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Atlanta’s ‘Q Morning Crew’ Reveals the Challenges of Replacing a Legend

Mike Stern
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Atlanta’s ‘Q Morning Crew’ Reveals the Challenges of Replacing a Legend

Successfully launching a new morning show is probably the toughest thing to do in radio. Even if the audience didn’t like the old show, it’s incredibly difficult. If the audience liked or, even worse, loved the old show, the task becomes a much steeper mountain to climb.

That’s where the team at Cumulus’ Top 40 WWWQ/Atlanta found themselves when Bert Weiss, host of The Bert Show, retired after twenty-five years anchoring mornings on the station. His last show aired in October 2025.

Since then, the station has been playing music in the morning while assembling a new show capable of meeting the challenge. Almost exactly five months later, Joe Breezy, Daena “DK” Kramer, and Cort Freeman hit the air as the Q Morning Crew.

Collectively, the three bring a lot of radio experience to this new endeavor.

Breezy had recently been music director and afternoon host at Midwest Communications AC WJXA/Nashville and has been on the air in Atlanta before. Kramer has been off the air for some time but previously hosted mornings in Houston, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Freeman most recently served as a producer for Dave & Chuck the Freak in mornings at Beasley Rock WRIF/Detroit.

While that collective experience is helpful, it doesn’t guarantee success.

However, certain factors can push the odds in a new show’s favor, and this team has several—starting with motivation.

“A lot of morning shows I’ve seen, it’s the driver that has the motivation. Or it’s the producer that’s the hard worker,” says Kramer. “In this case, all three of us are working our asses off. There’s not one element of slack off to be had.”

Another early advantage the team has is strong chemistry, even though the trio had never worked together previously.

“When we initially met online for a vibe check, we hit it off instantly,” said Breezy. “It was like we knew each other for a million years. We had the same vision, sense of humor, and the same strategy about what we would do in this unique situation.”

Although they get along well, they are those little differences which provide contrast between personalities. Freeman believes that each talent assists the others with any topic providing a unique perspective for the listener.

While high marks for ambition and camaraderie are encouraging, successful shows also need a clear vision. For Kramer, that starts with understanding the demographics of the station’s target audience.

“Typically Top 40 stations are looking for a twenty-something female that goes to festivals and clubs,” Kramer says. “Now, almost all radio listening is thirty-plus. The Bert Show’s core was thirty to fifty year old women.”

For Breezy, the shared vision centers on hitting the right topics to engage the audience.

“We like to say our tagline is that we are the group chat that you actually want to be in. Because we are talking about things you are already discussing with your friends,” notes Breezy.

When the trio was formed, before hitting the airwaves in Atlanta there were demo sessions. Even though the program was apart in different locations around the country, they began holding Zoom calls where everyone came prepared with content.

“We would read through topics and news stories like we were on the air,” says Kramer. “Then we started practicing right away. We didn’t want to wait until everyone got in the building to do that. When we finally got together. we saw there was a big difference between being on Zoom and doing actual mock shows in a real studio. That’s when it felt like we were really cooking. We could fine tune what the dynamics were going to be.”

And while things were busy leading up to the launch—with photoshoots and videos to film—the team continued practicing.

“We still fit in at least two or three hours every day doing content together,” says Breezy. “Then we’d spend an hour or two after that with (Program Director Patrick Davis) discussing how it sounds.”

The team says Davis, along with Vice President/Market Manager Justin Schaflander and Chief Content Officer Brian Phillips, were instrumental in putting the show together and helping them reach this point.

Since they’ve hit the air in Atlanta, things have been going well. However, with anything new there is still some trepidation.

“In my experience with other new shows you often see just as much hate as positivity. The haters are louder than the people that want to praise you,” says Kramer. “I don’t know if it’s because they had five months of no morning show, but we haven’t seen any hate. Of course, I’m still just waiting for that phone call to come.”

They’ve also committed to making the show as local as possible. They included a special segment in the six o’clock hour engaging listeners who are up early with them. The program also added Kramer’s Around the A, which features news and stories about what’s happening in town.

“This is live and local radio,” says Breezy. “When we’re asking for perspectives or sharing ours it’s about the city that people are choosing to live in. Atlanta is a big city, but it’s got such a big heart. People love being from Atlanta.”

While that all sounds positive, it doesn’t mean there haven’t been bobbles. For Breezy, who’s behind the board, the challenge is technical execution.

“We can have this great break, but if I hit the wrong button, that just went out the window,” explained Breezy.

For Kramer, the challenge is getting back into the everyday flow.

