➤What to watch next week (Sept. 21–25)
Monday: Westwood One launches the morning Bongino Report in the America in the Morning slot.
Thursday, Sept. 24, 11:59 p.m. ET: FCC FY 2026 regulatory fees are due via CORES. Late payments trigger an automatic 25% penalty, interest, and possible red-light status. Hardship waivers and installment requests are due the same day.
Watch whether leadership tees up the AM-in-cars bill before the pre-election recess. Odds still favor a lame-duck fight.
CRS early-bird registration opens Sept. 22
Radio Hall of Fame induction is Oct. 8 in Chicago; Marconi Awards are Oct. 20.
➦In 1921...KDKA Pittsburgh established the world's first radio newsroom. The first daily radio newscasts featured a reports from The Pittsburgh Post.
Harry Harrison
➦In 1930...NYC Personality Harry Harrison was born in Chicago. (Died January 28, 2020)
Harrison is the only DJ to be a WMCA "Good Guy", a WABC "All-American", and on the WCBS-FM line-up when the New York station flipped to the "Jack" format in June 2005.
He attended a seminary, intending to become a priest. But he decided to make broadcasting his career after spending nearly a year as a teenager glued to the radio while bedridden with rheumatic fever.
Harrison worked at WCFL in the early 50s as a summer replacement, yet remained there eight months, substituting for the permanent DJs. In 1954, Harrison became program director at WPEO, Peoria and hosted the morning show as the "Morning Mayor of Peoria." In just six months, Harrison made WPEO the top station.
In 1959, Harrison joined WMCA, New York, as the mid-day "Good Guy." Joe O'Brien (mornings) and Harrison gave WMCA a "one-two punch" for over eight years. In 1965, he recorded the nationally charted holiday narration "May You Always" on Amy Records.
Harrison became popular with his "Housewife Hall of Fame” feature, and participated in the 1966 WMCA Good Guy picnic. Often, he scored the highest ratings on WMCA. WABC program director Rick Sklar took note.
In 1968, when WABC morning man Herb Oscar Anderson left the station, Rick Sklar hired Harrison to replace him. Harrison was followed in the WABC day by Ron Lundy.
White House security blocked MSNOW and CNN reporters from entering the grounds Saturday morning as President Donald Trump’s ban on three news outlets took effect.MSNOW reporter Akayla Gardner said her White House press pass would not scan at the press entrance.
A security officer then ordered her to surrender the badge as she tried to pass through magnetometers. Gardner said the officer told her the decision was “above him.” An MSNOW photographer also had a press badge confiscated.
🚨 NEW: White House’s ban on MS Now just came into operation!
Here's MS NOW reporter @gardnerakayla describing how she was denied access at the White House this morning. Her badge didn't work.
"The officer asked me to hand over my badge. He said that it was disabled. I asked…
The ban does not stop the outlets from covering Trump, but it cuts off the White House access reporters use to question the president and speak with administration officials.
MSNOW said it “intends to take any and all steps necessary to defend our First Amendment rights and the essential role of independent journalism in our democracy.” The network added that the White House belongs to the American people and that decisions made there are funded by taxpayers.
CNN said the ban is “an illegal assault” on its constitutional right to report without government interference and that it will keep covering the administration “without fear or favor.”Democrats and First Amendment advocates immediately criticized the policy.
Trump himself, speaking to reporters Friday, called the action a “ban on the free press.”
In the 1977 case Sherrill v. Knight, a federal appeals court held that the White House cannot arbitrarily deny press passes based on the content of coverage once it has opened its facilities to the press.
The episode fits a longer pattern: Trump has often attacked individual reporters and outlets over coverage he considers unfair. In his second term, he has also invited nontraditional conservative commentators into the briefing room and Oval Office to question him.
President Donald Trump said Friday he is “banning” CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House “effective immediately,” citing what he called “fake news,” though there was no sign the administration had carried out the threat.
CNN reporters remained in their White House workspace into Friday evening, and a CNN crew continued traveling as the assigned television pool with Vice President JD Vance. Trump did not identify any specific stories that prompted the announcement or describe concrete steps to exclude the outlets.
Leading First Amendment organizations said any such ban would be unconstitutional. “A ban like this would be flatly unconstitutional,” said Bruce D. Brown, president of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. “The First Amendment is clear that once the White House invites in some journalists, it can’t ban others because it doesn’t like their reporting. This is textbook viewpoint discrimination and will be quickly struck down by the courts if challenged.”
Aaron Terr of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said press credentials “aren’t a reward for loyalty to the government” and that “a free, even adversarial, press is a sign of our country’s strength.”
