1210 WPHT afternoon host Rich Zeoli is on location in Chicago for the Democratic National Convention. However, that doesn’t mean his show will be swamped with guests from the other side of the political aisle.
To begin his first show from the Windy City, Zeoli admitted to listeners that he had not filled the guest sheet with Democrats, noting that he had been rebuffed by every guest they attempted to bring on the program.
“What a show we have planned for you today and no surrogates. None,” Zeoli said. “Nobody will come on with us. No one. We’ve been asking. Even John Fetterman won’t come out with us. I mean, come on.”
Fetterman, a Democrat, serves as one of two Senators for the state of Pennsylvania, home to 1210 WPHT.
Zeoli, who was also on hand in Milwaukee for the Republican National Convention in July, added that there was a drastically different feel on media row for the Democratic event than the one from the conservative side.
“I gotta make sure I’m not too loud for my fellow broadcasters who are here, but it’s a little low energy in the media row room,” he said. “We got to pick it up, pick up the energy. This is low energy. Compared to the RNC, anyway.”
NBCUniversal and the University of Notre Dame agreed to a four-year media rights extension said to be worth $200 million that will keep Notre Dame Fighting Irish football on the network through the 2029 season. The existing contract between the two entities was set to expire after the 2024 season, marking the 33rd year in which Notre Dame home football games have aired on NBC. Entering the new season, Dan Hicks will serve as the new play-by-play voice for these matchups, succeeding Jac Collinsworth as he continues to co-host Football Night in America and call Big Ten Conference football games. Hicks returns to these broadcasts after calling Fighting Irish games from 2013 to 2016.
Hicks will be joined by analyst Jason Garrett and sideline reporter Zora Stephenson. The broadcast team makes its debut on Saturday, Sept. 7 at 3:30 p.m. EST as the Fighting Irish face Northern Illinois on NBC and Peacock.
NBCUniversal is entering its second season presenting Big Ten Conference football games under a seven-year media rights deal with the entity. The Big Ten Saturday Night broadcast team of play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle, analyst Todd Blackledge and sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen return to the airwaves for a Week 0 matchup between Michigan and Fresno State on Aug. 31 at 7:30 p.m. EST on NBC and Peacock.
Broadcast Property
Play-by-Play Announcer
Analyst
Sideline Reporter
Big Ten Saturday Night
Noah Eagle
Todd Blackledge
Kathryn Tappen
Notre Dame Football on NBC
Dan Hicks
Jason Garrett
Zora Stephenson
The trio will call all prime time games outside of Sept. 7, the week in which Eagle, Blackledge and sideline reporter Kaylee Hartung will call an NFL game between the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles from São Paulo, Brazil streaming exclusively on Peacock. Tappen will work with Paul Burmeister and Colt McCoy on the matchup between Colorado and Nebraska on that day in prime time on NBC and Peacock. Tony Simeone was named the new radio play-by-play announcer for Notre Dame football, succeeding Burmeister in the role as he expands his responsibilities with NBC Sports.
In addition to Burmeister, McCoy and Collinsworth, a variety of announcers will call Big Ten Conference action throughout the regular season, including former NFL Sunday Ticket Red Zone host Andrew Siciliano. During the Olympic Games Paris 2024, Siciliano was part of the hit Gold Zone presentation on Peacock, which ranked among the top five most-watched Olympic titles on the OTT streaming service. TNT Sports and MSG Networks play-by-play announcer Brendan Burke will work with former two-time Pro Bowl tight end and 12-year NFL veteran Kyle Rudolph on the broadcast of Rhode Island against Minnesota on Sept. 7. Additionally, Caroline Pineda will make her return to Big Ten Conference coverage on NBC Sports for her second season.
The Big Ten College Countdown studio team of host Maria Taylor, analyst Joshua Perry and reporter Nicole Auerbach return to the program for the upcoming season, which will add Chris Simms as an analyst. Taylor also hosts Football Night in America on Sundays preceding the network broadcast of Sunday Night Football, coming off a season in which it finished as the No. 1 show in prime time television across all key metrics for a 13th consecutive year. As Taylor, Perry, Auerbach and Simms are situated within the studio, Ahmed Fareed, Matt Cassel and Michael Robinson will be live from the site of each game.
Outside of the studio program, Auerbach and Perry will host Rushing the Field, a new podcast launching Thursday, Aug. 29 with weekly episodes on Thursday mornings throughout the season. The show will include the analysts synthesizing the biggest stories in college football, previewing upcoming games and providing shrewd takes. Eagle and Blackledge will return with B1G Talk with Todd and Noah, releasing new episodes on Wednesdays throughout the college football season where they discuss the conference, Big Ten Saturday Night matchup and cover key storylines.