“I’ve disappointed myself a few times by not being as prepared as I should be,” she says. “I haven’t established a daily routine that’s consistent. That’s made finding my rhythm a little tougher than I remember.”

Freeman faces a different challenge coming from a rock morning show.

“The number one rule of comedy is know your audience,” he says. “A joke that would really be fire on Dave and Chuck the Freak could get me fired from here. It’s a different filter for my brain to make sure that I’m expressing the right stuff to our listeners.”

And like any show replacing a legend on a station with a large audience, these early shows include the added challenge. How to sound unique and distinct from The Bert Show without straying too far from what the audience expects.

“We appreciate the magnitude of following The Bert Show but we just go in every day being ourselves,” says Breezy. “It isn’t necessarily about comparing anything to the past. It’s more like, ‘hey, let’s be the best versions of ourselves.’”

Or as Freeman explains it, “People love that flavor, but we’re baking our own cake.”

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.

If Sports Leagues Found a Loophole, So Should Others With Prediction Markets

John Mamola
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If Sports Leagues Found a Loophole, So Should Others With Prediction Markets

A term I grew to love working in sports radio was “advertising categories,” where we could attach a specific client to be the “official (fill in the blank with an advertising category) of (fill in the radio station)” for an elevated dollar figure in advertising revenue. We’d never avoid accepting the advertising dollars of competitors in a certain category, but those clients just wouldn’t earn the “official” designation. In other words, we air ads for Bud Light, but Coors Light is the “official beer of…” You get the picture.

Admittedly, I’m not the smartest rock in the bag when it comes to the difference between sportsbooks and prediction markets. While sportsbooks continue to fight for legality across the country, the legal prediction market boom in sports has been a fascinating watch. Sports leagues are taking advantage of that newfound interest and revenue. MLB and the NHL have already dived in with “official prediction market” agreements. The NBA is reportedly next.

Which leads me to a simple question: if they look the same, act the same, and let you risk money on the same outcomes, what exactly makes them different advertising categories? And should media companies and sports radio follow the same model?

Here’s the easiest way to look at it.

I live in Florida, where the only online sportsbook I can use is the Hard Rock Bet app. If I look at the over/under for tonight’s Charlotte Hornets–Orlando Magic game, I see 217.5 points. Then I go to a prediction market like Kalshi or Polymarket, and I’m seeing 218.5.

Different numbers, same concept, all sports. If I can put my own money down on the outcome in all three places, this stops being about definitions and starts becoming something else entirely. Because that’s where the confusion fades — and the strategy begins.

At face value, there is a structural difference. A sportsbook is taking wagers, setting lines, and holding a margin. A prediction market, as it’s being framed, facilitates trading on outcomes more like a financial exchange than a bookmaker.

That’s the clean, regulatory-friendly explanation.

But from a consumer standpoint — the person sitting on their couch deciding whether to throw $20 on the over — that distinction is meaningless. The interface looks the same. The outcomes are the same. The risk is the same. Call it a “contract” instead of a “bet” if you want. The behavior it drives doesn’t change, and leagues know that.

What they’ve found isn’t a new product — it’s a new category. But how?

Advertising categories were always about perception as much as product. You’re not just selling exclusivity, you’re selling differentiation. As long as something can be positioned as different, it can be sold as a separate lane.

That’s exactly what’s happening here.

Sportsbooks occupy one bucket. Prediction markets, thanks to regulatory gray area and some well-crafted semantics, occupy another. Never mind that both are competing for the same consumer dollars, often on the same games, sometimes with nearly identical lines. To the leagues, that overlap isn’t a problem — it’s an opportunity.

Because if you can convince one partner they own “official sportsbook” rights and another they own “official prediction market” rights, you’ve effectively turned one revenue stream into two. It’s the same logic that once allowed teams to have an “official beer,” an “official light beer,” and an “official import beer” all at the same time. It’s all beer, just different forms of beer.

Is it double dipping? From a purist standpoint, absolutely. From a business standpoint, it’s just smart packaging, and something that media companies and sports radio should look to copy.

Leagues have never been in the business of limiting revenue opportunities out of philosophical consistency. If anything, they’ve consistently shown a willingness to redraw lines — pun intended — whenever new money enters the ecosystem.

The more interesting question isn’t whether this is double dipping. It’s whether it’s sustainable.

Because eventually, one of two things is going to happen. Either regulators decide prediction markets function too much like sportsbooks to be treated differently, collapsing the categories into one.

Or sportsbooks themselves push back harder, especially as they expand into the same “prediction” space with products tied to FanDuel and DraftKings. Which are already “official league partners” spending millions in advertising revenue.