CNN said it “stands fully behind our White House team and their fair and accurate reporting” and called any ban “an illegal assault” on a constitutionally protected right. Politico said it would “continue to fairly report on this White House and future ones” and “vigorously defend our First Amendment rights.”
9:00 AM Saturday UPDATE: Among the concessions under discussion is the formation of an editorial board or monitor that would independently oversee CNN, ostensibly to protect the news network from becoming too friendly with the Trump Administration.
Original Early Morning Story...
Paramount is reported to be in advanced settlement talks with California officials to resolve the antitrust lawsuit blocking its $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, according to The Wall Street Journal citing people familiar with the matter. A deal is not guaranteed.
The talks are aimed at clearing the last major legal obstacle to a combination that would unite two of Hollywood’s oldest studios, the Paramount+ and HBO Max streaming services, and dozens of television networks.
Twelve Democratic-led states, headed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, sued in July to block the transaction, arguing it would concentrate too much power in theatrical films and cable channels.
Paramount is under growing financial pressure to close. Its agreement with Warner includes a “ticking fee” of about $650 million a quarter, or roughly $7 million a day, that begins accruing next month if the deal has not closed.
Ashley Flowers’ Audiochuck, the Indianapolis company behind the No. 2 U.S. podcast Crime Junkie, has lost about 30 of its roughly 100 employees over the past year — including a CEO, chief legal officer and chief growth officer — while internal surveys show staff satisfaction collapsing from +27 in April 2025 to –34 by the second quarter of 2026.
The flagship show is still growing. Average weekly unique listeners are up 71% year over year, YouTube views have jumped about 400%, and episode downloads are at an all-time high, the company told Bloomberg. Crime Junkie remains second nationally behind Joe Rogan.
That audience success sits beside a workplace described by current and former staff as exacting, overworked and unstable. One employee said they vomited from nerves before presenting ideas to Flowers. In June, Flowers canceled The Deck, Audiochuck’s second-most popular show, even though it regularly drew more than 300,000 downloads a week.
Ashley Flowers
She told staff the decision was about her work-life balance after her young daughter said how unhappy she was that her mother worked so much. “I’m sad and happy,” Flowers said in a recorded all-hands meeting. “And I know it’s the right decision.” The cancellation cut jobs and reduced programming available for a new distribution deal.
Audiochuck has cycled through three non-founder CEOs in three years. Matthew Starker, hired after a 2025 investment round, lasted about a year. In June 2026 the company named Evelyn Webster, then CEO of SoulCycle, as his successor.
In living rooms across America, the television still flickers with the same three familiar names: Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC (rebranded as MS NOW). Yet the people sitting in front of those screens tell a story of a medium that has grown old along with its most loyal audience. The typical cable-news viewer is now in their late sixties.
In living rooms across America, the television still flickers with the same three familiar names: Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC (rebranded in places as MS NOW). Yet the people sitting in front of those screens tell a story of a medium that has grown old along with its most loyal audience.
The typical cable-news viewer is now in their late sixties. Nielsen data repeatedly places the median age of an MSNBC viewer around 70, Fox News around 69, and CNN around 67 or 68. These are not the 25-to-54 “demo” advertisers once chased; they are Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers who still treat the evening news as appointment television. Cable news as a category has a median viewer age in the high 60s. Younger adults have largely left the linear feed for TikTok, YouTube, and X.
ABC on Thursday opposed the Federal Communications Commission’s bid to dismiss its First Amendment lawsuit, arguing that the agency’s early license-renewal review of eight Disney-owned stations is a “broadcaster death penalty” meant to punish the network’s speech.
In a filing meeting a Sept. 17 reply deadline, ABC said the FCC’s “plain purpose” in opening the process was to gain leverage “by hanging the threat of the broadcaster death penalty of license non-renewal or revocation over Plaintiffs’ every editorial decision.”
The network accused the commission of trying “to license viewpoints,” not investigate discrimination, and said the government’s motion “improperly conflate[s] the nature of Plaintiffs’ retaliation claims” while ABC and its affiliates suffer.“
These are not typical media executives. A year ago, Disney sent Character.AI a cease-and-desist letter. Now Karandeep Anand and members of his technical team will shape how the company uses AI. Adam Smith, meanwhile, has spent more of his career at Google and YouTube than inside traditional media companies.
The shakeup advances CEO Josh D’Amaro’s bid to make Disney a tech-forward company, with Disney+ as the digital hub. The longer-term aim is a super app that lets fans manage their entire relationship with Disney — park tickets, merchandise, streaming, and more. AI is likely to be a core engine of that strategy.
