Price Doubts, AI Wariness Shape Radio’s Ad Pitch to Main Street
Customers suspect businesses padded their prices, and they are wary of AI-made advertising. That combination could shape how local advertisers want to sound in the months ahead, and new research gives radio sellers a read on what customers want.
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Local Isn’t A Location
(Randy Lane) Radio has one advantage no algorithm can copy or streaming service can manufacture: you’re from here. But being local isn’t enough. The goal isn’t simply to talk about the community; it’s to sound like the community.
After The Layoff: A Checklist For Getting Up
(Bob Lawrence) One of the worst events in life that most of us go through is the loss of a job. So many of us value and measure our lives by the success we achieve in business. It seems to be more and more difficult to recover from the shock, disappointment, and fear of a job loss.
MediaCo Wires In A New Engineering Chief
MediaCo is putting a new name in charge of its engineering operation. Ken Wilkey takes the Head of Engineering post at the multicultural broadcaster after leading media operations, engineering, and technology at stops that run from Spanish-language radio and television to cable business news.
Blast From The Past: Ronnie Love
Happy Friday! This week’s Radio Ink Blast From The Past features Ronnie Love. This promo shot takes us back to 1975 at WJBE-AM/FM in Knoxville. Send your photo to Editor-in-Chief Cameron Coats for your chance to be featured.
Lisa McKay Scholarship Reopens For Women In Country Radio
The Lisa McKay Women in Radio Scholarship is back. Female college seniors and early-career programmers can apply for one of three packages covering registration, airfare, and hotel in Nashville for first-time attendees to Country Radio Seminar ahead of CRS 2027.
Global Ad Boom Forecasted to Lift Audio, Led By Online Listening
A rising tide is lifting advertising, and audio is in the boat. A new global forecast shows the overall market climbing sharply on AI investment and major events, with audio advertising growing as online audio gains and radio, still a large category, adjusts at the margins.
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2026 Radio Wayne Awards Finalists
Sales Tips for Your Best Q4
52nd Gracies Call For Entries Adds New Radio, Podcast Slots
Radio's community work is getting its own spotlight at the Gracie Awards. A new local radio category honors PSAs and community engagement, joining a podcast division and other additions as the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation opens entries for its 52nd edition.
Is Your Station Running Like the Gates Are Still Closed?
(Josh Brown) For most of music radio’s history, the format was the product. We built stations around carefully constructed playlists, clocks, rotations, categories, and rules. That made perfect sense when radio was the primary gatekeeper of music.
First Amendment Concerns Delay Radio’s AI Deepfake Shield
Another piece of legislation sought by broadcasters will have to wait. A last-minute effort to pass the NO FAKES Act in the Senate ran into an objection from a senator who has already voiced free-speech concerns, leaving the bill's future to a short post-election session.
iHeart Creates Chief Insights Officer Role For Fertick
Data has a new seat at the table at iHeartMedia. Lainie Fertick, who started as an intern in 2004, becomes the company's first-ever Chief Insights Officer and joins its StratCom leadership team, a promotion that puts insights work across the entire company in her hands.
Hall Of Fame, CBAs Spotlight Radio’s Best in the Constitution State
Decades of Connecticut radio history were on stage Wednesday night. Three radio figures joined the Connecticut Broadcasters Association's Hall of Fame, and the annual awards celebrated the stations and talent shaping markets large and small.
New York’s WCBS-FM Fills Mornings With Two Z100 Alums
Morning drive at 101.1 WCBS-FM has its next voices. Two weeks after Race Taylor left the chair, Audacy's New York Classic Hits station is pairing a multi-market host with a former Boston morning-show talent for The Morning Show with Trey and Loren Raye.
Compass Lands National Audio Rights To Pac-12 Finals
Two Pac-12 basketball championship games will share one day, and one national audio broadcaster, in Las Vegas. Compass Media Networks will carry both as part of a multi-year national audio deal that also adds the conference's football championship, with coverage kicking off this December.
Benztown + McVay Drama Up For Signal Award
Radio-backed scripted storytelling is competing on podcasting's awards stage. A six-episode disaster drama from Benztown + McVay Media Podcast Networks is a Signal Awards finalist for its voice acting, and fans now have a say in a separate award decided by public vote.
Alice Cooper Joins SiriusXM’s Underground Garage As Host
Alice Cooper is adding a satellite gig. The host of syndicated Alice's Attic and Radio Hall of Fame inductee Alice Cooper will launch his own weekly program on SiriusXM's Little Steven's Underground Garage, the rock channel created by Stevie Van Zandt.
