Gen Z Prefers Mobile Devices: Americans ages 13 to 34 now spend more of their in-car audio time on a smartphone than on the car’s AM/FM receiver, according to Edison Research’s Share of Ear study. Mobile devices account for 46% of that group’s daily listening time in the car. MORE
Trump Setback: A federal judge has ordered U.S. President Donald Trump to restore White House access to journalists from CNN, MS Now and Politico, saying the ban was likely unconstitutional. MORE
Friday is 9/25 Day: Dolly Parton’s estate granted temporary restraining order against singer’s nephew. MORE
Americans ages 13 to 34 now spend more of their in-car audio time on a smartphone than on the car’s AM/FM receiver, according to Edison Research’s Share of Ear study. Mobile devices account for 46% of that group’s daily listening time in the car.
The built-in radio receiver accounts for 43%. The phone has taken the lead by three points — reversing what was once a 47-point advantage for the radio set.
The finding measures the device, not the content. Some of the phone time is still radio: streams of AM/FM stations played through CarPlay, Android Auto, or a Bluetooth hookup. Edison is tracking how young listeners hear audio in the car, not what they hear. Share of Ear subscribers can see the content split separately.
The crossover is the latest chapter in a longer shift. Across Share of Ear’s history, the smartphone has become the default audio device for younger consumers in most rooms of the house. The car was the last holdout. That gap has now closed.
The distinction matters for radio companies and advertisers. Weeks ago, Edison reported that AM/FM still takes most of this age group’s ad-supported in-car audio time. The new cut shows the device pipe has changed even when the product has not. Young listeners are bringing their phones into the dashboard. The radio receiver is no longer the automatic first screen.
CNN CEO Mark Thompson told staff Wednesday he wants to remain at the network after Paramount completes its takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery — but said he has not been told how the new owner plans to run CNN or whether he will have a job. “I am enthusiastic about staying,” Thompson said at a quarterly town hall that ran from about 11 a.m. to 12:25 p.m., according to people briefed on the remarks. He also said he remained “fully committed to CNN” and wanted to stay “if Paramount finds me useful.”
He added that “how Paramount wants to run news” is unknown to him. CNN declined to make executives available for comment, according to Variety.
NBC News’ TODAY finished the 2025-26 broadcast season as the #1 morning news program in total viewers and the key demo for the first time in 14 years (since the 2011-12 season). TODAY delivered its most-watched season in four years and posted the largest year-over-year total viewer growth among the morning shows.
TODAY averaged 2.938 million total viewers, leading GMA by +114,000 (+4%) and CBS by +1.174 million (+67%). TODAY posted its biggest season advantage over GMA in 14 years and its widest lead over CBS in 11 years. TODAY grew its total audience by +7% (+185,000) versus the prior season, the largest increase among the morning shows, and expanded its advantage over CBS by +60%.
In A25-54, TODAY averaged 609,000 viewers, beating GMA by +134,000 (+28%) and CBS by +332,000 (+120%) to rank #1 in the key demo for the 11th consecutive season. TODAY delivered its biggest demo win over GMA in eight years and over CBS in five years, while capturing its largest share of A25-54 morning show viewers in 15 years (45%).
Shareholders of The New York Times Company sued the newspaper’s parent company Wednesday in New York County Supreme Court, asking a judge to force the board to turn over internal records the company has refused to produce for four months.
The petitioners — Florida’s State Board of Administration, acting for the Florida Retirement System Trust Fund, and the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research — say they need the files to determine whether directors failed to oversee the paper’s editorial standards. Most of the requested records concern coverage of the Israel-Hamas war.
➦In 1933...Radio's first dramatic "Roses and Drums" show, was heard on WABC 880 AM (then a CBS station) in New York City. It was heard until 1936 and was originally an anthology program drawing its material from American history.
1968
➦In 1934...Radio personality Pat O'Day born Paul W. Berg (died August 4, 2020 at age 85). He is probably best known as the afternoon drive personality at Seattle's KJR 950 AM in the 1960s, he would eventually become program director and general manager. He owned KYYX 96.5 FM 96.5 Radio in Seattle in the mid-1970s and early 1980s. The frequency is now occupied by KJAQ.
Starting in 1967, O'Day served as race announcer and commentator during Seafair for various radio and TV stations, most recently KIRO TV. The television station, however, announced it was parting ways with O'Day in 2013 and he would not return to broadcast the race. He set the Guinness world record for water skiing non-stop (around Lake Washington) for 4 hours 52 minutes, in 1959.
He is responsible for bringing the Seattle music scene to national prominence.