At that point, the argument becomes less about definitions and more about fairness — why pay a premium for exclusivity in a category that’s no longer exclusive?

At that point, the argument shifts from definitions to fairness: why pay a premium for exclusivity in a category that’s no longer exclusive? Until then, don’t expect leagues to slow down. They’re not choosing between sportsbooks and prediction markets. They’re choosing both — and selling each as if the other doesn’t exist.

There’s a lesson in that for networks and sports radio. Because in the end, advertising categories were never about clean lines. They were about how many lines you could draw — and how long you could get away with pretending they mattered.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.

The NFL Draft Has Become ESPN’s Content Empire

John Lund
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The NFL Draft Has Become ESPN’s Content Empire

The NFL Draft used to be a list. Now it’s a content war, and for the first time, it’s a war being fought by the same army. When the draft kicks off April 23rd, what you’re really watching isn’t just teams picking players; it’s ESPN flooding the zone with four different broadcasts of the same event after absorbing NFL Network into its ecosystem.

For decades, ESPN and NFL Network went head-to-head with competing coverage. Different tones, distinct philosophies, and very real editorial differences. That competition mattered because it gave viewers a choice.

Now, the choice still exists, but it’s being programmed from the same playbook. That’s what makes this one of the most fascinating sports media stories of the year.

Before getting into the television chess match, it’s worth understanding why the NFL has leaned into this so aggressively. The numbers demand it.

Last year’s draft averaged 7.5 million viewers across platforms, up 27% year-over-year and good enough to rank as the second-most-watched draft ever. Round 1 alone pulled 13.6 million viewers. Day 2 matched the overall average at 7.5 million, and Day 3—Rounds 4 through 7, when even diehard fans are scrambling to look up scouting reports—still drew 4.3 million viewers, the most-watched final day in draft history.

Those aren’t just good numbers; they’re dominant. Some NBA Conference Finals games don’t reach those figures. Some World Series games hover in that range.

The NFL has turned its hiring process into one of the most valuable pieces of television inventory in sports.

The growth hasn’t just been on television. It’s happened on the ground. In many ways, that’s where the league’s biggest innovation has occurred. When the draft left New York and became a traveling event, it transformed from a niche broadcast into a full-blown national festival.

Detroit drew approximately 775,000 fans in 2024, setting an all-time record. Nashville brought in around 700,000. Green Bay followed with more than 600,000 in 2025—an almost absurd figure when you consider the city’s population barely cracks six digits. These aren’t just strong turnouts; they’re Super Bowl-adjacent crowds for an event where no football is played.

A podium, mic, stage, well-dressed football players hearing their names called, and a big hug for their new boss.

Context is critical because it explains why ESPN isn’t consolidating coverage in 2026. It’s expanding it.

On April 1, NFL Network talent officially became part of the Disney/ESPN umbrella, which could have led to a streamlined, single broadcast. Instead, ESPN is doing the opposite. It’s flooding the zone with four distinct presentations of the same event.

ESPN will carry the traditional broadcast, with Mel Kiper Jr., Adam Schefter, and Mike Greenberg driving a pick-by-pick, analysis-heavy show that feels like the draft has for decades. NFL Network will continue to operate in its established lane with Rich Eisen, Daniel Jeremiah, and Charles Davis, leaning more heavily into X’s and O’s and maintaining its reputation as the more football-centric broadcast. ABC will present a broader version built around the College GameDay crew, with Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, and Nick Saban emphasizing the college-to-pro jump and the human side of the prospects.

Then there’s the digital layer, where ESPN+ and streaming platforms will carry alternate presentations, including the Pat McAfee Draft Spectacular, designed for a younger, more personality-driven audience.

What makes this different from previous years is that all of these broadcasts now exist within the same ecosystem. This is no longer ESPN versus NFL Network. It’s ESPN programming ESPN. The networks still maintain different tones and identities, but competition has been replaced by segmentation.

Instead of one broadcast trying to serve every viewer, ESPN is targeting every viewer with a different broadcast. The hardcore fan gets NFL Network. traditionalist gets ESPN, and the college fan gets ABC. The digital-first audience gets McAfee.

It’s not about winning the night; it’s about owning every lane of it.

That strategy extends beyond the three days of the draft itself. The lead-up has become a coordinated programming machine, with a reported 13-show umbrella that now includes both ESPN and former NFL Network properties. Shows like NFL Draft Daily and Path to the Draft are no longer separate entities competing for attention; they’re part of a single build designed to keep the audience engaged for weeks.