Disney has created its first companywide chief technology officer role and filled it with Karandeep Anand, the outgoing CEO of Character.AI. Anand starts Oct. 2 as senior executive vice president and CTO, reporting directly to CEO Josh D’Amaro. A day earlier, Disney Entertainment elevated Adam Smith — a two-year Disney veteran after more than two decades at Google and YouTube — to chairman of Direct-to-Consumer.
Smith now oversees Disney+ and Hulu product, engineering, advertising technology, programming strategy, viewer experience, partnerships, and data and analytics. His former co-president, Joe Earley, moves to a new post as president of Disney Entertainment Television franchise and content strategy. Taken together, the two appointments are the clearest sign yet of how D’Amaro, who became CEO in March, wants Disney run: as a technology company that also makes entertainment, not a studio that also has apps.
Anand will own enterprise technology, infrastructure, data and AI platforms, product, and engineering across the company and will work with segment tech teams to modernize how Disney builds and ships software. A number of Character.AI engineers are expected to follow him. Smith’s promotion puts a product-and-platform operator, not a traditional programming executive, at the top of the streaming business D’Amaro has called Disney+ the digital centerpiece of a more connected fan relationship.
93.1 WIBC will launch a new weekday midday show Monday, Oct. 5, with Johnette Cruz and Brian Baker hosting the 9 a.m. to noon slot.
Program Director David Wood announced the pairing live on “The Hammer and Nigel Show.” The program does not yet have an official name. Cruz is already a familiar WIBC voice as a newscaster and digital reporter. Wood said her strength is deep-dive local storytelling.
“It’s super important that we still connect with the local people out here,” Cruz said.
Baker, a former WIBC host, is returning to Indiana from Georgia. His background includes financial radio and work as a television stunt driver. “We both want Indianapolis to be the hero of the story,” he said. Wood said the pairing won out after the station tested several combinations.
“What attracted me to this combination was their complementary skill set. Johnette is a great storyteller. She really digs into stories, and Brian is so multifaceted,” he said.
The 9 a.m.–noon daypart had been hosted by Rob Kendall and Casey Daniels before both left the station earlier this year. Kendall departed after contract talks stalled; Daniels exited later, leaving the slot open.
NFL flagship radio stations saw sharp listening spikes on Opening Sunday, with post-game audiences rising most.
Local stations carrying live coverage of 12 NFL teams recorded an average 60% jump in overall Sunday audience share compared with prior weeks, according to real-time connected-car data analyzed by the DTS AutoStage Broadcaster Portal for Sept. 13, 2026.
Pre-game listening rose an average 111% heading into kickoff. After the final play, listening climbed an average 152% as drivers stayed with highlights, locker-room reaction, and analysis.
Pat McAfee is facing scrutiny after a viral clip from Thursday’s live ESPN show appeared to show him smoking or handling a lit item, prompting former ESPN host Jason Whitlock to warn that the moment normalizes drug use for young viewers.
McAfee later posted that it was sage, writing, “Little sage never hurt nobody.” Whitlock rejected that framing. Responding to analyst Sean Salisbury’s defense of McAfee on X, Whitlock said: “I disagree, Sean. I care. And I used to smoke weed. But when you look at the damage drugs have done to American society, I think it’s wrong to normalize this behavior for young people.”
Pat McAfee being caught on air smoking weed shows the lack of restraint that ESPN has on him… pic.twitter.com/wM4chSao6V
McAfee’s reach gives the criticism weight. His daily show draws about 575,000 viewers, he has nearly three million YouTube subscribers, and College GameDay reaches 2.7 million viewers with a large youth audience. Under a multi-year ESPN deal valued at more than $60 million annually, he keeps creative and editorial control while licensing the show to the network.
Meanwhile, McAfee denied smoking marijuana on Thursday’s episode of his ESPN/YouTube show after viewers accused him of lighting a joint on air, saying the smoldering item in his hand was sage.
Longtime Brevard County, FL conservative talk radio host Bill Mick announced his retirement during his Sept. 18 broadcast on WMMB, ending more than 25 years on iHeartRadio.
“To everything there is a season,” Mick said on his daily “Mick Nugget” after signing off for the last time. “25-plus years is a good run and this one’s been no exception.”
Mick said he plans to launch a daily live podcast with calls and texts as early as next week at billmick.com. He posted photos of a new home studio and said he intends to keep discussing news, politics, sports, social issues, and how they intersect.
