CES2026: Is Your Elevator Speech Too Long?
By Holland Cooke
Consultant
We sell advertisers the attention we earn, and earning it has never been tougher. When we design client stations’ billboards, we’re not “writing a 60” or “a 30,” or even “a 10.” It’s a one-second spot. At a glance, someone driving needs to understand what the station delivers, and why to listen.
Showcase events here are well-catered and open bar (Media Relations 101). So, as we roam exhibits, both hands are already full, a challenge for exhibitors hoping we’ll stop, take a tchotchke, and take-in what they’re rolling-out. So I’m struck by how well the large-font messages on their booth signage distills whassup.
Examples:
Komutr: “Finally, Earbuds Your Won’t Lose!”
Stelo by Dexcom: “Glucose tracking made easy”
“Too busy to cook? Let a robot do it,” 500 dishes Nosh can whip-up.
“So your days don’t end up on your face,” Baronbio offers “The 4-Day Slow-Aging Challenge.”
Eloquens: “Automated Email responses that feel human”
“Mist + Wind = Instant Cool” with Aecooly, “the world’s first high-speed cooling fan,” hand-held.
Narwal’s V50 Cube Cordless Vacuum is “light to hold” and will “deep-clean every surface.”
Yarbo’s Modular Yard Robot: not just a lawnmower. “All Seasons Solution” doubles as a snowblower.
Kamingo’s E-Bike Converter switches from bicycle to E-bike “in seconds.”
We have learned – and taught advertisers – to boil-it-down to the proverbial “elevator speech,” a pitch you could spit-out between floors. How quickly does yours convey value?
Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is a consultant working the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow HC on Twitter @HollandCooke and connect on LinkedIn
places remain unchanged with NPR’s “NPR News Now” at #1, followed by The New York Times’ “The Daily” at #2 and NPR’s “Up First” at #3. Changes among news/talk shows include The Daily Wire’s “The Ben Shapiro Show’ up two places to #12, the Cumulus Podcast Network’s “The Shawn Ryan Show” falls 11 spots to #15, and “The Tucker Carlson Show” dips two spots to #19. 
Reagan lived a life shaped by conviction, purpose, and an abiding devotion to President Reagan’s ideals.” Reagan began his talk radio career in the late 1980’s first doing commentary on KABC, Los Angeles and then hosting his own show on KSDO, San Diego. For years his radio program was distributed nationally by Radio America and then by Premiere Networks. At the time of his death, Reagan was serving as a columnist for Newsmax. TALKERS publisher Michael Harrison says, “Michael Reagan was one of the pioneering talents that launched news/talk radio to new levels of achievement and influence in the 90s, in addition to forging a successful decades-spanning career as a host and commentator. From a media industry standpoint, he was a self-made man, never leaning on his famous family connection as an advantage. Off the air, he was a regular guy. On the air, he was just plain good.”
Advice columns blanketing sites like LinkedIn, the Skimm, and Forbes 2.0 – aimed at recent graduates – encourage their readers to seek and bond with an at-work mentor. After years of skimming “5 bullet” articles, I have reached the tipping point and I’m not going to take it anymore: Seeking a mentor as a career strategy is horrible advice. Just horrible.
Cutting edge technology is on display — and on wheels — this week here in Las Vegas. 
that the company is illegally leveraging its dominance over national and local radio audience data to stifle rivals and charge inflated prices. At the heart of the complaint is the charge that Nielsen is providing access to the national broadcast radio ratings only if the client spends a lot of extra money on the separate local ratings. Cumulus argues that Nielsen’s policy forces them to buy ratings in U.S. markets where it doesn’t operate stations in order to have the complete national ratings data. Vargas’ injunction orders Nielsen to cease conditioning national ratings access on local subscriptions during ongoing contract negotiations. It also bars Nielsen from charging a commercially unreasonable rate for its nationwide ratings when sold as a standalone product while the case proceeds.
addition to their existing audio distribution. When this video feature launches, creators will be able to upload their podcast episodes, including full-length video versions, through their standard RSS feeds for seamless distribution in iHeartRadio.” The company goes on to say that this feature will 1) allow podcasters to control how their content is presented; 2) allow creators control over their monetization, with no revenue share required to iHeart; and 3) give them the freedom to have their videos hosted and served from wherever they want and not be tied to an iHeart-owned hosting provider. iHeartMedia chairman and CEO Bob Pittman explains, “While audio remains the backbone of the podcast medium, as well as its primary source of audience connection and the reason for the industry’s explosive growth, video podcasting is now emerging as a completely separate and incremental form to audio, in the same way that podcasting evolved as a new layer on top of broadcast radio. At iHeartMedia creators come first. Providing this new video distribution capability for free to our creators is an additional testament to our continuing focus on creators’ success and is consistent with how and why the podcast industry was built to begin with.”
iHeartMedia’s studios in South Florida and airing in the 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm slot being vacated by Doug Gottlieb. iHeartMedia says, “Designed as a live radio extension of his popular podcast ‘Stugotz and Company,’ the show will bring together his regular crew along with a rotating cast of guest co-hosts, blending old friends and new voices.” Additionally, the Stugotz Podcast Network will launch with iHeartPodcasts, featuring “Stugotz and Company” and “God Bless Football,” plus more content to be launched later. Weiner says, “There was a ton of interest and a lot of great conversations, but it became obvious to me rather quickly that iHeart and FOX Sports Radio were going to be the landing spot. I miss doing live radio, and I was looking for a partner to grow my two existing podcasts and help us build out a network. To be able to partner with the biggest and best digital company on the planet – and host a daily, two-hour live radio show with two Hall of Famers, Dan Patrick and Colin Cowherd, as lead-ins – is a place, quite frankly, I never imagined arriving at, and an opportunity I wasn’t going to pass up.”