By the time the first pick is announced, the viewer has been saturated with mock drafts, prospect profiles, insider reports, and storylines. The draft isn’t just a single broadcast; it’s the payoff to a multi-week content cycle.

What makes all of this even more remarkable is that, at its core, the draft still defies logic as a television product. Nothing actually happens. There is no gameplay, no score, and no outcome beyond projection and speculation. Yet it consistently delivers massive audiences.

The reason is simple, even if it sounds cliché: the draft is about hope.

It’s the one event on the sports calendar where every fan base believes it got better. Every pick is framed, and every selection creates a new narrative. The quarterback who slid becomes a chip-on-his-shoulder storyline. The unexpected pick becomes a debate. The “steal” becomes a reason to believe.

The broadcast amplifies all of it, from the walk to the stage to the jersey reveal to the now-traditional hug with Roger Goodell, which has become less of a spontaneous moment and more of a perfectly timed piece of television choreography.

The question going forward is what happens to the edges. For years, ESPN and NFL Network pushed each other because they had to. Different production philosophies created different viewing experiences, and that friction made the coverage better.

Now that both networks sit under the same umbrella, the risk is that everything becomes a little too polished, a little too aligned, and a little too safe. The voices are still different for now, and ESPN has been smart to preserve that distinction in 2026.

However, as contracts expire and talent inevitably shifts, the line between the two broadcasts could blur. The upside is obvious—greater efficiency, tighter coordination, and even more control over the product. The downside is just as clear. You lose the tension that made flipping between the two broadcasts worthwhile.

What’s undeniable is where the NFL Draft now sits in the sports landscape. It began in 1936 as a quiet meeting in a room. It became a televised curiosity in 1980 and evolved into a prime-time event and then into a traveling spectacle, drawing hundreds of thousands of fans in person and millions more on television.

Now, in 2026, it has become something else entirely. It’s a fully integrated media ecosystem, controlled across multiple platforms, formats, and audiences by a single entity. The NFL doesn’t just own Sundays anymore. It owns the calendar, and with the draft, it has figured out how to own every screen you choose to watch it on.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.

Scott Jennings and the Reality of the 24/7 Personality-Driven Media Grind

Pete Mundo
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Scott Jennings and the Reality of the 24/7 Personality-Driven Media Grind

This week, Salem Media’s and CNN‘s Scott Jennings was in Kansas City as the keynote speaker for the Kansans for Life annual fundraiser in Overland Park, Kansas.

I was the emcee for the evening. Jennings also broadcast his radio show from our incredible facilities at Cumulus Kansas City. He was as pleasant and easy to work with as it gets, and gave a killer keynote address on the value of life, Western civilization, and the future of the country.

As a result, it gave us multiple opportunities to briefly discuss radio, the media landscape, his life and career, along with the ups and downs.

One conversation we had that any news/talk host can relate to is the never-ending balancing act of figuring out when and how to take a break. We agreed that even one day off the air can feel like a week, given today’s news cycle. You almost feel naked. What did you miss? How many stories did you miss? How many angles on the recurring stories did you lose the opportunity to opine on?

The ramp-up after even a couple of days off is real. When you’re in it and on every day, the stories and days flow together. Take a day, and you feel like a little kid learning how to ride a bike again.

Please don’t misunderstand. None of this is intended to be a complaint. We agreed that we are blessed to do what we do for a living, but it’s also a really unique part of the job that doesn’t apply to individuals in most industries.

The conversation with Scott Jennings got me thinking about how we can best handle that. It’s easy to say, “Put away the phone,” but that’s not always realistic. Even when you’re off, there are expectations to engage with the audience on other platforms.

Once again, not a complaint — just a reality in today’s 24/7 personality-driven media environment. You may be “off” from your show, but your fans are still scrolling Facebook, X, and Instagram, and looking for your perspective on the hits of the day.

So what’s the balance?

To me, the balance is in giving them content — albeit less — and making it more driven by your life. Take them behind the scenes. It can be serious. It can be silly. Don’t overthink it. It doesn’t need to be the hottest take of the day on a serious political story.

And when you return to the airwaves, find a personal story or two that you weave into your first show back. Where were you? What were you doing? Within reason, of course. But humanizing yourself with a radio audience is something most TV personalities don’t have time for in their shows. You have it. You have a different relationship with your audience than a TV anchor or personality. Use that to your advantage.

Now, I’m not saying to bury Topic A, or talk about nonsense that your audience doesn’t care about. Be targeted. Be creative. And leave them wanting more. It’s something Scott Jennings does well. It doesn’t need to be more than a couple of minutes. Segue into or out of a story that gives your audience a peek behind the scenes of your life.

