The Chuck Toddcast is back as former NBC News anchor Chuck Todd has released the first episode of his now independent endeavor. He hopes its the first show in a brand new podcast network.
Todd was able to hang on to the intellectual property related to his podcast when he exited NBC News earlier this year after 18 years.
To begin his first show as an independent content creator, he shared that he’ll release new episodes each Wednesday, and that he’s looking forward to the endeavor.
“Yes, The Chuck Toddcast is back after a short hiatus,” Todd began. “I am back, I am independently owned, and I am not part of any media empire. I am a part of the new class of independent journalists. You want to talk about reporting without fear or favor? Well, there’s nothing like working for yourself. The only fear is when I look in the mirror, and the only favor is to try to be honest.
The first episode of the new podcast featured Chuck Todd sitting down for an extended interview with Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA).
In a profile with The New York Times, Todd said his aim is to hire other hosts to build out a podcast and digital video network that focuses on both politics and culture.
Chuck Todd joined NBC News in 2007. He served as the outlet’s political director, chief White House correspondent, and served as moderator of Meet the Press from 2014 through September 2023 before handing the reins to current host Kristen Welker.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Jacobs Media is set to reveal the findings of Techsurvey 2025. The free webinar, which will be held on Tuesday, April 15, will provide insights based on 25,000 responses and 500 participating radio stations.
“Our annual survey not only highlights emerging trends but also reaffirms the core elements that continue to make radio a unique and powerful medium. Understanding these dynamics is crucial as we navigate the challenges and opportunities of the digital age,” read a statement from Jacobs Media.
The survey studied short-form videos on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X, as well as online newsletters and time-shifting. It also explored the importance of engaging personalities and the medium’s traditional strengths and potential vulnerabilities.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Over the last several years, TNT Sports studio host Adam Lefkoe has had the chance to work alongside basketball analysts and Hall of Fame players Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal across various broadcasts. In fact, Lefkoe is the co-host of The Big Podcast with O’Neal, which releases new episodes on a weekly basis featuring an array of special guests. With his experience having collaborated with both personalities on various projects, Lefkoe was asked during an interview with Dan Patrick who was more interesting off the camera.
TNT Sports is currently in the midst of broadcasting the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament as it continues its final season with U.S. live game broadcasting rights to NBA games. Barkley has been part of studio coverage surrounding the tournament featuring host Ernie Johnson and analysts Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Clark Kellogg. On the contrary, O’Neal has remained focused on NBA coverage at the network, working with Lefkoe, Candace Parker and Vince Carter in the studios on Tuesday night games. In his reply to Patrick, Lefkoe contended that Barkley and O’Neal are “interesting in different ways” and contrasted their public demeanors.
“Shaq is like, ‘We’re going to go in a private room by ourselves,’ and Shaq is going to tell you business stories about how he walked into a board room and he was like, ‘I’m Shaq,’ whereas Chuck is going to tell you a story about Barcelona in ‘92,” Lefkoe said. “Very different people, but they’re the best when they’re together. They’re like peanut butter and jelly.”
When Patrick recalled that O’Neal wanted an equity stake in a company rather than money, Lefkoe acknowledged that Barkley was starting to take a similar route as well. From there though, he turned the conversation around and started questioning Patrick about certain aspects of how he goes about interviewing.
“There’s a chill that goes through the halls of TNT when we get an alert that says, ‘Charles Barkley on the Dan Patrick Show today,’ and I just want to know, ‘Is this like ‘The Manchurian Candidate’?,’” Lefkoe queried. “Do you have a little node in the back of his brain where you get him to say anything? What have you done to this man? How have you controlled his brain?”
Barkley tends to be candid in his interviews with Patrick on discussing a variety of topics, including the NBA media rights negotiations before a formal resolution had been announced. Earlier in the week, he appeared on the show and talked about the situation between Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James and ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith. Patrick recalled that one of the first times he met Barkley was for a ‘Sunday Conversation’ on ESPN and explained that they stayed in touch from there.