➦In 1935...CKLW Windsor-Detroit lost its CBS affiliation to WJR Detroit, and hooked up with the Mutual network instead. When the CBC debuted a year later CKLW became an affiliate, but also remained connected to Mutual.
➦In 1942...Glenn Miller ended his Moonlight Serenade radio show on the CBS Radio Network. Miller (March 1, 1904 - presumably December 15, 1944), was an American jazz musician and bandleader in the swing era. He was one of the best-selling recording artists from 1939 to 1942, leading one of the best known "Big Bands". Miller's signature recordings include, "In the Mood", "Tuxedo Junction", "Chattanooga Choo Choo", "Moonlight Serenade", "Little Brown Jug", and "Pennsylvania 6-5000". While traveling to entertain U.S. troops in France during World War II, Miller's plane disappeared in bad weather. His body was never found. Miller's recordings are still familiar refrains, even to generations born decades after Miller disappeared.
➦In 1948...U-S citizen Mildred Gillars, known as "Axis Sally" pleaded innocent to charges of treason. She was convicted and wound up serving 12 years behind bars for being a Nazi wartime radio propagandist.
Country music and TV westerns are dominating American pop culture even as the country grows more urban, more foreign-born, and more racially diverse, an apparent contradiction that may itself explain the boom.
Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” has spent 21 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, outlasting landmark runs by Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together” and Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.”
In the first week of August, country singles occupied the entire top five of the Hot 100 for the first time. Taylor Swift’s latest release, a pop-leaning track tied to Toy Story 5, has been sold as a country song, an implicit bet that the genre she left in 2014 now carries commercial advantage.
On television, Nielsen’s multi-platform ratings put westerns and neo-westerns such as Landman and Dutton Ranch among four of the season’s top 10 shows.
Nielsen has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a high-stakes antitrust fight over how radio ratings are sold, seeking to overturn lower-court rulings that treat its national audience data as a monopoly product used to force broadcasters to buy local ratings they do not want. The petition targets decisions that blocked Nielsen’s 2024 “Network Policy” and limited what it can charge for a standalone Nationwide report. U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas in New York granted Cumulus Media a preliminary injunction in late 2025, finding the policy likely an illegal tie under the Sherman Act. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed that injunction on July 13, 2026, and later denied rehearing.
Nielsen argues those rulings clash with Supreme Court precedent on bundling, pricing, and a firm’s right to choose customers and terms. At the core is Nielsen’s unique Nationwide report, the only complete national radio ratings product in the United States. Courts found Nielsen holds 100% of that market.
Local ratings are a separate product; Eastlan competes in some metros. Cumulus, owner of hundreds of stations and the Westwood One network, wanted Nationwide while shifting some local markets to Eastlan.
Nielsen’s policy withheld local markets from the national report unless the broadcaster bought Nielsen local data everywhere it owned stations. After Cumulus threatened suit, Nielsen offered a standalone Nationwide price that the district court said was about 10 times what Cumulus had been paying and well above what other networks paid. Judges called that a “constructive tie”: a price so high it coerced the bundle.
Trump’s White House ban of CNN, MSNOW and Politico likely violates U.S. bans on government viewpoint discrimination and faces an immediate court test, legal experts say.
President Donald Trump’s Friday announcement that he would bar CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House for what he called “FAKE NEWS” is the latest effort by his administration to restrict press access and part of a broader campaign against coverage he dislikes. He said Saturday he might ban more outlets.
Four legal experts told Reuters the justification for the ban may be its undoing. U.S. courts have long held that once the government opens a space to the media, it cannot condition access on favorable coverage.
“They don’t have to allow anyone in, but once they do, they cannot decide who gets in based on viewpoint or content,” said University of Maryland journalism professor Lucy Dalglish.
On Monday the three outlets sued in Washington federal court, calling the ban unlawful retaliation for First Amendment-protected speech and a due-process violation. “This ban could not be a more direct assault on the First Amendment nor a more blatant violation of our most fundamental constitutional principles,” they said. U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who blocked Trump from banning a CNN reporter in his first term, scheduled a Wednesday hearing on their request for a temporary restraining order.
The White House said the outlets can still report from outside the building. “The Fake News has no place demanding a spot in the President’s Oval Office. The lies they smear are a disservice to the American public and tear at the very fabric of our Democracy,” it said.
The press does not have unlimited White House access. Presidents have more discretion over tightly controlled, limited-capacity spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One. The White House has long chosen pool reporters who travel with the president and share coverage; CNN is in the TV pool, which suspended coverage Monday.
A D.C. appeals court held in June 2025 that Trump likely could bar the Associated Press from some spaces, including the Oval Office, but not White House press facilities generally. That dispute, over the AP’s refusal to use “Gulf of America” for the Gulf of Mexico, is still awaiting a final ruling.
