Audacy Unveils Town Hall Program Across All-News Stations
Audacy announces a new, quarterly town hall program called “Audacy Conversations” involving 12 of its all-news formatted stations. The company says, “The quarterly program will feature a robust week of coordinated local coverage in Audacy’s news markets, a live town hall broadcast rotationally hosted by one of its brands and a syndicated news special heard across participating news and news/talk brands and nationwide via the Audacy app.” Audacy VP of news Bill Smee comments, “‘Audacy Conversations’ aims to foster meaningful conversations on vital topics, exemplifying the core of Audacy’s news platform and radio’s unwavering commitment to informing and connecting the local communities we serve. We look forward to leveraging the power and influence of our combined news brands to cultivate
conversations and connections on topics relevant to our local communities throughout the year.” The next “Audacy Conversations” explores the state of downtown. It says, “Over three years later, America’s cities are still grappling with challenges and unexpected fallout caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. WBBM Newsradio (WBBM-AM/WCFS-FM) in Chicago will host a live town hall on November 9 to explore those impacts in-depth and what’s at stake for businesses and community members as cities look to revitalize their downtowns.” The program will air on WBBM Newsradio, KRLD NewsRadio 1080 (KRLD-AM) in Dallas, WWJ News Radio 950 (WWJ-AM) in Detroit, KNX News 97.1 FM (KNX-FM) in Los Angeles, WCBS 880 (WCBS-AM) in New York, KYW Newsradio (103.9 FM/1060 AM) in Philadelphia and KCBS All News (106.9 FM/740 AM) in San Francisco on November 16 at 7:00 pm local time. It will also air on WBEN-AM, Buffalo; WCCO-AM, Minneapolis; WWL-AM/FM, New Orleans; KDKA-AM, Pittsburgh; and KMOX-AM, St. Louis. Throughout the week of November 13 to 17, the all-news stations will air special content catered to the town hall topics, including interviews, news stories and feature reporting.
on Gospel WPZZ-FM, Richmond to discuss the project and the referendum and lamented the amount of money they’d spent on the process, saying, “God has blessed me with enough to build the Richmond Grand. But $10 million is what the final [campaign] bill looks like. Such a waste. I am so mad at this opposition. Do you know how much good I could have done with $10 million? I had to pay the lawyers, the accountants, and the lobbyists… just to get the opportunity for you all to vote.” Casinos have already been approved in four Virginia cities, but the project was extremely controversial in Richmond.
video saying it violates its community guidelines that “prohibit linking to content containing manifestos from individuals who have committed violent attacks.” Crowder issued a notice on X regarding the removal of the content, saying, “YOU determine what matters. YOU determine the content. Not YouTube, not the rest of BigTech, not their lackies, and not a gaggle of sponsors who don’t have the b***s to stand behind the kind of content you actually want to see.” According to a report by Newsweek, “The Metro Nashville Police Department has not confirmed that the screenshots shared by Crowder are Hale’s manifesto. A department spokesperson told Newsweek Monday that police were ‘unable to confirm the authenticity of what has been released, although we are looking into that at this very moment.’” 
didn’t have a stroke or a heart attack and I don’t have a brain tumor or anything like it. Turns out it’s just one of those unexplained things that happen and very likely will never happen again. I’ve been cleared to return to work but have decided to call it a career. I’m 72, I’ve been in radio for 54 years, and for the past 42 years, I’ve been getting out of bed in the middle of the night to go to work. I just discovered I like sleeping in a bit. I will miss the daily enjoyment of the job and especially the people with whom I worked. And, thanks most of all to those of you who listened each morning and found some informational and entertainment value mornings on KLIF. Nothing lasts forever but I’m going to try. Stay well, y’all. Love your life. This is the month for giving thanks.” 
Midwest Communications’ news/talk KFGO, Fargo The Mighty 790 on November 2. He tells The Forum that he left the station due to a difference in programming philosophy with management. “We differed on the operation of the ‘Morning Crew,’ and so I decided to step away.” Michaels serves as the public address announcer for North Dakota State football and basketball games, a position he will continue to hold. 
promotions department at KNBR and was later hired at KNBR as a part-time board operator. In 2017, Copeland was promoted to full-time producer of “KNBR Tonight,” was then named host of “The Leadoff Spot,” and served as producer/board operator of the “
weekly podcast listeners age 13+. The top four shows in Q3 remain unchanged in rank from Q2: “The Joe Rogan Experience,” “Crime Junkie,” “The Daily,” and “This American Life.” Other radio related podcasts ranked on this chart include iHeartPodcasts’ “Something You Should Know” at #9, The Daily Wire’s “The Ben Shapiro Show” at #17, Ramsey Networks’ “The Ramsey Show” at #21, and Cumulus Podcast Networks’ “The Dan Bongino Show” at #29.
her new role later this month, replacing Grady Trimble who now serves as a Washington based correspondent for the network. Since 2021, Saberi has served as a reporter for “Good Day Austin” at FOX affiliate KTBC-TV, Austin. She got her start as a FOX News Media college associate in the summer of 2017 where she worked on “The Story with Martha MacCallum.”
