RTDNA Study: Radio News Content Holds Steady
The latest RTDNA/Newhouse School at Syracuse University Survey is out and the researchers say that “radio news content held broadly steady in 2025, with 76.7% of surveyed stations reporting they run local news – up 6.2 points and marking a third consecutive year of growth.” Other key findings from the survey 
include: 1) Commercial stations produce news at a notably higher rate than non-commercial stations (65.7% versus 62.6%), though the commercial figure fell nearly 10 points from last year while non-commercial stations edged up slightly; 2) Locally owned stations are now nearly 40% more likely to air news than non-locally owned stations; 3) The typical (median) amount of weekday local news rose to 50 minutes, up 10 minutes from last year, though average minutes swung sharply depending on market size – major markets saw an enormous drop in average weekday minutes, which researchers attribute to unusual data the prior year rather than a real decline, while large and medium markets saw increases.
The study also found that more radio news managers planned to increase local news production in 2026 than actually increased it in 2025, a pattern consistent with prior years in which projected changes tend to outpace realized ones. Major-market stations anticipate the largest gains (31.6%), followed by medium, large and small markets.
This annual survey, conducted in the fourth quarter of 2025, drew responses from more than 1,100 television stations and nearly 600 radio stations, and is supported by the S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and the Radio Television Digital News Association. See more about the report here.
increase in ROI since COVID but a worrying 11% erosion in advertising driven profits; 2) ROI is mistaken for business outcomes such as sales growth, profit growth, and customer growth. ROI is none of those things. It is simply a ratio of revenue/profit generated by ad spend; 3) Surprisingly, ROI and revenue/profit growth move in the opposite direction. Low profit growth produces high ROI. Strong profit growth results in lower ROI; and 4) Perception vs. reality: Marketers mistakenly believe ROI trumps budget in driving profit growth. The reality is budget is 9 times more critical than ROI in generating profit.
while playing venues such as the Bitter End and TV shows like “Midnight Special,” the band has gained a multi-generational fan base over the past six years due in large part to exposure on talk radio. Talk show hosts have been attracted to Gunhill Road’s engaging themes, sharp lyrics, and provocative YouTube videos that tackle the hottest issues of the day. These include the rise of idiocy, scourge of scammers, threat of censorship, dangers of AI, noise of politics, cruelty to animals, aging, and more. Since 2020, more than 1,500 talk shows, stations, and networks have aired Gunhill Road songs in whole or part, extracted segments for bumpers, and interviewed a member about its provocative messaging.
at 76 after a battle with cancer. Stone hosted the station’s “Open Line” show from 8:00 am to 11:00 am daily. KSCJ program director Justin Barker tells KTIV-TV, “Charlie was always a consummate professional and did everything to the best of his ability, lit up every room and had great charisma and great talent to be able to talk to anybody, to be able to welcome anybody.” 
TALKERS conversations held with programmers and talk show hosts across the nation this week, historic events and milestones get heightened attention on anniversaries divisible by five-year intervals with 10-year, quarter- and half-century markers receiving the most. “This is going to be a big one,” exclaimed KSCO, Santa Cruz station owner Michael “MZ” Zwerling stating, “The combination of 9/11 reaching its quarter-century anniversary coupled with the nation being at war with a Middle East adversary makes remembrances of the tragedy even more appropriate than ever.”
Bill Gates has a useful term for something radio should be thinking about: “Human Reserved.” In an essay about a turbulent AI era, he sketches an unsettling future, and – for broadcasters – has a consequential warning… and an opportunity.
