TALKERS News Notes
Cumulus and Memphis Tigers Renew. Cumulus Media Memphis renews its agreement with Univerity of Memphis’ Tiger Sports Properties (the locally based team of Learfield) in which WKIM-FM “News Talk 98.9 The Roar of Memphis” will continue to serve as the exclusive radio home for University of Memphis Tiger football, men’s basketball, and women’s basketball, along with football and men’s basketball coaches’ shows.
Williams Named Interim Communications Contact for Beasley. With Heidi Raphael leaving Beasley Media Group to lead the New York State Broadcasters Association after August 14, Jennifer Williams will serve as interim communications contact on behalf of Caroline Beasley and the company until the end of the year.
Hidden Brain and PRX Ink Distribution Deal. Social sciences program “Hidden Brain” moves from distributor NPR to PRX beginning October 1, 2026. Host Shankar Vedantam says, “I’m delighted that ‘Hidden Brain’ will join PRX and its portfolio of innovative and beloved radio programs. We’re excited to continue to work with the many stations that carry ‘Hidden Brain,’ and to collaborate with PRX on new ways to serve our broadcast listeners and the public media community.”

by more than 2 million people nationwide on a weekly basis. “The World” executive producer Dan Lothian says, “We’re delighted to welcome people from Florida, Wisconsin, Nevada, Ohio, Iowa, New York, Michigan, Illinois, and Kansas to the hundreds of communities listening to The World’s global coverage. As we reach this exciting audience milestone, we remain committed to bringing all our listeners nuanced coverage of the most critical global issues of the day, fueling informed conversations about international affairs.”
According to Podtrac’s latest stats, the average U.S. “Unique Monthly Audience” for the Top 20 publishers dipped 3% month-to-month, but improved by that same percentage compared to June 2022. “Total Global Downloads” for the Top 20 publishers remained steady month-to-month; however, it declined 3% versus this time last year. The combined audience for the Top Sales Networks was up 5% month-to-month. The top ten podcasts by US Unique Monthly Audience (June 2023) are: “The Daily” (New York Times); “Dateline NBC” (NBC News); “Morbid” (Wondery); “Up First” (NPR); “NPR News Now” (NPR); “SmartLess” (Wonderly); “The Ben Shapiro Show” (Daily Wire); “Stuff You Should Know” (iHeartPodcasts); “Pardon My Take” (Barstool Sports); and “The Dan Bongino Show” (Dan Borgino). With a US “Unique Monthly Audience” of 31,625,000 (and 833 active shows), iHeartPodcasts is the top podcast publisher. It is followed by Wondery; NPR; NBC News; New York Times; Daily Wire; The Walt Disney Company; Barstool Sports; Vox Media; and PRX.