Townsquare Media chief growth officer Kelly Quinn announces he’s leaving the company on Friday (10/30) after 25 years. Quinn says in a LinkedIn post, “It feels surreal to even be typing this, but 
the timing is right to close this chapter. During my time at Townsquare, I’ve had the opportunity to wear a lot of hats… For now, I’m going to take some time away and think about what I want the next chapter to look like. Whatever comes next, I know I’ll continue to be drawn to the things I’ve always loved most: building businesses, developing people, solving problems and helping teams accomplish things they didn’t think were possible.” Quinn has served as VP of sales, chief revenue officer for the company’s Ignite business, and as chief growth officer. Townsquare has not stated its plans for replacing Quinn.
Sports media personality Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson announces his plans to launch a new multimedia digital media network in early 2027. Robinson is partnering with Crossover Media Group for management of national brand integration, sponsor partnerships, host-read integrations and distribution. 
Johnson says, “From cutting my teeth in radio at 12 years old to building a decade of community with “Scoop B Radio,” this network is the culmination of a lifelong commitment to narrative sovereignty and authentic storytelling.” He adds that the network will launch a first-of-its-kind women’s basketball channel led by a veteran storyteller, focusing on strategic execution and cultural momentum in women’s hoops. Crossover Media Group co-founder and managing partner Scott Calka says, “What ‘Scoop B’ has organically built is a masterclass in audience loyalty and cultural relevance. In today’s fragmented media ecosystem, audiences are looking to be authentically connected with trusted, deeply engaged communities. By pairing our cross-platform monetization strategies, brand integration expertise and network infrastructure with Brandon’s unmatched access and eye for content, we are establishing a blueprint for modern sports and lifestyle entertainment.”
Salem Radio Network will launch “Hollywood 360” on November 30, an initiative that aims to bring “the legendary voices and unforgettable stories of Hollywood’s Golden Age of Radio to stations nationwide.” The program is hosted by radio producer and 
historian Carl Amari and co-host Lisa Wolf. The five-hour weekly program features meticulously restored classic radio dramas, mysteries, westerns, and comedies starring Hollywood icons including Humphrey Bogart, Lucille Ball, Cary Grant, Bette Davis, Jack Benny, Henry Fonda, and Elizabeth Taylor. Originally launched in 2009, “Hollywood 360” has grown to more than 100 affiliates nationwide. Amari has been digitally restoring these programs and has created a library of more than 100,000 half-hour classic radio shows, including: “Suspense,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Jack Benny Program,” “The Whistler,” “Escape,” “Sam Spade,” “Yours Truly,” “Johnny Dollar,” and “Fibber McGee & Molly,” among many others.
TALKERS publisher Michael Harrison is a longtime advocate of talk radio and associated talk media expanding the scope of their spoken-word content to include a wider spectrum of popular subject matter. One such realm that has fascinated the iconic broadcasting figure since childhood is space exploration, and the search for extra-terrestrial life. According to Harrison, “One of the hottest non-partisan topics in social and digital media today is ‘The Fermi Paradox’ – a discussion that centers around a simple burning question, considering the extremely high odds of life existing throughout the universe, where is everybody?”
Harrison and his son, TALKERS associate publisher, media attorney, and digital content producer, Matthew B. Harrison –
whose online vignettes, commercials, and Gunhill Road music videos have attracted well over a million views on the internet – have teamed up to produce a 4:30 “digital film” titled, The ALIEN which tackles the Fermi Paradox from a perspective that is extremely contrary to popular science community sensibilities. Regarding that, Michael Harrison boldly proclaims, “Our message – delivered by an extremely advanced alien individual played by me – borders on blasphemy by YouTube standards. I hope I’m not banished from the galaxy.” To view The ALIEN in its entirety, please click here. To arrange an interview with Michael Harrison to discuss this far out topic, please email info@talkers.com or phone 413-565-5413.
iHeartMedia Sets Q3 Results Report Date. iHeartMedia will present its financial results for the third quarter of 2026 on Monday November 9 and will conduct a conference call at 4:30 pm ET, following the release of its earnings announcement, to discuss its financial results and business outlook.
WWO and Silverloch Announce Election Day Coverage. Westwood One and Silverloch are presenting special Election Day programming for Tuesday, November 3, featuring Dan Bongino, Vince Coglianese, Hayley Caronia, and Shawn Farash. The day’s programming ends with a special Election Night edition of “The Dan Bongino Show,” streaming live on Rumble starting at 8:00 pm ET.