“It always feels like – like that’s our normal conversation,” Patrick said. “If I’m around Reggie Miller, that’d be a normal conversation; around Charles, normal conversation. So all I try to do is bring normalcy to something that isn’t normal, and that’s an interview over Zoom, and Charles falls for it every time.”
Lefkoe elaborated by articulating that Barkley and O’Neal have earned the license to be themselves and are the top two people in terms of loving being themselves on the airwaves. After Lefkoe recently hit his second parlay on the NBA on TNT before Barkley hit his first, he thought it would be funny to FaceTime the former NBA forward on the airwaves and surmised that he would understand being live on television.
“He picked it up, and I knew I was in trouble, Dan, when he had his clear glasses and they were towards the edge of his nose because as Chuck is out, they get further and further down and then the talking gets louder and louder, and so I tried and he got me,” Lefkoe said.
“And then I FaceTimed him afterwards, and all I heard was like 10 dudes laughing, and I was like, ‘Where are you?’ He was like, ‘Oh, I’m out with the fellas. We were watching you, and when I saw you FaceTime me.’ I was like, ‘You knew, and you still tried to end my life,’ and he was like, ‘Yeah,’ but that’s Chuck, man. He’s the G.O.A.T.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Daniels also oversees the programming for Classic Rocker WNCX and Sports 92.3 The Fan.
Daniels said, “We’ve got good brand managers over those two stations. I’m kind of their liaison to bounce ideas off of and help them get what they want to accomplish. And they help me get what I want to get accomplished.”
“We’ve got a great team of programming folks there. This cluster is unique. I mean, three out of four are heritage brands. The music brands are all heritage. And The Fan is one of the top stations in the market. It’s a great cluster.
I wanted to explore the differences between AC and Hot AC, starting with the AC.
“AC is like Campbell’s soup. You should always know a good AC brand. You should always know what it’s going to taste like, what it’s going to sound like. It’s consistent. The on-air personalities are consistent. The music is familiar, not burnt to a crisp, but something you don’t mind hearing several times.”
“That’s what makes a good AC station. I said this in my interview to get the job. I don’t remember because it’s very smart, so I can’t possibly have come up with it myself. But I said that AC is Classic Hits with hits and with currents. And it’s the truth.”
And what is the mix of current, gold, and recurrents?
“It’s still very dependent on the 80s, even though we’re targeting a 43-year-old. But the 43-year-old, if you whip out a calculator, you’re like, hang on, they didn’t grow up in the 80s. Not all of them, but it was a part of their movies. It was a part of the mom and dad listening to it. It’s a very unique decade that doesn’t have an expiration date. It will eventually, like everything else. But it’s still a very big sound for AC, and we’re not ready to abandon it yet.”
Programming an AC alongside a Hot AC is bound to have some overlap, but Daniels approaches them as two unique entities.
“We like to program as if they are stepsisters, not step-twins. We don’t want to be on top of each other too much because then we’re just cannibalizing ourselves. They need to be very close, be in uniform, and work together, but also be different brands, be different, and be separate.”
“The Hot AC listener, at least for Q104, is not afraid of being exposed to new music. I don’t think we need to break it necessarily, but if it’s streaming, testing if all the metrics are there, then obviously, there’s an appetite for that song. It’s just being very safe and being smart with playing newer music.”
With the music being the star, especially on AC, I asked Daniels how important he saw local content.
“That’s a good question. The TODAY Show is a national service, but the show on NBC is local for the first hour, and they have interjections of the weather guy who’s local in Cleveland. I think there’s a place for both. 50% of their content is local-based. But we’re not going to shy away from the Grammys.”
With two high-profile morning shows, what are Daniels’ coaching techniques?
“I’m from the school of pushing them when something is good. Complimenting them, not going into so much detail, but let’s do more of that.”
“I don’t like to dwell on the stuff I don’t want to hear or that I don’t think the listener wants to hear because I think it fixes itself in most cases. They already usually know if they’re any good. When we have morning show meetings or meetings in general, I don’t want them ever to not look forward to it. I don’t want them to dread it.”
“In some of the markets I’ve worked as a talent, I dreaded it because I already knew a break sucked. I don’t need to hear it again. So, I try to focus on the positives and push the positives.”