Mick was a fixture on WMMB and a frequent FLORIDA TODAY contributor, known for a conversational style that built a loyal call-in audience. Former FLORIDA TODAY reporter Wayne Price, a periodic guest on Mick’s morning show, said Mick “certainly got people fired up” and was willing to criticize even supportive listeners — something Price said is uncommon in talk radio and cable news.
Capitol Broadcasting Company and Hurricanes Holdings have announced a multi-year extension of their partnership to broadcast Carolina Hurricanes games on radio and audio platforms across the Carolinas.
All preseason, regular-season and postseason games will air live on the team’s flagship station, 99.9 The Fan (WCMC-FM), with Mike Maniscalco and Tripp Tracy on the call. The station will also produce the pregame show “Storm Watch” and the postgame show “Aftermath.”
CBC will continue the after-every-game podcast “Canes Corner,” hosted by Adam Gold, and will carry exclusive interviews and daily Hurricanes content on “The Adam Gold Show,” “The Drive with Tim Donnelly” and “Next Up with Paul Ihander,” as well as on the station’s social media channels.
A Los Angeles woman under the influence of drugs was speeding the wrong way down a busy avenue, ran a red light and slammed into a city bus Tuesday, killing two passengers, prosecutors said Thursday as they charged her with murder. A television news helicopter covering the wreck then crashed, killing both people aboard and a man on the ground.
Bailee Lynn Rios, 36, faces two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. Rios was being held on $4.1 million bail. Hochman said Rios was impaired when she drove her 2004 Ford Expedition the wrong way, struck another vehicle and then plowed into the bus.
The helicopter crash killed pilot George Marciniw, reporter Eliana Moreno and Edy Gutierrez Mejia, who was on the ground. At least four cars and two storage containers burned after the aircraft caught fire.
Mike Bowe, a longtime Philadelphia-area disc jockey whose calm, familiar voice defined decades of local radio at WMGK, WPEN, WHAT and other stations, died Monday, Sept. 14, at his home of complications from cancer. He was 76.
An Army veteran, devoted Phillies fan and proud son of Gloucester City, N.J., Bowe spent more than 40 years as a host and DJ in studios and at remote broadcasts, dance parties, fundraisers and other events.
He was best known for music shows at WMGK from 1977 through the early 2000s, a stint at KISS 100 in the 1990s, and work at WPEN and WHAT from 2000 to 2011. After 2011 he continued on other local stations and iRadioPhilly.com.
Colleagues and listeners credited him with making WMGK’s Saturday Night ’70s show a mid-1990s hit. “He was the very foundation of that success,” fellow DJ Chris McCoy said. McCoy added that Bowe “had something intangible. He made you feel like he knew you, and you knew him.”
Duncan Sheik, the Tony- and Grammy-winning singer-songwriter known for the enduring 1990s radio hit “Barely Breathing” and the score to Broadway’s “Spring Awakening,” died Thursday in Manhattan. He was 56.
His mother, Suzanne Sheik, told The New York Times the cause was organ failure, with some reports specifying heart failure that led to cardiac arrest. A statement posted Friday to Sheik’s Instagram said he “passed away last night surrounded by love” and called him “a singular talent, and deeply influential voice in music and theater.”
Sheik first became widely known with “Barely Breathing,” the breakout single from his 1996 self-titled debut. The song reached No. 16 on the Billboard Hot 100, stayed on the chart for 55 weeks, and earned a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.
Newsradio WRVA (WRVA-AM / WTVR-HD2), an Audacy station in Richmond, partnered with Virginia Urology, the Richmond Flying Squirrels, and Fans for the Cure to host its second annual “Hitting Prostate Cancer Out Of The Park.” The event delivered over 70 free prostate screenings, directly addressing a critical community health gap for men facing financial barriers or a lack of insurance.
“I am deeply grateful to everyone behind the scenes who worked tirelessly to bring this initiative together,” said Rich Herrera, Morning News Host, Newsradio WRVA. “Being rooted in the communities we serve is at the heart of what we do. Local radio has the power to save lives, and through this event, we helped a listener discover a cancer he didn’t know he had.”
➦In 1921..Boston's WBZ radio, which now broadcasts at 1030 kHz AM and is the oldest surviving commercial radio station in New England, signed-on broadcasting from Springfield, MA.
The station has long been one of the highest-rated stations in the Boston area, and covers much of the eastern United States and Canada at night with its 50,000-watt clear-channel signal from its transmitter location in Hull, Massachusetts, which has been used by the station since 1940. The transmitter is a two tower directional array where each tower is 160 meters (520 ft) tall. The signal is intentionally directionalized from their coastal location for maximum power transmitted into the continental United States, giving WBZ outstanding multi-state coverage after sunset.