Regular readers of TALKERS may be aware that longtime media executive and current EVP of talent & content at Workhouse Media 
John McConnell suffered a severe cycling accident in November of 2005 that left him briefly paralyzed with C1 and C2 spinal fractures. Exactly one year to the day after his injury, he joined Team Reeve, the peer-to-peer endurance fundraising program of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation and completed the New York City Marathon. That sparked a 20-year commitment to run marathons for Team Reeve and has provided him with compelling insights on how to drive philanthropic impact. McConnell has since joined the Foundation’s board of trustees and currently serves as vice chair. He’s helped raise millions of dollars for spinal cord injury research and the National Paralysis Resource Center. Read more about his story here.
The Fisher House Foundation and talk radio star Larry O’Connor are offering a free, three-hour Veterans Day edition of, “Together in Mission: The Fisher House Journey,” to news/talk stations to air 
around the Veterans Day holiday. O’Connor tells TALKERS the program features extraordinary stories from wounded veterans, military families, and the people who help them through some of the most difficult moments of their lives. “These are compelling, deeply personal conversations about service, sacrifice, recovery, and the remarkable work Fisher House does for our military families. This is professionally produced, ready-to-air Veterans Day programming that you can offer your listeners at absolutely no cost.” Stations can learn more and register here.
The most discussed stories yesterday (10/27) on news/talk radio and related talk media according to TALKERS research:
KMJ-AM/FM, Fresno morning drive personality Christopher Gabriel is beginning a new sports talk show on the Cumulus 
Media news/talk station. “Live and Local” airs Friday afternoons from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm live from the station’s studios at the Radio City Office Building. The station says, “The Christopher Gabriel Program adds another facet to KMJ Radio’s long esteemed history in the Valley, bring sports talk to the airwaves. KMJ’s first on-air broadcast was on March 23, 1922, and Friday’s launch of Gabriel’s one hour-long sports program will make history for KMJ as its first-ever sports talk format in its program lineup.”
The NFL’s Baltimore Ravens and Hearst’s WBAL NewsRadio are getting set to premiere a new, daily, year-round program dedicated to football called “Ravens Daily” on November 9. The program will 
be hosted by “Voice of the Ravens” Kyle Youmans and former Ravens defensive lineman Michael Pierce airing from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. It’s being produced by Ravens Productions and will air on WBAL and Ravens digital platforms. WBAL president and GM Dan Joerres comments, “Expanding our longstanding relationship with the Baltimore Ravens through the launch of ‘Ravens Daily’ is an exciting next step. Kyle Youmans and Michael Pierce will bring a distinct perspective to WBAL NewsRadio, and I know our listeners will enjoy hearing from them every weekday.”
By Matthew B. Harrison
TALKERS, VP/Associate Publisher
Harrison Media Law, Senior Partner
Goodphone Communications, Executive Producer
AI can make someone else’s story sound like you. What have you added?
Imagine this morning’s show prep: a host finds a terrific newspaper feature, drops it into an AI tool, and types, “Make this 90-seconds, conversational, in my voice.” Seconds later, there is a polished script. The sentences are different, the pacing works, and it even sounds like something the host would say. The software has changed the words. But has it changed the use?
That question deserves a moment before the microphone opens. “Rewrite this” is an instruction to software, not a legal clearance process. Copyright reaches beyond identical sentences: an abridgment or adaptation can still use protected material from the original. Replacing the vocabulary does not necessarily remove the underlying copyright issue.
First, though, let’s protect something equally important: the freedom to report the news. A newspaper does not own the facts it uncovers, and broadcasters can report those facts in their own words. Copyright protects the author’s expression, not the event, information, or idea itself. An AI-assisted factual summary is therefore not automatically an infringement, either.
When a use does borrow protected expression, fair use requires more than checking whether the wording changed. Courts consider the purpose and character of the use, the nature of the original, how much protected material the user took, and the effect on the original’s potential market. News reporting and commentary can qualify, but neither label guarantees the result. A shorter version that serves as a substitute for the original raises a different question from an excerpt used to examine or criticize it.
For a host, a useful editorial question follows: What am I adding besides my voice? Perhaps the story prompts an interview with the reporter, a challenge to the conclusions, or an explanation of what the issue means locally. Those choices give the audience a reason to hear your treatment. They do not automatically establish fair use, but they help distinguish developing a segment from repackaging a feature.
AI can help with that development. Ask it to suggest follow-up questions, identify assertions worth checking, or organize your own notes into a workable outline. Then read the source, verify the facts, and make the editorial decisions yourself. Credit the reporting that helped you, while remembering that attribution and permission serve different purposes. A source acknowledgment is good practice, but it does not authorize an otherwise infringing use.