Frankly, we should probably be doing more of this anyway — especially in the news/talk format, where the expectation can sometimes, and wrongly, be to just spout big hot takes after big hot takes.

As we start to approach the summer season, and hopefully you have the ability to get a little time away, it will do you good. The news cycle is moving faster than ever.

And while it might be admittedly scary to step away, for fear of missing stories or getting out of rhythm, it will be beneficial. The show will be there when you get back. And as you ease in, use it as an excuse to lean in even more and let the audience learn more about you. You won’t regret it.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.

The Dianna Russini Story Had 20 Angles — Did Your Music Radio Show Find Three?

Keith Cunningham
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The Dianna Russini Story Had 20 Angles — Did Your Music Radio Show Find Three?

Mike Vrabel and Dianna Russini. You know the story. Everyone does. But it’s not the story that’s most important — it’s what your show did with it. In the next three minutes, you’ll learn a lot about your RockTernative show or podcast.

At my other day job, I curate a content tool called The Drop for shows and brands I work with. Vrabel Gate has been orbiting my world since the 7th. For shows that create content stretching past the musical psychograph of a brand, this story was a gift. It has all the layers, mass relatability, and dozens of interesting ways to cover it.

You’ve likely heard consultants or PDs refer to The Topic Tree. Dianna Russini/Mike Vrabel is a champion oak among topic trees. That’s why it can serve as an X-ray for your show, and why PDs and group heads should be using this same exercise.

Let’s start with a word I’m guilty of overusing: “treatment.” By that, I mean — what’s the unique content treatment angle?

Outside of highly compelling personalities or shows propped up by an endless supply of cash giveaways, treatment is what separates the top tier from the mid-pack. Because there’s very little exclusive news out there. Everyone already knows the headlines. It’s what’s done with them that matters.

Once Page Six dropped the photos, every show knew about it by morning drive. The best producers and talent thought to themselves, “toss the rundown, forget yesterday’s prep meeting.”

This is when the game of treatment begins — it’s what separates the unique from the sound-alikes across the dial.

So, what did your show do with this story? How many different angles did your show use? At last check, from the jump through Russini’s resignation, I count over 20 interesting and different treatment options. The number of angles a show used isn’t the measuring stick — it’s how sticky the angles used actually were.

If your show mostly ducked it because “it’s sports,” “it’s sad,” “it’s tabloid stuff,” or because “everyone else is covering it,” maybe it’s time for a vision reset. It could also be a sign of a comfort zone that’s holding the show back.

No one has to celebrate the mess of a potential scandal, but the key is having relatability to what the audience is already talking about — and even opening their minds to things they haven’t considered yet.

More than a week later, we can look back and learn from this story — like Vrabel watching game film with his players. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that if you dropped in on market after market, many shows covered it the exact same way, with the exact same treatment:

  • Read the details from Page Six
  • Discuss or state personal observations
  • (Lazy close out) Headline delivered, personal feelings stated, now let’s bail

But the first two are like kickoff — they’re the natural places to start, not where a show should stop. Not with a story this deep, widespread, and with multiple arcs. The third is where the game starts — where critical thinking finally shows up.

While there were many options — 20 or more — here are 10 easy examples of how a show could have started being unique at step three:

  • Talk to listeners whose parents cheated — how did it affect them as kids?
  • Should consequences be equal? Will this become a male vs. female sexism debate?
  • If it’s really an affair, is her credibility really ruined? What matters more to the audience — the information or how it was obtained?
  • If there’s no affair, should she have resigned?
  • What’s the worst punishment: losing the job, her credibility, privacy, or trust at home?
  • Even if innocent, is that public behavior acceptable for two married public figures?
  • If the photos came from an investigator, who benefits most from hiring the PI and the photos leaking?
  • If you run ESPN or Fox, is Dianna Russini more hirable now that she’s a household name — or less hirable and possibly toxic?
  • Talk to listeners who were caught up in something that made them look very guilty, but they were innocent. What was it, and how did it play out?
  • Book a private investigator to share wild stories of what they’ve uncovered.

Those treatment options shouldn’t shock you, and there were many more. What’s shocking is how often critical or deeper thinking doesn’t take place these days. Moments like these are when content shows can make their move — gaining ground on competitors or widening their lead — by avoiding the lazy, low-hanging fruit that shows across the street lean on daily.

It’s also what can actually cause someone to walk into work or post online asking, “Did you hear what Show X did with the Dianna Russini story this morning?”

Anyone can do steps one and two. Most everyone does — and then they stop.