WBZ's initial license, for operation in Springfield, was issued by the Department of Commerce to the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company on September 15, 1921; it was the first license to specify broadcasts on 360 meters (833 kilohertz), and was subsequently deemed to be the first license for a commercial broadcast station. However, other stations, such as WWJ in Detroit, 1XE/WGI in Medford Hillside, and sister station KDKA in Pittsburgh, were already broadcasting under different license classifications.
Original Studio on Page Blvd.
The station's original transmitter and studios were located at the Westinghouse factory on Page Boulevard in East Springfield. However, WBZ's inaugural program, on September 19, 1921, was a remote broadcast from the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield.
The original format was general entertainment and information, which included live music (often classical music and opera), sports, farm reports, special events, and public affairs programming. Despite WBZ being housed in Springfield, it somewhat difficult to attract top-flight artists to the station, leading Westinghouse to open a studio at the Hotel Brunswick in Boston on February 24, 1924. WBZ also expanded its news programming via a partnership with the newspaper Boston Herald and Traveler. It also carried a considerable amount of sports broadcasts, including Boston Bruins hockey, Boston Braves baseball, and Harvard Crimson football.
Because of its comparatively wide reach, the station often referred to itself as "WBZ, New England" as opposed to associating itself solely with Springfield or Boston.
However, even after several power boosts (the station broadcast at a power of 100 watts in 1921, but was using 2,000 watts in April 1925, the station still had some trouble reaching Boston, leading Westinghouse to sign on WBZA, a 250-watt station at 1240 kHz, on August 20, 1925. Efforts were soon made to operate WBZA as a synchronous repeater of WBZ, by then at 900 kHz; this process was difficult, as the two transmitters often interfered with each other even in Boston, and WBZA went back and forth between the two frequencies for nearly a year before finally going to full-time synchronous operation in June 1926.
WBZ also continued to boost the power of its primary East Springfield transmitter; it was granted permission to operate with 5,000 watts on March 31, 1926, and by 1927 it was operating with 15,000 watts. Meanwhile, a combination of WBZ's growth and continued difficulties with the WBZA signal led the station to move its Boston studio to the Statler Hotel (now the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers) on June 1, 1927 and activate a new WBZA transmitter on June 9. The Federal Radio Commission (FRC) moved WBZ and WBZA to 990 kHz on November 11, 1928.
Amidst the technical changes, WBZ also began engaging in network activities. By 1925, it often shared programs with WJZ in New York City (which Westinghouse had also started in 1921, but sold to the Radio Corporation of America two years later), and a WBZ special commemorating the 150th anniversary of Paul Revere's "Midnight Ride" was also fed to WRC in Washington, D.C. and WGY in Schenectady, New York. This paved the way for the station to become a charter affiliate of the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) on November 15, 1926, carrying the WJZ-originated NBC Blue Network beginning on January 1, 1927.
Today, WBZ is owned by iHeartMedia and airs a News/Talk format.
➦In 1932...The radio soap Just Plain Bill started airing It aired for about 20-years. It was a 15-minute daytime radio drama program heard on CBS Radio and NBC Radio. Originally called Bill the Barber, it told the story of Bill Davidson (Arthur Hughes), a barber in the town of Hartville, and his daughter Nancy (Ruth Russell). Bill often became involved in helping his friends and neighbors when he wasn't cutting hair. Also in the cast: Dick Janaver (1911-1999).
➦In 1955...Radio-TV personality Bill Cullen started at WRCA 660 AM in NYC.
President Donald Trump said Friday he is immediately banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, accusing the outlets of “constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS” and warning that more news organizations will face the same treatment. In a Truth Social post, Trump wrote that media outlets “shouldn’t be able to constantly write or report FICTION and LIES when they’re covering the President of the United States, the Trump Administration, or the United States of America.”
He did not cite any specific stories. He added: “Other Fake News Media Outlets to follow.”
The president singled out MS NOW as having changed its name from MSNBC “due to lack of viewership and credibility” and claimed Politico received an “illegal and ridiculous $8 Million Dollar subscription” from the Biden administration.
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. CNN, MS NOW, Politico and the National Press Club also did not immediately comment.
The announcement is the administration’s latest test of First Amendment press protections. It follows Trump’s February 2025 decision to keep Associated Press journalists out of the Oval Office, Air Force One and other limited-access events after the AP declined to adopt his preferred name for the Gulf of Mexico. The AP sued; that case remains ongoing. A judge previously ruled the White House cannot bar AP reporters and photographers from those spaces.
