TALKERS News Notes
iHeartMedia, Inc will report financial results from Q4 2023 and the full year of 2023 on February 29 and will conduct a conference call at 8:30 am ET to discuss its financial results and business outlook. A live audio webcast of the call will be available on the Investors homepage of iHeartMedia’s website.
STC Media, LLC announces that its flagship program, “Sports Talk Chicago,” adds two new affiliate stations as WZPN-FM, Peoria “101.1 Peoria Sports Radio” and WRLR-LP FM “98.3 The Life” pick up the show. STC Media president and show host Jon Zaghloul says, “I’m so excited to continue to expand ‘Sports Talk Chicago’ with such supportive partners. We have been looking to add to our reach in both Peoria and Northern Illinois for quite some time, so being a part of 101.1 and 98.3 moving forward is extremely fulfilling!”
iHeartMedia and Charlamagne Tha God’s The Black Effect Podcast Network teams up with John Hope Bryant to launch “Money and Wealth,” a new weekly podcast about financial wellness and developing a wealth mindset. Bryant comments, “Last year, I was honored to join the board of the Black Effect Podcast Network. Now, I’m equally excited to join the incredible lineup of leaders creating content that enlightens and empowers our community. I’ve spent my career as an entrepreneur and executive dedicated to making sure we’re confident and equipped to succeed in the free enterprise system. The color today is not black or white or red or blue – it’s green, as in the color of money. I look forward to sharing not just what I’ve learned about making money, but most importantly, what I know about building wealth.”
retired from the station in 2016. Over the years, his focus was often on court reporting and the criminal justice system. He covered multiple Space Shuttle launches, the 1988 Democratic National Convention, the Jim Bakker trial, Hurricane Hugo, the crash of USAir Flight 1016, and the Rae Carruth trial. In 1990, he traveled with a North Carolina political and trade delegation to Germany during the aftermath of the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe and the German reunification. WBT says that Barroll and fellow anchor John Stokes were the backbone of its news operation for over 30 years. His daughter Amy posted to social media: “I will miss this man so, so much. He passed away this morning from an exceedingly aggressive mantle cell lymphoma. He was a completely healthy man a month ago. I am the luckiest person in the world to have called him my father.”
Last week, we recapped how all-news stations have recently performed in Nielsen Audio‘s (volatile) “Holiday” PPM survey periods.
Today, TALKERS magazine managing editor Mike Kinosian does a deep-dive into the recent performances of the all-news format during Nielsen Audio’s “Holiday” PPM ratings period. He writes, “Ever since Arbitron (now Nielsen Audio) instituted the Portable People Meter as ratings currency in 2007, the ‘Holiday’ ratings period has been a veritable goldmine for stations employing the wall-to-wall Christmas music programming strategy. Adult contemporary comprises the overwhelming majority of those outlets. Usually substantial, however, is the negative impact on many other formats in ‘Holiday’ sweeps.” 
Ever since Arbitron (now Nielsen Audio) instituted the Portable People Meter as ratings currency in 2007, the “Holiday” ratings period has been a veritable goldmine for stations employing the wall-to-wall Christmas music programming strategy.
Other notable findings: 1) Older Americans and women are listening to podcasts at a faster rate, with a 22% increase in listeners over the age of 55 and a 19% increase in female listeners 18+ over the past two years; 2) Top podcast genres of 2023 were News (22% of downloads), True Crime (18%), and Comedy (15%). Of True Crime podcast listeners, 67% were female, of Comedy podcast listeners 62% were male, and of News podcast listeners 58% were male; 3) The top sales networks of 2023 in the Triton U.S. Podcast Ranker were SiriusXM Podcast Network at #1, NPR at #2, and Wondery at #3. The top podcast of the year was “NPR News Now.” Triton Digital SVP measurement products & strategy Daryl Battaglia says, “2023 was another year of significant growth for the podcast industry, and with increasing female and over 55+ audiences, we can expect more content production to serve those groups in the coming year. As podcast listenership continues to rise and reach new audiences, we’ll continue to provide our customers with in-depth insights around podcast consumption and listener habits in the coming year.” 
audio service provides radio stations access to NewsNation content. The NewsNation Audio Network will offer an ongoing, daily service of audio clips featuring coverage from its reporters and breaking news stories from across the nation and around the globe. Radio newsrooms can sign up for access at NewsNationAudio.com. Audio can be downloaded at NewsNationAudio.com or can be delivered directly to newsroom systems including NewsBoss.”
views and minutes, according to data from Comscore. FOX News Digital accrued 20.2 billion multiplatform views (up 9% versus 2022) and multiplatform minutes reached 36.9 billion (up 6% over 2022). FOX topped competitors CNN.com and NYTimes.com in both of those metrics. Importantly, in the multiplatform unique visitors – comparable to radio’s cume – FOX achieved 93.6 million, an increase of 13% over its 2022 total, while news brand leader CNN.com racked up 121 million, a decline of 3% compared to 2022. 
Hudson hosted “The Morning Answer” on former Salem property WGTK, Greenville, South Carolina for close to a decade. In addition to providing live updates during “The Mike Gallagher Show,” Hudson will also report throughout the day on SRN News and TOWNHALL News. SRN VP of news & talk programming Tom Tradup says, “Joey Hudson’s unique background in Republican party politics as well as his impressive media credentials makes him the ideal person to provide eye-level coverage of today’s important caucuses.”
The program is also being produced for national syndication on terrestrial radio as well as being available on the FOX News YouTube channel. The program will tackle the latest headlines from Cain’s unique perspective along with thought-provoking longform interviews with leading figures and live calls from viewers and listeners. Cain comments, “This is it! This is what I want to be a part of in our national conversation. More. More engagement, more debate, more dangerous conversations, more free thinking, more fun.”
original, starting with the company in August of 1996 as one of the first six 
HD3 at 100.1 FM and WRAT-HD3 at 95.9 FM in the Monmouth-Ocean New Jersey market. Beasley Media Group News Jersey SVP and regional market manager Daniel A. Finn comments, “We currently broadcast FOX Sports Radio in Middlesex-Somerset-Union on 93.5 FM/1450 AM (WCTC) and expanding the brand down the Jersey Shore is very exciting.”