But the real winners live for step three and beyond. Because that’s when the show starts sounding like theirs and not everyone else’s.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.

Why It’s So Challenging To Find Media Salespeople

Bob Lawrence
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Why It’s So Challenging To Find Media Salespeople

Ask any market manager what their greatest challenge is, and the answer will invariably be “finding salespeople.” Despite the universal importance of ad revenue to our entire ecosystem, identifying and recruiting anyone interested in media sales has become increasingly difficult.

I remember the days when we would tell those interested in radio and TV. Standing outside the station and watch who got into the most expensive cars. It would always be salespeople. So, why is it so difficult to fill positions today that traditionally earned more money than most anyone in the building?

Obviously, it isn’t just one issue, but there’s no denying that perception is one of the major hurdles.

For years now, traditional media, particularly radio and TV, have been considered declining industries. The fact that traditional media has survived every frontal assault seems ignored. Young people entering the workforce hear much more about the growth of tech startups and social media companies than about the influence and stability of local media.

As a result, most assume that selling media is less relevant. Making its future seem less secure. Despite the fact that local businesses continue to rely on advertising to grow and survive.

Another challenge that needs to be addressed is the misunderstanding of what the job truly entails.

Selling media doesn’t involve simply “selling” radio or digital advertising. At its core, it’s about true marketing consultation. Ironically, this should be the most attractive aspect of media sales, since young people have become more marketing-savvy than most previous generations.

Some “seasoned pros” yearn for the days when all they had to do was walk into a client meeting with a slew of one-sheeters that offered packaged opportunities. That approach was more about order-taking. Today, the most successful sellers know how to help businesses solve problems. From driving traffic to building brand awareness.

They aren’t really salespeople at all. They’re marketing strategists!

The goal for every business is to reach customers in meaningful ways. But too many potential candidates still picture the job as cold-calling strangers and hawking commercials. That outdated stereotype discourages people who might otherwise excel.

I remember a conversation with my sales manager and new business director regarding job titles. That’s when we decided to move from “account executive” (which reeks of “sales”) to “marketing specialist” or “marketing strategist.”

For the record, I’m not a fan of “consultant.”

Compensation structure also plays a role. We have traditionally paid sales positions on a commission basis, which is heavily performance-driven. For ambitious people, that can be incredibly appealing because income potential is often unlimited. However, younger workers entering the job market today often prioritize stability, work-life balance, and predictable salaries.

We all know that building a client list and growing income over time carries inherent risk compared to fixed-salary positions. “Over time” tends to translate to “low income.” We often balance this with a draw or guarantee of some sort.

We all know these are rarely enough to pay the bills.

Training expectations add another layer of complexity. We often look for candidates who can hit the ground running. Those who understand marketing, digital platforms, branding strategy, and client relationships. At the same time, we realize those skills develop through experience.

As a result, robust training programs have become extremely important. Every newcomer needs long-term mentorship and guidance before becoming a top performer.

Then, of course, there’s the inevitable reality of rejection. Sales, by nature, involves hearing “no” a lot. Media salespeople must develop near-superhuman resilience and confidence, two traits that are difficult to teach quickly.

In an era where many career paths emphasize collaboration and structure, the independence required in sales can feel intimidating to some candidates.

The fact is that the opportunity within media sales has never been greater. Modern media companies offer integrated marketing solutions that combine broadcast, digital advertising, social media, streaming, podcasts, and event marketing.

A strong salesperson today is not limited to one platform—they can create comprehensive campaigns that help businesses reach audiences everywhere. Traditional and digital advertising work in perfect unison. The former is a superlative branding device, while digital combines the immediacy of transactional advertising.

Radio works because the consumer will never think of you until they need you—and they’ll never think of you if they don’t know you. Digital works to solidify the sale once the consumer needs you and remembers you.

That makes media sales one of the most dynamic career opportunities. It blends creativity, strategy, storytelling, and entrepreneurship. Great salespeople become trusted advisors to local businesses and essential partners in helping communities grow. The best strategists become trusted, non-paid employees that businesses turn to for marketing expertise and advice.

The real challenge for the industry today is not that opportunities are lacking. It’s that the story hasn’t been told well enough.

When media companies clearly articulate the impact, creativity, and financial potential of the profession, we will find that more people see media sales not as a fallback career, but as an exciting and influential one.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.