“Rap” was senior vice president of rock promotion at Columbia Records where he served for 33-years during album rock’s golden era, playing a pivotal role in the careers of some of the biggest stars in the business. These included everyone from Bob Dylan to Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd to the Rolling Stones, Elvis Costello to Billy Joel, Judas Priest to Alice In Chains, Journey and many, many more.
thought my time at KNX would be the capper of my on-air career — that I’d retire from there, as so many other great broadcast journalists had. But it was not to be. I got caught in the churn of staff reductions in June 2025. I stayed busy over the next year. I focused on Archer’s Line and co-hosted podcasts with Jack Messenger and my KNX colleague Charles Feldman. I started a voiceover business and anchored for Remote News Service, providing local newscasts for small- and medium-market stations across the country. I applied for as many radio jobs as I could. But given the state of an industry that was letting far more people go than it was taking on, I didn’t have a lot of hope. But life, like Loki, loves messing with your plans. I awoke one morning to a message about an opportunity — and I grabbed it. I have accepted an anchor/reporter position at 95.5 WSB Atlanta. I’ll be working with my old KNX boss, Ken Charles, beginning next month. 
race. Elci said he intended to not talk about his candidacy or issues relevant to the race but Marx says her request for equal time is in line with FCC regulations and that Elci has to either leave the air until after election day or she gets four hours of airtime to comply with the law. Elci tells CT Insider he’s not involved in the negotiations, “If it were up to me, it would be done a different way. Unfortunately, I don’t know what the final deal is and I guess it’s still a work in progress. Look, I don’t want to come off the air. That’s the last thing I want, and, you know, it’s killing me that I haven’t worked this week. I feel like I’ve let my listeners down. I feel like I let a lot of people down when it comes to this, and I’m getting pulled in a lot of directions for this.” WJJF-FM Saturday morning host Rocky is filling in for Elci. 
stations and Hillsdale College’s WRFH, Hillsdale, Michigan came in at #5 and Hofstra University’s WRHU, Hempstead, New York was ranked #15. Both stations have historically been closely aligned with the talk radio industry. Both stations are led by professional broadcasters. WRHF’s general manager is Scot
Bertram and WRHU’s general manager is John T. Mullen, both longtime commercial broadcasting pros who moved into academia. It should also be noted that The Bold Gold Media Foundation – launched by Bold Gold Media owner Vince Benedetto – has been a benefactor of WRHF, Hillsdale for a number of years. 
Reach is the primary media driver of growth. Always aim to get more customers from all segments of the market. It’s the main way brands grow; 2) AM/FM radio is America’s number one mass reach media among persons 25-54 and, surprisingly, among 18-34s; 3) AM/FM radio generates significant incremental reach to social media platforms and YouTube; 4) Digital audio only reaches a third of Americans daily. Adding AM/FM radio causes reach to soar to 72% of the U.S.; and 5) AM/FM radio makes your TV better. The younger the demo, the greater the incremental reach. The addition of AM/FM radio lifts TV reach by +32% among 25-54s and +65% among 18-34s. 
winners of the 2026 Regional Edward R. Murrow Award winners. They are grouped by regions and broken down by television and radio as well as by market size. RTDNA says national winners will be celebrated at the Edward R. Murrow Awards Gala on October 12 at Gotham Hall in New York City. 
Houston Public Media today announced that popular local media figure Tessa Barrera is joining its weekday daytime talk show, “Hello Houston,” as co-host alongside longtime personality, Ernie Manouse. Barrera makes her on-air debut on August 17. Barrera brings 13 years of regional television and radio experience to the program. The plan is for Barrera and Manouse to conduct conversations with newsmakers, community leaders, artists and neighbors, giving audiences a fresh, engaging look at the issues, events and people making an impact in Greater Houston. “Tessa’s warmth, curiosity and ability to connect with people make her an outstanding addition to ‘Hello Houston,’” said Josh Adams, associate vice president and general manager of Houston Public Media. “Alongside Ernie, she’ll continue the thoughtful, community-focused conversations that reach audiences across radio, television, digital, HPM+ streaming and social platforms.” To learn more about Houston Public Media, visit 
By Matthew B. Harrison
The Radio Hall of Fame announced today (8/3) the selection of nine 2026 Legends inductees. These individuals were selected by the Radio Hall of Fame’s 2026 Nominating Committee, which meets annually to recognize deceased individuals who made significant contributions to the radio industry. The Radio Hall of Fame is housed within the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago.