Being visible in the community is important to the Cleveland cluster.
“Anything that you can to raise brand awareness, be front and center, and be topical is never bad. You just got to pick your battles, obviously, with less resources and less people to, quite frankly, have the time to do that kind of stuff. You have to pick your battles and find out which ones to show your face to, and we try to do that.”
In closing, Daniels is happy with the overall spot the cluster is in.
“We’re in a good spot with these brands, and we’ve had some success recently. We don’t like to settle, so we’re going to keep hitting that gas pedal. A big shout out to the team here that’s gotten on the bus. They could have gotten in my way or challenged me, but they believed, and the results are paying off. I owe a great deal of thanks to the team that makes these stations the way they are and sound as good as they do. And Jeff Miller, my awesome market manager who didn’t hire me but inherited me.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
KROQ Los Angeles is welcoming back Radio Hall of Famer Kevin Ryder for afternoon drive. With Ryder’s return, Megan Holiday will now host evenings.
“Kevin Ryder is a Radio Hall of Fame Broadcaster who spent most of his adult life waking up SoCal with his former partner Bean,” said Kevin Weatherly, Senior Vice President of Programming, KROQ. “Their authentic and irreverent morning show is legendary, and I’ve had the privilege of having a front-row seat for the majority of it. Kevin’s return to KROQ in afternoons is a full circle moment in the best way possible.”
Ryder added, “I spent half of my life with my fellow favorite weirdos, helping to make KROQ an iconic radio station and a global destination to foster and nurture musical groups. It was also a home for many LA listeners, and with my old boss back programming KROQ, I’m excited to be speaking my own version of the English language again at the station I love.”
Ryder launched his career at KROQ on January 2, 1990, partnering with Gene “Bean” Baxter on “The Kevin & Bean Show.” Their collaboration quickly catapulted them to the top of the Los Angeles radio market, establishing them as the longest-running morning show in the nation.
They were inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2019. From 2021 to 2024, Ryder transitioned to co-hosting the afternoon segment at KLOS-FM in Los Angeles.
Kevin and Bean
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Dana White and Mark Zuckerberg are teaming up as the UFC and Meta have entered into a multi-year partnership deal. According to a report by CNBC, the UFC and the social media giant Meta have agreed to a multimillion-dollar agreement, making Meta the official fan technology partner of the TKO-owned UFC brand.
While full specifics have not been released, this partnership will integrate UFC with Meta’s Artificial Intelligence, Meta Quest, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads. In return, Meta will have official branding in the octagon at UFC events, including pay-per-view and “Fight Night” events.
“Mark and his team at Meta are going to do things that will blow away UFC fans,” UFC President and CEO Dana White said in a statement to CNBC.
Zuckerberg’s love for the UFC is no secret, as the Meta CEO has been a visible presence at UFC events for many years. Additionally, he is an active participant in MMA. Earlier this year, the Meta founder welcomed Dana White to the company’s board. He also told CNBC about his passion for incorporating more of the sport into Meta’s portfolio.
“I love this sport, and I’m looking forward to working with UFC to let fans experience it in new ways,” Zuckerberg said in a statement to CNBC.
Although the agreement is separate from the UFC’s media rights deal, it comes at a pivotal time. The UFC’s exclusive negotiating window with ESPN ends on April 15. Previously, CNBC reported that ESPN does not plan to renew its current agreement, which will soon allow the UFC to explore offers from other networks and companies.
TKO’s head of global partnerships, Grant Norris-Jones, told CNBC that while the UFC had been in discussions with multiple potential partners, Meta was the best fit for the organization.
“Meta will be our official marketing partner, our official AI glasses partner, our official wearable partner, and an official social media partner,” said Norris-Jones. “They’re making a significant investment into our ecosystem.”
Furthermore, he noted that Meta’s Threads will feature exclusive UFC content and will be referenced in live UFC broadcasts. In the coming months, both companies will be making several announcements regarding additional details of the partnership.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Triton Digital has announced plans to add a survey-based listener rankings list to its existing U.S. Podcast Ranker.