Legal challenges to Friday’s broader ban are widely expected.
Trump has long attacked coverage he considers unfavorable, filed lawsuits against news organizations including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC, and pressed the FCC over stations whose programming he dislikes. Friday’s post continues that pattern without identifying particular reports that prompted the exclusion. The three outlets remain major sources of political news even as cable audiences have aged and polarized.
Fox News still leads cable news ratings; CNN and MS NOW draw smaller, older, more Democratic-leaning television audiences. Politico’s influence is concentrated among Washington professionals rather than mass cable viewership.
FEMA and the FCC will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026, the agencies announced.
The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau issued a Public Notice setting the date.
If conditions force a postponement, the backup date is Dec. 3. The test is the first national periodic EAS exercise since 2023. FEMA plans to send the test at 2:20 p.m. ET through the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System.
MARC Media Group is buying five radio stations just north of metro Tampa along Florida’s Gulf Coast, pending FCC approval.
The company will acquire Hits 106 WGHR 106.3 FM, Citrus 95.3 WXCV 95.3 FM, Nature Coast Country simulcast partners WXCZ 103.3 FM and WXZC 104.3 FM, and classic hits WXOF 96.7 FM “The Fox” from licensee WGUL-FM, Inc. Industry reports put the deal at $2.5 million.
Two of the stations fall in the Tampa market; the other three are counted in Gainesville-Ocala, where MARC already owns a cluster and has asked the FCC for an ownership-cap waiver.
ESPN’s Monday Night Football season opener between the Denver Broncos and Kansas City Chiefs delivered an audience of 23.2 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and NFL+, becoming the most-watched Week 1 game in ESPN’s Monday Night Football era (2006-present, 36 games).
Among all ESPN Monday Night Football games, the marquee AFC West showdown ranked as the third-most-watched Monday Night Football telecast of ESPN’s era (2006-present; 362 games) and the most-watched MNF game since 2023. Only two telecasts have drawn larger audiences during that span: the 2023 Super Bowl rematch between the Eagles and Chiefs and the 2023 Christmas-night matchup between the Ravens and 49ers.
The audience was up 5% from last season’s Week 1 Vikings-Bears matchup, continuing the strong momentum of ESPN’s signature NFL franchise.
Cumulus Media announces that it has promoted Mike Sheffield, Programming Operations Manager, Cumulus Erie, PA, to Program Director of Classic Rock station 97 ROCK/WGRF-FM in Buffalo, NY, and Z102.3/WQHZ-FM Erie, PA.
Sheffield will continue to program Erie stations ERIE COUNTRY 97.9/WXTA-FM (Country), CLASSY 100/WXKC-FM (AC), and THE TOUCH 104.3/WXKC-HD2 FM, in addition to his new role programming Buffalo’s 97 ROCK and Erie’s Z102.3. Sheffield joined Cumulus Media in July 2006 after more than five years with iHeartMedia/Clear Channel Communications.
ESPN’s U.S. Open men’s final drew 3.2 million viewers on ABC on Sunday, the largest audience for the match since ESPN began televising the tournament in 2009. Ben Shelton faced eventual champion Alexander Zverev in the title match.
Viewership peaked at 4.0 million from 5:30 to 5:45 p.m. ET. The women’s final a day earlier averaged 2.7 million viewers as Elena Rybakina defeated Aryna Sabalenka. That audience peaked at 3.2 million from 6:30 to 6:45 p.m., rose 13% from a year ago, and was ESPN’s largest women’s final since 3.4 million watched Sabalenka and Coco Gauff in 2023.
Together, the men’s and women’s championships averaged 3.0 million viewers, up 9% year over year.
Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said Thursday he should have shown more patience after cutting short a postgame interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe following the Longhorns’ 24-23 comeback win over No. 1 Ohio State.
After Texas erased a 23-3 deficit Saturday, ESPN cut to Rowe on the field with Sarkisian. As she started her first question, he interrupted.“Let’s go! Texas Fight! Hook ’em!” Sarkisian said, flashing a “Hook ’em” salute and walking toward his team. Rowe turned to the camera and walked off.
Steve Sarkisian being a bit of a pain for reporters tonight. Holly Rowe obviously upset by Sark blowing off the interview...
“If hindsight’s 20/20, if I could do it all over again, I would have exuded more patience in that moment and sat through and waited for the interview with Holly,” Sarkisian told reporters Thursday. “Obviously, we have a ton of respect for ESPN and Holly. Holly and I go way back to even to my days of playing at BYU, and we’ve got a great relationship. ESPN is a great partner of ours.”