“It’s all media,” declared accomplished media executive Jack Griffin when confronted with brand new definitions of content and content distribution. Jack, for years, was president of Meredith Publishing, Time Inc., and The Tribune Company. I met Jack when he was publisher of PARADE magazine. Jack is pragmatic, won’t waste your time and spots BS faster than most humans. We were listening to discussions of the impact of online media versus traditional media, and his line was running out. Jack declared “It’s all media” and the meeting blessedly ended. The phrase haunts me and it is being proven true every second of every day.
Zimmer will take over the operation of sports talk KOSP-FM “102.1 The Won” and three music brands. It currently owns news/talk KWTO/K227KO and sports talk KBFL-AM/K245CA. Zimmer Communications president John Zimmer says,
“This is an exciting opportunity to bring together two organizations that share the same values and a deep commitment to local broadcasting. By combining our strengths, we’ll be able to offer advertisers even more effective marketing solutions while continuing to provide the trusted local content our audiences rely on.” Mid-West Family president Mike Paterson adds, “As the local radio and media landscape continues to evolve, bringing these two organizations together creates even greater opportunities for our advertising partners, our communities and especially our employees.” 
dangerous and would allow two or three corporations to dominate local television news, reducing competition, independent journalism, and threatening religious broadcasters.” He noted that conservative organizations including CPAC, the National Religious Broadcasters, and the Zionist Organization of America oppose lifting these ownership limits. Ruddy also took the opportunity to address how broadcasters view the American people, saying, “Polling consistently shows Americans are far more center-right than portrayed by the legacy media. There is a growing disconnect between public opinion and media narratives.” 
TALKERS founder Michael Harrison is this week’s guest on the National Press Club’s official podcast, Update-1, in which he tackles the topic “Predicting the Future of Media Following the Shutdown of CBS News Radio.” Interviewed by noted American University media professor Gemma Puglisi, Harrison addresses such issues as changes in the tenets of journalism and the general shrinkage of radio news. Along the way, he offers his insights into a variety of media and societal topics including the impact of clickbait and what he describes as “the daily dance of affirmation” resulting 
from the trend toward news platforms “targeting” audiences for purely marketing purposes. Harrison defends AI from critics who claim the technology lacks “heart” and that audiences will swing back to the “authenticity” being destroyed by AI slop. Harrison makes the case that what counts is the humanity behind the operation of AI which is “only a tool.” He says, “Blaming AI for shallow content is like attributing shoddy novels to the invention of the word processor.” Harrison boldly predicts that AI and modern technology will hasten the “death of Hollywood” as we know it among other insights into the future of news, entertainment, and communications. Don’t miss this! 
The key takeaways include: 1) AM/FM radio’s “big data” moment has arrived with massive sample sizes that grow each month: TV has long had cable set top data and smart TV data to generate large samples of tuning data. It’s now radio’s turn! Just like cable set top data, there are no demographics but all markets have large samples. Overall, sample sizes are 5-10X bigger than current ratings samples; 2) Overnight ratings in over 300 markets: In an industry first, every market now has audience shares from yesterday. See your station’s daily audience trends refreshed each day; 3) All listening occurs with humans present: 25% of TV viewing occurs to an empty room but AM/FM radio listening in traveling vehicles always has humans present!; 4) Large samples mean stable listening trends: In all sized markets and for all sized stations, daily share trends are stable and consistent; and 5) AM/FM radio now has modern, cutting edge, timely measurement, which does not rely on a consumer’s memory or require a consumer to do something (like wear a gizmo). 
tickets were nonexistent, he had to find more investors to pay off the earlier debts. He served time from 2021 to 2023. That case involved eight investors and about $1.5 million. This latest conviction involved four investors and a little more than $1.5 million. Prosecutors say he diverted most of the funds to pay off earlier investors and used the rest for gambling and personal expenses. Tirrell will be sentenced at a later date and could get up to 20 years on each count. During his days on the air in Iowa, Tirrell hosted shows at KXNO, KXLQ, and KBGG in Des Moines, as well as KJJC, Osceola, Iowa.