While the current podcast ranker will continue to publish each month, the survey-based rankings will publish once per quarter. Inside the new rankings, all publishers and podcasts will be incorporated. Additionally, respondents will be asked to share if they listened to or watched their favorite shows, with those being viewed on platforms like YouTube being treated equally to audio-only shows.
“The combination of census-level download measurement blended with survey measurement provides the most comprehensive understanding of podcast audiences and their consumption habits,” said Triton Digital Senior Vice President of Measurement & Analytics Daryl Battaglia. “By adopting new methods to measure audiences and augmenting our current tools, we are enriching the podcast information available to advertisers so they can feel confident in reaching their target audiences.”
Both rankings will expand to listing the top 200 podcasts in its rankings.
Triton Digital will continue to use the Demos+ data inside its surveys in collaboration with Signal Hill Insights.
“We at Signal Hill are always focused on moving the podcast industry forward, and we’re excited to take this next step with Triton Digital,” said Signal Hill Insights President Paul Riismandel. “The addition of holistic industry-wide, survey-based rankings to the U.S. Podcast Ranker is another significant step, enhancing the depth and value of the insights we provide to the industry.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
700 WLW morning host Mike McConnell is in his final week hosting the morning show. His colleague, Bill Cunningham, has shed light on the timeline for finding the replacement.
In a post to social media on Tuesday, Cunningham, who hosts middays on 700 WLW, shared that the permanent replacement for McConnell will begin hosting the show on Monday morning.
“Announcement due very soon on Mike’s replacement…starting Monday,” Cunningham wrote.
He added that, “Choices are many but one will be selected to walk in the shoes of Jim Scott and Mike McConnell. Who would you like to be the Chosen One?”
Announcement due very soon on Mike’s replacement..starting Monday… Choices are many but one will be selected to walk in the shoes of Jim Scott and Mike McConnell…Who would you like to be the Chosen One..????…
McConnell announced last week that he was ending his time with the iHeartMedia Cincinnati news/talk station.
“Three years ago, when I signed my present contract, I pretty much made up my mind it was going to be the last one and told management over a year ago,” said McConnell at the time of his announcement. “I’ll miss a lot of aspects of it, but look forward to it at the same time.
“I’ll have no regrets, because I’ve done this for a long time. I did the math and realized I started doing this for a living in April of ’75, so that’s fifty years. And that’s enough,” said McConnell. “I’ve enjoyed it, great job, most of my life and I’ll miss it. We’ll have plenty of time to talk about it between now and then. Last Friday will be my last day on the radio.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell made his return to the television network on Tuesday after missing for more than two weeks after suffering from a medical issue.
On social media over the weekend, O’Donnell revealed he had been out after a planned week off which he claimed was due to be “exhausted” by the conduct of President Donald Trump, leading to him taking time off.
However, during that vacation, he suffered a medical issue, leading to his absence.
“Thanks to (MSNBC) team (Jonathan Capehart), (Ali Velshi), (Jen Psaki) for filling in for me,” O’Donnell wrote. “My week off turned into 2 weeks after I picked up an infection. Expect to be back (on The Last Word) next week.”
After missing Monday’s program, which was hosted by Symone Townsend Sanders, O’Donnell returned to the program on Tuesday evening for the first time.
“It is so great to be back,” O’Donnell said to begin his show. The Last Word host didn’t spend much time discussing his absence due to the results of the Wisconsin Supreme Court election coming in ahead of his program. He did add, however, that “This morning was the first morning I started not in a doctor’s office in the last two weeks or so. I really got used to it.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
After 12 years in the Country format, WYCM Lafayette, IN, has flipped to Soft Oldies MeTV Music 95.7.”
The format features music from the 60s to the early 80s.
With the switch, PD and midday host Brandon Adams left the station four years last December. The station had carried “Big D & Bubba” and “Taste of Country Nights.” Reach Adams with opportunities here.
The MeTV format is known for its benchmark features, such as “Memorable One Hit Wonders,” TV themes, and “Now That’s What I Call A Love Song.”
The station’s website features interactive quizzes that test knowledge of the music, including “The Worst of the ’80s: Do you know the artists behind these hated hits?”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