Searches for the singer’s name displayed an Google information box reading, “Died Sept. 17, 2026.”
“Billy’s not dead,” his publicist, Claire Mercuri, told Newsday Thursday afternoon. “I was just emailing with him.”
Joel, 77, canceled all upcoming concerts last year after a diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus, a brain disorder that can affect hearing and balance. He has still made occasional appearances, including on “Club Random With Bill Maher” and Rick Beato’s YouTube podcast.
Last week on his SiriusXM channel, he told fans he had surgery to place a shunt in his brain.
“I noticed that my balance was not good. I had this sense of, like, being on a boat, like this rocking motion,” Joel said. A neurologist diagnosed NPH, warned that it could worsen and recommended a shunt. Joel said he agreed after learning the procedure could improve his memory.
The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday waived the 25% foreign-ownership cap so Paramount Skydance can use overseas capital to fund its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, but barred those investors from holding voting stock or influencing the company’s content, management, or U.S. customer data.
The Media Bureau said individual foreign investors may own up to 20% of Paramount’s equity. It also said they “will not have any influence, direction, or control over or provide any commentary or guidance on Paramount’s content decisions, company management,” and will not get access to non-public data on U.S. citizens.
Disney asked a U.S. judge on Thursday to block the FCC from conducting an early review of eight ABC station licenses, arguing that President Donald Trump’s threats against reporters and broadcast networks show the review is retaliatory.
In a court filing, Disney and ABC said FCC Chair Brendan Carr is carrying out Trump’s directives “aimed at curbing speech critical of the administration.” The company said Carr’s actions were improper but unsurprising, because Trump has indicated he could fire the chairman “at will” if Carr is “insufficiently responsive to his directives.”
The White House and Carr did not immediately comment.
Carr ordered the early reviews in April, a day after Trump urged ABC to fire late-night host Jimmy Kimmel. The stations’ licenses were not due for consideration until October 2028. The FCC had not ordered an early review in more than 50 years.
Nearly three in four U.S. television viewers regularly use their smartphones for other media while the TV is on, according to new consumer research from U.K.-based Omdia.
The finding, presented at IBC by MarÃa Rúa Aguete, Omdia’s global head of media and entertainment, underscores a widening fight for attention between the living-room screen and the phone in the viewer’s hand.
TV is no longer competing only with another channel or streaming service. It is competing with mobile video, especially short-form and vertical clips, at the same time the set is on. The habit is no longer confined to younger audiences.
MARC Buys Even More: MARC Media Group is buying five radio stations just north of metro Tampa along Florida’s Gulf Coast.
Sheffield Get Triple-Duty: Cumulus has promoted Mike Sheffield, Programming Operations Manager, Cumulus Erie, PA, to Program Director of Classic Rock station 97 ROCK/WGRF-FM in Buffalo, NY, and Z102.3/WQHZ-FM Erie, PA.
Billy Joel Is Okay: Searches for the singer’s name displayed a Goole information box reading, “Died Sept. 17, 2026.” “Billy’s not dead,” his publicist, Claire Mercuri, cinfirmed. “I was just emailing with him.”
EAS Nat'l Test: FEMA and the FCC will conduct a nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026, the agencies announced.
Democrats lead the 2026 generic congressional ballot by 7 to 13 points in five recent high-quality polls, a range associated with a potential midterm wave with less than seven weeks until Election Day.
The New York Times, CBS News, Reuters, Quinnipiac University and Marquette Law School all show that spread this month, after an earlier stretch when the race looked closer than Democrats wanted. The 2026 primary season ended Tuesday.
Polls can shift, and seven weeks remain. Still, the Times-Siena survey and the other new polls point to several supporting findings. Likely voters in the Times-Siena poll favor Democrats on 7 of 8 major issues, each by at least 7 points. That includes typically Republican-leaning topics: the budget deficit (51%–41%), foreign wars (50%–43%) and immigration (52%–45%).
A Florida federal judge this week paused Newsmax’s antitrust lawsuit against Fox Corp. and Fox News while he decides whether to throw the case out entirely, freezing document production and other discovery.
Newsmax alleges Fox illegally monopolizes the market for right-leaning pay-TV news—claiming roughly 90 percent share—and uses restrictive carriage deals with cable, satellite, and streaming distributors to keep rivals such as Newsmax and One America News off popular packages or bury them with penalties and poor placement.
The suit also accuses Fox of intimidation and smear tactics. Newsmax seeks damages under the Sherman Act and state antitrust laws.