Erick Erickson and Tony Katz Share Home Studio Secrets for Radio Hosts

Garrett Searight
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Erick Erickson and Tony Katz Share Home Studio Secrets for Radio Hosts

Building a home studio doesn’t have to break the bank — and two veterans of news/talk radio know exactly how to make it work. Erick Erickson, host of The Erick Erickson Show on Compass Media Networks, and Tony Katz, host of Tony Katz Today on Key Networks, have each spent years refining their home studio setups.

Both offered candid, practical advice for hosts looking to upgrade their on-camera presence without getting lost in the weeds.

The temptation for newcomers is to chase perfection before ever hitting record. Erickson warned against that mindset directly, drawing a parallel to his own reluctance in the kitchen.

“What you need to do is just get going with it,” said Erickson. “And when you get comfortable with getting it going, don’t worry about getting the mental roadblock of, ‘Well, I can’t do this because I don’t have the best look.’

“As a side note, I do a lot of cooking, and I put up pictures online. I’ve kind of got that same situation in my head where I don’t want to do cooking videos because I can’t get it to look exactly the way I want it in my head. And all my friends are like, ‘You idiot. Just use your iPhone and put the content out.’ The content is king,” Erickson added. “And if you remember that rule, you’ll be less likely to bog yourself down in the minutia of needing this camera and this lighting with this temperature and this sound and this look.”

Katz echoed the sentiment, though he stressed that lighting deserves more attention than most beginners give it. Trial and error is part of the process — but so is knowing when to call in help.

“The lighting has been trial and error,” Katz said. “Finding the cameras also — you’ve got to find things that you like and things that can really do the USB streaming and don’t shut down on you, don’t overheat, things like that. It’s the lighting and how that lighting works in relationship to the room. The idea of the lighting coming from one side, and softer light coming from the other, so it creates the right amount of shadow. The backlighting is really about experimentation.

“But there are plenty of people — there are a lot of people you could talk to online and videos to check out,” continued Katz. “It’s worth having somebody you can reach out to and paying them the money to say, ‘Ok, how do we light this right?’ Don’t mess around with this. You want this to be your career, put your hands in your pocket.”

That investment, Katz noted, is far more modest than most people assume.

“It’s not going to cost you $50,000,000,” the Tony Katz Today host shared. “It costs a few hundred bucks to have someone help you figure out the lighting. As for the lights to buy, you’ve got to go out there and buy it, but things have become outrageously affordable. And if you can’t right now, you’ve got to save up so you can. If the answer is always ‘I can’t,’ you’re not going to have an attractive-looking set or video piece.”

Katz also acknowledged his current setup is the product of multiple iterations — he’s on his third studio look. That candor is worth taking seriously. Depth, backdrop, and the physical dimensions of a space all matter more than the camera itself.

“From where the camera is to the back corner of the studio, it’s 30 feet, 35 feet,” stated Katz. “So yeah, it’s everything. I have a banner up that blocks the AC unit, so it just looks like I’ve got my name everywhere. Then I have colors in the background, and it’s darker, but you can see that there’s something happening.”

On the camera side, Erickson came from a television background — CNN for three years, Fox for five — and admitted he likely overspent on equipment early on. His takeaway, though, was surprisingly restrained.

“I didn’t need the highest quality camera,” The Erick Erickson Show host shared. “Honestly, if you’ve got a basic camera that could do 4K and you’ve got a good microphone, you’re better set up. You don’t need a multi-camera shot, things like that. There are a lot of people who look at the professional podcasts out there and say, oh, I need this setup, and actually you don’t.”

There’s one infrastructure element both hosts flagged that often gets overlooked entirely — and it has nothing to do with cameras or lights.

“You need HD to 4K for sure,” Erick Erickson said. “You can buy really cheap camera equipment that gives you what you want. The thing that people don’t think about that they need to think about is their internet connection. You’ve got to have a good internet connection to be able to cover it all. That’s not incidental. That’s the priority. Everything else is ancillary, but other than internet connection, the big thing is just do it. You’ll get better over time and more comfortable over time. Don’t get it in your head that it must be perfect out of the gate.”

Katz uses a true digital camera rather than a webcam, pairs it with a Rode Podcaster Pro microphone, and thinks carefully about where his camera sits in relation to his body — and his audience.

“I don’t like playing into the camera,” Katz shared. “I do think it takes away a little bit from the radio, so I’m not always staring at the camera. I’m looking, I’m reading stuff, I’m going over stuff. I’m still acting things out in my head and people are just watching in that regard. Not everything is, but if I play to the camera, I’m not engaging the radio audience as much. And some people are really good at that. I’ve always found that I can’t just stare at a camera. I need to remember who my audience is. My audience is radio.”

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.

