TALKERS 2026 to Present “The Big Picture” Panel
One of the most popular panel discussions of the annual TALKERS conference – “The Big Picture” – will again be featured at the forthcoming 28th installment of the talk media industry’s longest running and most important national gathering. Moderated by TALKERS publisher/founder Michael Harrison (pictured here) and featuring a remarkable, diverse lineup of industry luminaries, the session tackles the major issues – social, political, 
technological, and financial – facing the talk media business in the current environment of rapid change. Described as the fastest-moving 40 minutes in the broadcasting conference arena, this year’s panelists will include (in alphabetical order): Steve Jones, president, CEO & chairman, Skyview Networks; Chad Lopez, president, WABC, New York / Red Apple Audio Networks; Frank Morano, member, New York City Council / former host, WABC, New York; Chris Olivero, Chief Business Officer, Audacy; Tavis Smiley, owner/host, KBLA, Los Angeles; and Rich Valdés, host, “This Is America with Rich Valdés.” The session will take place between 2:20 pm and 3:00 pm at TALKERS 2026: Radio’s Next Chapter on Friday, June 5 on the campus of Hofstra University on Long Island. Harrison states, “This rapid-fire session of heavyweights ties it all together in terms of trying to make sense of the uncertainties we presently face in the talk media business.” For more information about TALKERS 2026: Radio’s Next Chapter, please click here.
Cumulus’s relationships with advertisers, goodwill, and market share, and push it towards financial collapse. The District Court accordingly enjoined Nielsen’s anticompetitive conduct. 
Nielsen’s brief attacks those findings as speculative, asserting that Cumulus never showed any real risk of bankruptcy or any other non-compensable harm, but one of those irreparable harms has now come to pass: After a motions panel stayed the injunction, Cumulus declared bankruptcy—citing “the Nielsen network tying policy” as a significant contributing cause. The other harms identified by the District Court remain today and have become increasingly urgent, as Cumulus will lose access to Nationwide this September.” TALKERS associate publisher and Harrison Media Law senior partner Matthew B. Harrison comments, “Cumulus has fundamentally shifted the posture of this case. What began as a forward-looking claim of irreparable harm is now being presented as a realized outcome, following its Chapter 11 filing. The appellate court is no longer being asked to prevent potential damage, but to assess whether the harm that has already occurred can be attributed to Nielsen’s challenged conduct — or to broader economic pressures facing the radio industry.”
newscast that some 700 stations respected enough to put on their air. Schwalb tells the Tribune, “Conversations have been going on since the announcement, and I think we get closer and closer to a decision every day. But we have to be very careful and be very diligent about making sure the product that we select is going to make sense from a listener perspective and a revenue perspective as well… CBS has been a great top-of-the-hour news piece for a long time, but it’s a very small percentage of what we do in a given hour between business, traffic and weather together on the eights, local news – the strongest local newsroom in Chicago radio.” 
The rise of independent, talk show-style political commentary on YouTube has created a new class of media actors who do not see themselves as broadcasters, journalists, or publishers. They see themselves as creators. That distinction is real in terms of identity, tone, and platform. It is not real where it matters most: liability.