News/talk radio executives have a choice to make in 2026. They can either keep waiting for the “right moment” to jump into digital video and on-demand content, or they can accept reality and start building a long-term foundation today.
The industry has talked for years about the importance of digital, but many leaders still treat it like an optional bonus rather than a core part of the business.
Some of that hesitation comes from a simple fear: they know they won’t be great at it right away. It feels safer to stick with what they’ve mastered. It also feels safer to avoid making mistakes in public on platforms like YouTube, Rumble, TikTok, or any of the other digital avenues audiences are using every day. But let me ask you something. What are you excellent at the moment you start doing it?
Hardly anyone is great immediately at anything. That applies to riding a bike, delivering a monologue, cooking dinner, or running a station. Digital content is no different. You won’t be excellent at video when you shoot your first one. You won’t be excellent at podcasts when you publish your first episode. You won’t be excellent at building a YouTube strategy when you sketch out your first plan. That’s fine. Excellence comes after reps, after mistakes, after course corrections, and after time.
The pace of that improvement speeds up only when you begin. Waiting does nothing but delay the moment where progress becomes noticeable. The longer you avoid digital work, the longer you postpone the benefits of doing it consistently. And the benefits are growing. They’re not shrinking. They’re not plateauing. They’re not fading into the background, so radio can return to the front of the line.
Ask yourself a simple question. Do you see any scenario in the next five or ten years where people use their phones less? Do you believe audiences will spend less time on the internet? I don’t. You don’t. Nobody paying attention does. Mobile consumption will rise. Digital viewing will rise. On-demand audio will rise. Younger listeners aren’t going to suddenly abandon streaming video so they can discover AM radio for the first time.
So why would any station leader continue avoiding digital content? If your shows aren’t already on YouTube or Rumble, what’s the holdup? If your team isn’t producing full, on-demand audio for every hour, what is the excuse? If you haven’t begun creating hyper-local podcasts that strengthen your brand, deepen your journalism, and serve your community, what are you waiting for?
You should be pushing your company to budget for digital in 2026. You should be training your hosts to think visually and think on demand. You should be fighting for the resources to hire a video producer or a podcast editor. The stations that win over the next decade will be the stations that adapt now, not the stations that hide from the new expectations of the job.
You don’t have to be excellent today. You have to be committed today. Excellence will follow as long as the commitment comes first. Start immediately. Do everything you can to move digital from the wish list to the priority list. You will not regret it.
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Garrett Searight is Barrett Media’s News Editor, which includes writing daily news stories, features, and opinion columns. He joined Barrett Media in 2022 after a decade leading several radio brands in several formats, as well as a 5-year stint working in local television. In addition to his work with Barrett Media, he is a radio and TV play-by-play broadcaster. Reach out to him at Garrett@BarrettMedia.com.