The opportunity here goes beyond avoiding a claim. A host’s value includes judgment, curiosity, experience, and the relationship with listeners, all things worth bringing to the microphone. Use AI to make room for more of that work. A script can sound like you without giving the audience anything of yours.
Matthew B. Harrison is a media and intellectual property attorney who advises radio hosts, content creators, and creative entrepreneurs. He has written extensively on fair use, AI law, and the future of digital rights. Reach him at Matthew@HarrisonMediaLaw.com or read more at TALKERS.com.
The Buffalo operations of Audacy were recently honored with five awards at the 2026 Buffalo Broadcasters Awards and Hall of Fame induction – an annual ceremony hosted by the Buffalo Broadcasters Association. The company’s WGR Sports Radio 550 won Station of the Year; WBEN Newsradio’s “A New Morning” was named Radio Program of the Year; and WGR’s Sal Capaccio took home the Sports Professional of the Year honor. The Audacy Sports Podcast “It’s Always Gameday in Buffalo” with Sal Capaccio and Matt Bove, produced by Mike Rabiej won Podcast of the Year and WGR’s Owen Parker was named Breakout Talent of the Year. Pictured above is the staff at the recent ceremony.
Staff from Connoisseur Media’s News Talk 550 KTSA and FM 107.1 and volunteers are pictured above at the 19th Annual KTSA Raul Jimenez Thanksgiving Dinner Radiothon that raised $155,425 to that thousands of San Antonio residents can enjoy a warm meal and a sense of community on Thanksgiving Day. KTSA host Trey Ware (at center above) says, “It’s such an honor to lead the KTSA Radiothon for the Jimenez Thanksgiving Dinner. I love giving back to the community that has given so much to my family for 70 years.”
The most discussed stories yesterday (10/26) on news/talk radio and related talk media according to TALKERS research:
FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez is petitioning the National Association of Broadcasters president and CEO Curtis LeGeyt to get behind broadcasters’ concerns about the Commission’s threats to investigate stations for news distortion or broadcast hoax for 
airing polling data “this Administration happens to dislike.” In a letter to LeGeyt, Gomez writes, “This Administration is running a coordinated, government-wide effort to reshape the media into its sanctioned messenger, and the Federal Communications Commission has become one of its most active instruments… The Commission’s own guidance is clear on this point. Enforcement of the news distortion policy requires proof that a broadcaster deliberately distorted a factual report on a significant event, not a minor or incidental one, and courts have recognized that the policy draws a firm line between deliberate distortion and mere inaccuracy or differences of opinion.”
Gomez also pointed to the issue of the equal opportunities rule 
noting that guidance has been settled on the matter for decades. But she says that acting without input from the full Commission and beyond its authority, the Media Bureau rewrote that settled guidance. “This agency does not get to redefine the public interest standard as whatever happens to serve the political interests of whoever is in power. That standard was written into the law to protect the audiences these stations are licensed to serve, not the officials who regulate them. A broadcaster reporting in good faith, whether covering widely available polling data, booking a candidate based on newsworthiness, or airing political advertising in compliance with the law, should know that it is fulfilling that obligation rather than violating it.”
She wraps up by writing: “Despite NAB staying largely quiet through the first year of this censorship and control campaign, I want to acknowledge that you have not stayed completely silent, and for that I am grateful. Your organization spoke up against the FCC’s unprecedented early license renewal order, and I do not take that for granted given the position NAB itself occupies. But I would not be doing my job if I did not say plainly that the volume of that response has not yet matched the scale of what your members are facing. An industry confronting a coordinated effort to turn licensing authority into leverage over election-year coverage needs more than a couple of tempered statements. Your members deserve to hear from their leading voice with the same clarity and urgency that their First Amendment rights, and their bottom line, call for.” You can read the whole letter here.
The FCC grants the license transfer of Audacy’s seven St. Louis market radio stations to Hoffman Media Group completing the $20 million deal. The Commission reviewed the informal objection of Corbett P. Shannon, who contended that “the transaction deserves exhaustive scrutiny, public hearings if appropriate, and a searching examination of its long-term effects on media 
competition, local journalism, editorial independence, and democratic discourse throughout Eastern Missouri.” Shannon also asserted that news/talk KMOX “occupies a ‘unique position in the public trust, and is one of the most influential broadcast institutions in the Midwest, upon which residents rely during natural emergencies, elections, and ‘moments of profound civic importance’ and that ownership concentration reduces the number of independent editorial voices available to the public, ‘increas[ing] the possibility that important community issues will be filtered through a single corporate perspective.’” The Commission did not agree and called Shannon’s concerns about future programming, management and operational decisions “speculative.” The Commission also said Shannon’s “concerns that the stations’ editorial decisions may not remain independent from the owner’s broader commercial, political, real estate, hospitality and financial interests are conjectural.”