Fear that Paramount would follow through on a threat to leave California helped drive California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Gov. Gavin Newsom toward a settlement that cleared David Ellison’s $111 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, sources familiar with the talks say.
The Monday agreement ended a 12-state antitrust lawsuit that Bonta had led since July and removed the last major legal obstacle to closing the deal. Bonta said the settlement was “not a vote of support for this merger.” Ellison, hours later, declared the combined company would stay headquartered in Los Angeles. Bonta noted there is no requirement in the decree that the headquarters remain in the state.
“60 Minutes” drew 6.77 million viewers Sunday for its second episode of the season, down 15% from its premiere but up 5% from the same episode a year ago, Nielsen Big Data + Panel figures released Tuesday showed.
The CBS newsmagazine also pulled 1.08 million viewers in the 25-54 demographic, a 31% week-to-week decline. The drop came without a national NFL lead-in. Last year, the second episode fell 36% from the season premiere.
Troy Aikman has no new ESPN deal in place after Joe Buck signed a six-year, $108 million extension — and sources warn a matching Aikman contract is not next in line, at least not soon. The questions started as soon as news of Buck’s deal broke: What’s up with Aikman? The former Cowboys quarterback and Buck have been paired since 2002, spent 20 years together at Fox, and moved as a team to ESPN in 2022 to take over Monday Night Football.
Their profile has only grown. Many consider them the NFL’s best current booth.
That history made a simultaneous renewal seem obvious. Both men are represented by CAA. Buck’s contract, reported by The Athletic, locks him in through 2031. Aikman is in the final year of a five-year, $90 million deal that pays $18 million a season. “The big question to me: Why wasn’t Troy renewed at the same time as Joe?” one source told Front Office Sports.
Antitrust Case: SCOTUS Nielsen has asked Supreme Court to review a high-stakes antitrust fight over how radio ratings are sold, seeking to overturn lower-court rulings that treat its national audience data as a monopoly product used to force broadcasters to buy local ratings they do not want. MORE
New Hot 100 Champ: Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” made Billboard history Tuesday, logging a 23rd week at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and overtaking Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” for the most weeks ever atop the chart. MORE
Heart Procedure: Lionel Richie underwent a successful heart procedure for atrial fibrillation and has canceled upcoming tour dates, though he remains scheduled for a Las Vegas residency later in October and November. MORE
Broadcast Industry Group LLC has agreed to sell three Arkansas AM stations and three FM translators to Blacksun Private Equity Inc. for $2 million, according to an FCC assignment application filed Monday.
The stations are
KLRG-AM/Sheridan (880),
KASZ-AM/White Hall (1190, formerly KJJI)
KCAT-AM/Pine Bluff (1340), plus translators K255AX and K224FN in Pine Bluff and K233BF in Greenbrier.
An asset purchase agreement dated Aug. 18, 2026, covers substantially all station assets—licenses, equipment, towers, buildings and contracts.
NPR-PBS funding case closes. The legal fight over President Trump’s 2025 executive order cutting federal funding to NPR and PBS ended quietly. The parties dismissed remaining claims in July; the administration did not appeal. That leaves in place Judge Randolph Moss’s March ruling that the order’s main funding bans were viewpoint discrimination and violated the First Amendment.
Ella Langley’s “Choosin’ Texas” made Billboard history Tuesday, logging a 23rd week at No. 1 on the Hot 100 and overtaking Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” for the most weeks ever atop the chart.
The country smash now stands as the longest-running No. 1 in the 68-year history of Billboard’s flagship singles chart. The milestone also cements the song as one of the decade’s biggest hits; it is already 6-times platinum, according to the RIAA.“Choosin’ Texas” first reached No. 1 the week of Feb. 14.
Lionel Richie, 77, underwent a successful common procedure for atrial fibrillation (AFib) and is doing well, a representative confirmed Tuesday. He will take time off to recover and return to the stage soon.
“Lionel underwent a common procedure for Atrial fibrillation (AFib),” the statement to USA TODAY said. “The doctor said everything went perfectly. Lionel is doing great but will take some time off and will be back on stage soon.”
Viewers who treat a streaming service as their default — the first app they open when they want to watch something — are far more loyal and far less likely to cancel, according to Hub Entertainment Research’s 2026 “Decoding the Default” study.
The finding matters because not all subscribers are equally valuable. Higher engagement predicts who stays and who churns, and frequent cancel-and-resubscribe behavior drives up marketing and retention costs.Hub found that default status is the clearest signal of that engagement.
Across paid streaming, free ad-supported platforms and live TV, default services are the last ones cut, often remain in households for years, and are the ones viewers are most likely to personalize.
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