Downs for a $562 million casino project that faces opposition from a group called No Means No Casino, led by Paul Goldman. While hosting a shot on The Box 99.9, Brown referred to Goldman as “a Jew who’s got the same trait as Judas,” and a “white Jew with the background of Judas.” WRIC-TV reports that Urban One regional VP Marsha Landess called Brown’s comments “horrible and offensive” and that Urban One CEO Alfred Liggins apologized directly to Goldman. 
company says, “The numbers don’t lie. America’s military heroes are struggling with money. A recent survey conducted by Wounded Warrior Project finds six in 10 veterans did not have enough money to make ends meet at some point in the past year. The survey also finds the rising cost of goods is the top-rated source of financial strain.” Dave Ramsey comments, “Veterans who’ve selflessly served to protect our freedom deserve to feel freedom for themselves and their families. It’s not just about financial education; it’s about transformation. Winning with money takes sacrifice, perseverance and determination — qualities veterans know all about. We’ll give them the tools, and they’ll get it done.” 
Fredericks says, “As our stations in Philadelphia have thrived and shown stunning growth, we thought it was critical to bookend the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with Pittsburgh, giving us robust reach in both dense population centers. We offer listeners in Pittsburgh’s Westmoreland County and now Nashville, Tennessee an exciting news/talk alternative that breaths oxygen into a stale and boring ring of warmed-over RINO syndicated hosts on the conservative news/talk syndication circuit. Our Nashville acquisition gives us a base of operations in the Mid-South as we expand along the spine of the Atlantic Coast. Nashville is a high-growth city and an important cultural center of our movement. We will be competing there with the biggest talk station conglomerates in the nation, including Cumulus and iHeart. We will offer Nashville listeners a dynamic alternative choice.
We all need to learn how to fall back. This is not about daylight saving, retreating, or backpedaling. This is about learning from the most valuable brand in tech, the oracle, and the best practices all of us in sales and management must learn to apply.
“If you think radio has problems,” consultant Holland Cooke says, “Netflix et al are to television stations what Pandora et al are to music stations. So local news is TV stations’ silver bullet. And – like radio – their need to promote off-air exceeds their promotion budget.” In this week’s column, he outlines tactics for “partnering with a fellow broadcaster who’s also challenged.” 
The fourth of four rounds of ratings information from Nielsen Audio’s October 2023 PPM survey has been released for 12 markets including Austin, Raleigh, Indianapolis, Milwaukee, Nashville, Providence, Norfolk, Jacksonville, West Palm Beach, Greensboro, Memphis, and Hartford. The survey period covers September 14 through October 11. Today, TALKERS magazine managing editor Mike Kinosian presents his Ratings Takeaways from this group of markets. In Austin, Waterloo Media’s news/talk KLBJ-AM adds 1.3 shares (weekly, 6+ AQH share) to finish with a 4.7 share that lifts it from the #10 rank to #5. In Milwaukee, iHeartMedia’s news/talk WISN adds one-tenth for a 9.7 share finish that’s good enough to lift it to the #1 rank, as Good Karma Brands’ news/talk WTMJ sheds two-tenths for a 9.6 share and the #2 rank. In West Palm Beach, Hubbard Broadcasting’s news/talk WFTL rises half a share to a 2.3 share and jumps to the #9 rank, as iHeartMedia’s talk WZZR loses one-tenth to finish with a 1.8 share good for the #13 rank and sister news/talk WJNO is up one-tenth to a 1.2 share and is ranked #14 for the fourth consecutive month. 
announce that I will be back on the air with my new show called ‘What’s On Tap?’ This hourlong show is set to air on most weeknights at 6: 00 pm barring conflicts with Bucks & Brewers games, featuring culture and creativity in Wisconsin and around the world.” The show launched last night and featured content from Maxx’s recent trip to England in which she interviewed Sue Harvey of The Beatles landmark Strawberry Field in Liverpool as well as an audio tour of the Beatles-themed Airbnb in Green Bay. Maxx most recently co-hosted the station’s late morning show with host Steve Scaffidi.
WRHU-FM, Hempstead, New York chief engineer Andy Gladding played a role in organizing the November 8 event when eight university and high school owned-and-operated stations broadcasting in the 88.1-88.9 segment of the FM band in the number one media market in the country join together to celebrate their love of college radio. Starting at 12:00 noon ET, “The Big 88” will become New York and New Jersey’s largest college radio station, covering an FM broadcast footprint of over 120 miles. In a story written for TALKERS magazine, Gladding says that despite the rash of American colleges selling their radio properties, the New York market has a vibrant college radio community. He says college radio stations have a special value. “I have spent 20 years working as a student volunteer and administrator at WRHU, ‘Radio Hofstra University,’ and have seen first-hand how college radio contributes to the growth and success of students looking to pursue a career in radio, television and digital media. Students and community volunteers who participate at college radio stations find themselves engaged in a diverse community of voices, opinions and music. While their approach and interests may be different, their practice at the college radio station unites them with one unified goal: to serve the listening audience by creating imaginative and alternative audio programming using the university’s FM transmission facility as their channel to the world. 