By Holland Cooke
Consultant
Unless you live in Hawaii or most of Arizona (except the Navajo Nation) or American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, or the U.S. Virgin Islands, we “Fall-back” to Standard Time at 2:00 am Sunday morning… when, suddenly, it’s 1:00 am again.
This past July, the House passed proposal 308–117 which would make Daylight Saving (NOT “Savings”) Time permanent – which President Trump favors – and the Senate recessed without acting on it.
Back to the future: It’s uncanny how just this one-hour shift impacts listeners’ lives. And if your dog eats at 5:00 pm, just TRY telling him it’s only 4:00 pm. Among humans, this change is a big topic of conversation. So, plan now to empathize with their emotional and practical adjustments.
When listeners get an extra hour, give them a reason to spend it with you.
Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn
By Harmony Tenney, MBA
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of a series of TALKERS marketing articles by Harmony Tenney, a nationally respected veteran radio sales executive and author.
Ask broadcasting professionals what they need, and you’ll hear the same three answers: finding salespeople, keeping them, and growing revenue. The order varies, but the concerns are on repeat.
First, run recruitment ads on your own station. It’s how I got my first radio job. I was traveling between cities when I heard an ad for an account executive. I knew immediately it was the job for me. Three interviews later, it was.
That third interview was in front of the entire sales team, and they would decide whether I joined them.
I gave them plenty of reasons to say yes:
That’s the kind of candidate a recruitment ad can bring through your door: someone who sells themselves the way you’d want them to sell your station.
Remember, recruitment advertising reaches beyond active job seekers. It also reaches their family and friends, plus passive job seekers who are employed but open to a change. In your ads, share a bit about your company’s culture, what your station is known for, and how your employees serve the community, not just the job duties.
Second, stay alert during your everyday activities, especially at community events and festivals. Take note of anyone who is personable, attentive, or offers you an upsell. Hand out your business cards everywhere and invite each person to apply.
Third, ask your employees to do the same, and offer a cash bonus when someone they refer is hired.
Fourth, promote area job fairs and attend them personally. They’re usually organized by your community college, a veterans’ organization, or your local economic development department.
Harmony Tenney, MBA, is the author of The Ultimate Radio Sales Playbook (Amazon), connecting communities through radio’s superpowers. She’s spent more than two decades selling local radio in the Charlottesville, VA market, working with small business owners, local governments, and area non-profits; twice named a Top Ten U.S. Radio Marketing Consultant by Radio Ink. She can be reached via email at Harmony@UltimateRadioSales.com or phone 540-255-5686.
Former Kalamazoo talk radio host Lori Moore died at 67 recently after a battle with cancer. Moore began her radio career 1981 as a part-time news staffer at WKMI. She joined WKZO in the early 1990s and retired from that station in 2013 after two decades hosting morning drive. She also hosted a talk show on WWMT from 2014 through 2017.
The most discussed stories over the weekend (10/24-25) on news/talk radio and related talk media according to TALKERS research:
Former Tennessee Titans safety and longtime WGFX-FM, Nashville “104.5 The Zone” air personality Blaine Bishop is no longer with the Cumulus Media station. Paul Kuharsky ( a former WGFX talk host 
himself) reports that Bishop was let go from the midday “Cover Two” program where he co-hosted with Zach Lyons. Kuharsky says Bishop’s exit “stemmed from a non-physical altercation.” Lyons read the following statement yesterday (10/22): “Before we get started, I want to acknowledge that Blaine Bishop is no longer with ‘104.5 The Zone.’ We thank Blaine for all of his contributions over the years to the station, our listeners and to Nashville’s sports community. We wish him the best moving forward.” See Paul Kuharsky’s coverage here.
New York City councilor Frank Morano is dipping his toes back in the broadcasting waters today (10/23) as he fills in for Michael Smerconish on SiriusXM’s POTUS Channel. Morano – who transitioned from his late night WABC, New York radio program to politics as a councilor representing Staten Island – says he’s looking forward to hosting the show. “We’ll discuss all the news of the day. My guests include legendary actor and entertainer William Shatner.”
Radio executive Matt Hanlon died on October 20 at age 63 after an apparent heart attack. The Michigan Broadcasters Association 
posted an obituary noting that he “spent decades in radio management, sales and operations, overseeing major market clusters and helping develop regional programming networks.” During his career Hanlon served as Midwest Division president for Citadel Broadcasting, served with Townsquare Media, was VP and market manager for Audacy (then Entercom) in Charlotte and most recently was director of sales for Saga Communications in Des Moines.