Network TV often delivers Nielsen hashmarks. No viewers! The no numbers reports started coming in over 20 years ago and they met with silence. Often on Holiday nights, long weekends, NBC, CBS, ABC or FOX delivered no measurable audience. Simultaneously, online video stars were attracting millions of views. In 2007, the media world witnessed the audience shift from broadcast TV to online video. In the following years, media buyers made the definition of a bad investment: Between the time a buy was placed on network TV to the day of air, the audience diminished. Every month. Year after year.
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morning radio show with co-hosts DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious and Loren LoRosa. Charlamagne Tha God comments, “When it comes to iHeartMedia, gratitude will always be my attitude. They’ve created space for me to grow not just as talent, but as an executive and true partner through The Black Effect Podcast Network. To say that I’m thankful is an understatement. iHeart is the biggest and best audio company on the planet and audio is the foundation on which the whole media conglomerate will be built. Podcasting, live events, TV/film and documentaries, the sky is the limit for where we are going; and radio will always be at the core of it. Here’s to a new era of growth, impact, and prosperity.”
Jennings, CNN political commentator and longtime conservative strategist, who expands his current SRN program to 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm ET. Salem Media SVP of content Phil Boyce comments, “This is an important moment for Salem. Salem has earned the trust of conservative audiences for decades, and we don’t take that lightly. Scott Jennings and Alex Marlow each bring a distinct voice, a rare 
ability to engage audiences, and real seriousness to the conversation. Together, they will carry the Salem legacy forward.” Meanwhile, “The Charlie Kirk Show” will continue as a podcast on Salem Podcast Network, and Salem Media will maintain its relationship with Turning Point USA. Executive producer Andrew Kolvet will continue as co-host of the podcast show. He says, “Salem has been so gracious through this process and even encouraged us to continue broadcasting the show on the Salem Radio Network. While ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’ team is excited to continue the live show and podcast in other venues, ultimately we agreed that Alex and Scott were the perfect hosts to take over on the radio portion. Both are great friends and extremely talented broadcasters. We are also grateful that Salem Media Reps will continue to represent and sell the time inside the show. While some of the details around how we want to distribute the show will change, our friendship and trust in Salem does not.”
and #2 in most past surveys – are gone from the ranker entirely. With that change, iHeartRadio’s “Stuff You Should Know” is the new #1, with Salem Podcast Network’s “The Charlie Kirk Show” at #2. Other changes for talk radio-related podcasts include Cumulus Podcast Network’s “The Shawn Ryan Show” rising five places to #4, Cumulus Podcast Network’s “VINCE” climbing two places to #10, and iHeartRadio’s “The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show” moving up seven places to #11. 
president of news/talk for Cumulus Media for nine years. Cumulus Media chief content officer Brian Philips states, “Bill is an esteemed leader, teacher and journalist. He possesses intellect, a gift for talent development and strict high standards. It has been our good fortune to work in the trenches with Bill during the overheated recent news cycle. Bill will always be our trusted advisor. We wish Bill great things in retirement and thank him for his uncountable accomplishments with Cumulus Media and our high-performing news/talk stations – particularly for his work programming our news/talk flagship, WMAL. His legacy is forever secure.” Hess comments, “I am grateful for these 48 years in the business I love, programming both music and spoken-word stations, and working with the most exciting and entertaining teams in radio. Concluding with the past 15 years at WMAL and Cumulus Media has been a true highlight.”
the multiyear deal, the Newsmax channel will continue to be available in YouTube TV’s Base Package. Newsmax SVP of distribution Andy Biggers says, “This agreement keeps Newsmax, the fastest growing cable network in the U.S., on YouTube TV, the fastest growing pay TV platform in the U.S., for years to come. YouTube TV have been great partners, and we look forward to continuing to grow together.”
rate increases. Cumulus argued, “Nielsen, a monopolist engaging in anticompetitive behavior, holds all of the power during contract negotiations, resulting in an unequal bargaining dynamic that is ripe for retaliation. For example, Nielsen can and has raised its rates significantly during negotiations. 
If identifying information is revealed to Nielsen’s businesspeople, Nielsen can retaliate with additional rate increases, resulting in manifest injustice to these third parties actively involved or who will be involved in negotiations with Nielsen.” After denying Cumulus’ request on December 4, Cumulus filed a supplemental brief and on December 15 Judge Jeannette Vargas agreed with Cumulus, writing, “Cumulus has established that sufficient countervailing factors – in particular, the privacy interests of these non-party declarants, the lack of bearing these narrowly tailored redactions have on the merits of this action, and the non-party declarants’ susceptibility to economic retaliation – outweigh the strong presumption in favor of public access to judicial documents.” 
station featured a strong anti-communist tone. Station general manager Mike Sena says the reason for the change is financial. “Like our beautiful city, Radio Mambí, its audience and the media industry are evolving rapidly, which presents financial challenges for many in the market.” The station is continuing to broadcast, airing archived programming, music, and Spanish-language broadcasts of the NBA’s Miami Heat and MLB’s Miami Marlins. The Miami Herald says staffers that have lost their jobs include Jorge Luis Sánchez Grass, José Luis Nápoles, José Carlucho, Lilliet Rodríguez and Lucy Pereda. 
At the very first CES in 1967, audio cassettes were disrupting 8-track tapes. Back to the future: Artificial Intelligence now threatens to disrupt almost everything.