Fox calls the case an attempt by Newsmax to “sue their way out of their own competitive failures,” arguing the complaint shows no real harm to competition and that the networks compete in a broader news market. The dispute began in September 2025 when Newsmax sued in Florida. Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed that complaint as a “shotgun pleading.” Newsmax dropped the case and refiled in Wisconsin the same day. A Wisconsin judge later sent it back to Florida, saying Newsmax had engaged in forum shopping.
The case is now before Judge Ed Artau. If he grants Fox’s motion to dismiss, the lawsuit ends; if he denies it, discovery resumes. No trial date is set.
The FCC Media Bureau has set Friday Sept. 25 as the deadline for comments — and Wednesday Sept. 30 for replies — on its March guidance expanding which groups qualify for “lowest unit charge” discounts on political ads.
The short window is tied to the approaching midterms. The Bureau says the guidance could affect those elections by extending broadcast ad discounts to a wider set of political organizations. Republicans have generally supported the expansion; Democrats have opposed it, arguing it would force privately owned stations to deepen subsidies and lose revenue.
The March guidance was issued without a public-comment period. The Bureau has maintained it was not required to seek comment then, but it is soliciting comments now. Broadcasters and Democrats quickly challenged the policy. Sens. Sherrod Brown and Jon Ossoff and congressional candidates Roy Cooper and Kristen McDonald Rivet filed an application for review.
Barbra Streisand said it is “galling and painful” to watch the Kennedy Center become the subject of a bitter fight over Donald Trump’s name, blaming this week’s closure on a “thoroughly defeated Trump” and a board stacked with his appointees.
In a post on her personal website, the singer and 2008 Kennedy Center honoree called President John F. Kennedy a “true champion of the arts” and the building “one of America’s great cultural venues.”
She said a federal court had ordered Trump’s name removed from the facade and that “a humiliated Trump ordered a large tarp placed over the façade, where it remains today.” Streisand noted that there was “oddly” no talk of closing the center while his name was still on it.
She framed the dispute as a “bitter struggle over one man’s name and unchecked ego” and urged Americans to vote in the midterms, without endorsing a party. Quoting Kennedy’s view that a society loses its vitality when creativity cannot flourish, she wrote that this was “yet another reason why it is so important that Americans exercise their right to vote.”
The comments follow a ruling by U.S. District Judge Christopher R. Cooper blocking the center from inscribing Trump’s name on the marble facade without congressional approval. Trump responded on Truth Social that needed renovations will not proceed until a court reverses the decision and has threatened to demolish the building, calling it dilapidated.
On Thursday, Cooper ordered the board to give 30 days’ notice before any construction changes, including possible demolition. Trump’s appointed board has argued his name must be added to help raise renovation funds.
Cumulus Media’s 93.7 KISS Country/KSKS-FM announces that its 28th annual KISS Country For Kids Radiothon on Thursday, September 10th raised $103,608 from generous Central Valley listeners to help children and families served by Valley Children’s Hospital in Madera, CA. The Radiothon raised awareness and drove donations for the local hospital, which has served the Greater Fresno area since 1952. All funds raised will benefit Valley Children’s Hospital.
The successful Radiothon leveraged 93.7 KISS Country’s powerful on-air and online platform reaching Country music fans across the Fresno area. The daylong broadcast event featured popular on-air personalities Kris & Joe, Erica Pierce, Greg Lane, and Jody Jo, who broadcast live from 6:00am to 7:00pm on Thursday, September 10th from the rotunda at Valley Children’s Hospital.
Andy Winford, Program Director, 93.7 KISS Country/KSKS-FM, commented: “I’m so proud of our air talent and our great partners at Valley Children's Hospital and grateful we can be a small part of helping kids here in the Central Valley.”
Ronnie Dove, the 1960s pop crooner who launched his career in Baltimore clubs and later scored a run of national hits, died Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, at his home in Pasadena, Maryland. He was 91 — eight days after his birthday.
His wife, Marty, announced the death on Facebook. A fan page had recently said Dove was in hospice care.
Dove was one of the mid-1960s’ most consistent pop balladeers, a strong-tenor singer whose records stood apart from the British Invasion and Motown sounds around them. Over his career he was credited with 23 consecutive regional, national and internationally charted Top 10 records. In the mid-1960s alone, 11 of his songs reached Billboard’s Top 40. He appeared on national television programs including “American Bandstand,” “The Ed Sullivan Show,” “Where the Action Is,” “The Mike Douglas Show” and “The Merv Griffin Show.”
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