Netflix Partners With All the Smoke Productions To Produce ‘The White House W/Michael Irvin’ Podcast

BSM Staff
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Netflix Partners With All the Smoke Productions To Produce ‘The White House W/Michael Irvin’ Podcast

Netflix is expanding its sports content portfolio with a new partnership announcing it will team with All The Smoke Productions to produce a new original video podcast, The White House with Michael Irvin.

The new version of the show will debut April 21 and release two episodes per week through the end of the year exclusively on Netflix. The program debuted this past January as part of Netflix’ push into podcasts.

The series will be hosted by Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Irvin. The hall of famer will also play a key role in shaping the show’s creative direction. Under the agreement, All The Smoke Productions will oversee production, content strategy and social media execution.

Netflix is positioning the program as a premium video podcast centered on candid conversations and storytelling. The show will feature athletes, celebrities and influential voices, with a focus on the intersection of sports and culture. Brandon Marshall will serve as executive producer.

Irvin said the partnership aligns with how audiences now consume content, especially across digital and social platforms.

“All The Smoke really understands this space and the times we are in,” Irvin said. “Not just how to produce a show, but how people are receiving it.”

The move adds another layer to Netflix’s growing push into sports-adjacent programming. While the company has invested heavily in live events and documentaries, this project signals a deeper commitment to recurring, personality-driven formats.

For All The Smoke Productions, the deal represents continued expansion beyond its basketball roots. The company was co-founded by former NBA champion Matt Barnes and has built a strong reputation through its flagship “All The Smoke” podcast, known for its direct and unfiltered athlete interviews.

Barnes called the partnership a natural progression in the company’s relationship with Netflix, which has developed over the past year through multiple collaborations. The production company has contributed to several high-profile Netflix events, including boxing showcases headlined by Mike Tyson and Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez.

Company COO Brian Dailey said the move into football content has been a long-term priority. Pairing that effort with a personality like Irvin creates new opportunities across multiple platforms. In addition, All The Smoke Productions has continued to broaden its content slate. The company recently launched a baseball-focused vertical and has moved into documentary filmmaking, further diversifying its portfolio.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.

Former NPR CEO/President Kevin Klose Dies

BNM Staff
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Former NPR CEO/President Kevin Klose Dies

Former NPR CEO and President Kevin Klose has died, the public radio network has shared.

Klose died at his home on Wednesday due to complications from Alzheimer’s.

He served as the President and CEO of the network from 1998 to 2008. In 2008, he was named president emeritus of the company. He also served as a member of NPR’s corporate board of directors and as a trustee on the NPR Foundation.

In a statement to staffers, current NPR CEO Katherine Mahre remembered the longtime executive.

“Kevin was deeply idealistic about the role of public media in a democracy,” Maher said. “He called independent journalism ‘the first partner of building democracy, and helping it stay strong and vital.'”

Following his departure from NPR, Klose served as the president and CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from 2012 to 2014.

During his career, he also worked for more than 25 years as a reporter and editor at The Washington Post. While at the Post, he also spent a four-year stint as the Moscow Bureau Chief.

Kevin Klose was 85.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.

Fox News Digital Surpasses 200 Million Monthly Users for First Time in March

BNM Staff
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Fox News Digital Surpasses 200 Million Monthly Users for First Time in March

Fox News says its digital platforms reached a record audience during the first quarter of 2026, according to Comscore data. The company reported 187 million average monthly multiplatform unique visitors, marking its highest quarterly total.

Additionally, Fox News Digital generated 5.5 billion multiplatform views and 11.3 billion minutes during the quarter. The company has now led news brands in views for 20 straight quarters and minutes for 15 consecutive quarters. It also posted 91.4 million average desktop and mobile unique visitors, topping competitors including CBSNews.com.

March extended that momentum. During the month, Fox News Digital reached 209 million multiplatform unique visitors, along with 1.9 billion views and 4.1 billion minutes. As a result, it became the first news brand to surpass 200 million monthly multiplatform uniques.

Meanwhile, the company pointed to growth on video platforms. On YouTube, Fox News delivered 1.5 billion video views for the quarter, leading competitors including CNN, NBC News, and ABC News. FOX Business added 193 million YouTube views, up 25% from the previous quarter.

Mobile and social platforms also contributed. The Fox News app averaged 6.5 million unique users, ahead of CNN’s mobile app. Across social media, Fox News Media totaled 430 million interactions, including 116.6 million on TikTok.

FOXBusiness.com also posted 577 million multiplatform minutes and 324 million views, finishing third among business news sites. It averaged 32.5 million monthly multiplatform unique visitors during the quarter.

Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.

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