From a Dallas teenager spinning Top 40 hits to the executive in charge of America’s largest radio company, the Radio Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 spans nearly every corner of the industry. The Museum of Broadcast Communications announced the eight inductees today.
Six inductees were selected by a voting panel of more than 950 industry professionals, with ballots overseen by Miller Kaplan’s Andrew Rosen. An additional two executive inductees were chosen by the Radio Hall of Fame Nominating Committee.
Bob Pittman co-founded MTV in 1981 and held senior executive roles at AOL Time Warner before taking the helm at Clear Channel Communications, which he helped rebrand as iHeartMedia. Under his leadership, the company built the largest radio portfolio in the US and expanded aggressively into podcasting.
Boomer Esiason has co-hosted mornings at WFAN in New York for more than a decade, building one of the top-rated morning drive sports programs in the country. The former NFL quarterback and two-time Pro Bowl selection transitioned to sports media after a playing career that included a Super Bowl appearance with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Shotgun Tom Kelly built his reputation as a Top 40 jock in Los Angeles before landing on SiriusXM’s 60s on 6.
Helen Little worked her way through multiple markets before becoming the most listened-to non-syndicated radio personality in the country as midday host at iHeartMedia’s 106.7 Lite FM (WLTW) in New York. Earlier in her career, she served as Director of Urban Programming and OM of WUSL Power 99 in Philadelphia, and later as President of Ruffnation Records and Urban Marketing Director at Warner Music Group.
Comedian and actor Rickey Smiley is the host of The Rickey Smiley Morning Show, syndicated nationally through Urban One/Reach Media across more than 60 markets.
Dennis Green spent 22 years at Westwood One, rising to SVP of Affiliate Sales and Broadcast Operations, and earlier served as Head of Multimedia Syndication for Bloomberg. He joined Sun & Fun Media in 2018 and co-launched Key Networks the following year, eventually rising to COO of both companies. He is also Co-Chair of the Radio Hall of Fame.
Charlie Van Dyke was working in major-market radio at Dallas’s KLIF by the time he was 19. Programmer Bill Drake brought him to CKLW in Windsor, then KFRC in San Francisco, and eventually to Drake’s flagship KHJ in Los Angeles, where Van Dyke served as Program Director. Other stops included WLS Chicago and WRKO Boston. Throughout the 1980s, he was the primary fill-in for Casey Kasem on American Top 40.
Fred Winston began his career as an afternoon DJ at WLS in Chicago in 1971 and spent the next several decades as one of the city’s most recognized voices, with stops at WMAQ, WFYR, WCFL, WPNT, WJMK, and WLUP.
Radio Hall of Fame Co-Chair Kraig Kitchin said, “Our congratulations to each of our 2026 inductees on this well-deserved recognition. Each of these inductees has performed at the highest levels for a sustained period of time to make our industry that much more impactful to listeners and advertisers as a result. I’m thrilled to see them properly recognized by this announcement and the forthcoming induction ceremony this October. Thank you to our 2026 Nominating Committee and to the hundreds of voting panel participants for confirming our 2026 Class of Inductees.”
Tickets for the induction ceremony set for October 8 in Chicago are on sale now via the Radio Hall of Fame website, with a portion of each purchase serving as a tax-deductible charitable donation to the Museum of Broadcast Communications.
