Headlines

Christian radio ministries may welcome AI as a faster, cheaper production tool, but NRB President and CEO Troy Miller warns the risks grow as the technology starts sounding human, from deepfaked sermons to listeners who trust chatbots over pastors.

When cell towers fail in a disaster, emergency alerts can arrive hours late or not at all. Xperi's Jeff Jury argues the fix is already sitting in most new car dashboards, pitching HD Radio's digital alerts as a multilingual, location-aware backstop that keeps working when phones go dark.

(Deborah Parenti) This month’s issue celebrates managers: the guardians of the license, occasional arbiter between programming and sales, and station cheerleader. Like so many roles in radio today, however, the manager is becoming something of an endangered species.

Football season means one thing for sports radio: the deepest, most attentive fanbase across any platform. Yet again, a nationwide study has found NFL diehards gravitate toward audio over TV, treating the pregame, postgame, and daily conversation as part of the ritual.

(Randy Lane) Jerry Seinfeld wrote every episode of Seinfeld longhand, on a yellow legal pad, with a blue Bic pen. He still writes that way. He's said the flashing cursor on a screen makes him anxious, like it's asking, "So, whaddaya got?" Why start with pen and paper?

Ask a local advertiser which social platform is dying, and the answer comes fast. Ask where the growth is, and most will point to video. Borrell Associates' latest small business research says the real gainer is far less flashy, and it is pulling actual ad dollars.

This week's Radio Ink Blast From The Past comes from Jack Swart, pictured in 1979 as PD of WBNQ in Bloomington, IL. Send your Blast From The Past story and photo to Editor-in-Chief Cameron Coats for your chance to be featured in Radio Ink.

A new name is going up over one of radio's more closely watched technologies. GeoBroadcast Solutions is rebranding as Aktira, folding MaxxCasting, ZoneCasting, and Lazer under a single company built to sell geo-targeted FM inventory to broadcast groups.

Business strategy takes center stage at NAB Show New York this fall, with a program that follows the money through consolidation, sports investment, creator-led companies, and AI, putting broadcast and streaming leaders in the same rooms as their investors.

"Everybody should pick up the phone and call their United States senator and tell them how important it is to have this," said Congressman Jeff Crank (R-CO), urging broadcasters and listeners to keep pressure on lawmakers about the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act.