Ariel Helwani said he had a big announcement coming and that it had to be big if he was going to leave Vox Media and Spotify. Today, Helwani and Yahoo Sports announced a multi-year partnership to launch Uncrowned, a new combat sports media brand. Uncrowned will produce MMA, boxing, and wrestling content.
“I’ve had the great privilege of working alongside Ariel before and am thrilled to be able to do that again, at Yahoo Sports, and to build the leading combat site and community together,” said Ryan Spoon, President of Yahoo Sports in a statement.
“When I began this journey over 20 years ago, the goal was to be much more than just another sports journalist,” Helwani said. “This deal signifies a major milestone toward that goal. I’ve always wanted to own my content, and I’ve always wanted to lead. And we are finally here, with the great Yahoo Sports by my side. What a dream.”
The flagship program will be The Ariel Helwani Show, which the company said will, “deliver combat commentary, analysis, and in-depth interviews with some of the biggest names in sports.” Eric Jackman, Conner Burks, Frank Lenz, and Petesy Carroll will join Helwani for the show which will air four times per week with bonus episodes prior to major combat events.
The Craic with Petesy Carroll was also announced. The show is described a, “a weekly MMA-focused show hosted by Carroll that features interviews with key figures in UFC, PFL, Bellator, and more.”
The announcement also said there will be new boxing and wrestling focused shows which will be announced in the coming months. There will also be written reporting and analysis from Helwani and a team of combat sports experts.
Uncrowned content will be shared on various platforms, including a new central arena on the Yahoo Sports website and app. It will also be available on social media sites, YouTube, and all major podcast platforms.
Life update!
I’m extremely excited to announce that I am partnering with @yahoosports to launch a brand new combat sports vertical. MMA, boxing, pro wrestling. The works. The spot? https://t.co/2LvPT4yeHP. 👑
The Newton (Iowa) News reports that Alpha Media has brought a local morning show back to KRTI (Energy 106.7)/Grinnell—Newton, IA.
“The Morning Show With Sarah and Joe” features Sarah Jorges and Joe Swanson for a four-hour block on weekday mornings. The show began on August 5th.
The show replaces “The Morning Jolt With Jamie and Sarah,” which was dropped in May during an Alpha Media layoff. Swanson was also affected by those layoffs but was brought back. Jorges had maintained a position in the sales department.
Jorges told the Newton News, “We are a local entertainment-based show. It is really the two of us doing everything we can to have a local presence here in radio and bring local businesses and anybody else in. We really just kind of dove right in and started off doing what we know, and it’s going really well.”
Zach Dillon is taking over mornings at iHeartMedia’s AAA KTCZ (Cities 97.1)/Minneapolis. He moves from PM Drive and will continue as APD/MD for sister Top 40 KDWB.
Most of his eight years in KDWB afternoons were with Falen Bonsett until his departure last February.
Stops prior to Minneapolis include Programming Top 40 KHFI (Kiss 96.7/ Austin, KTBT (92.1 The Beat)/ Tulsa, and KWTX-FM/Waco.
Mornings became available with Paul Fletcher’s layoff earlier this month. (BMM 8/8)
During the 2024 Paris Olympics, NBC Nightly News overtook ABC World News Tonightwith David Muir in the television ratings. That stint didn’t last after the games concluded, however.
During the week of August 12th, the ABC News program returned to the top of the Nielsen ratings as the number one newscast in all of broadcast and cable with 7.17 million viewers. The show featured 939,000 viewers in the in the Adults 25-54 demographic, and 630,000 in the Adults 18-49 demo.
In that same week, NBC Nightly News averaged 5.98 million viewers, down from the 7.64 million viewers it averaged during the 2024 Paris Olympics. In the Adults 25-54 demo, the show anchored by Lester Holt averaged 866,000 viewers. The network closed the gap with ABC News in the Adults 18-49 demo, as it averaged 618,000 viewers.
CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell lagged well behind the other two nightly newscasts. That program — which is set to experience a variety of changes after the 2024 election when O’Donnell departs — averaged 4.3 million viewers during the week. It saw 588,000 in the Adults 25-54 demo, and 401,000 in the Adults 18-49 demographic.
With its ratings victory, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir has won 296 of the last 299 weeks in total viewers and 224 of the last 229 weeks in the Adults 25-54 demographic.
iHeartMedia syndicated morning host Bobby Bones, the 2018 Dancing With The Stars Champion, has reacted to dancer and judge Julianne Hough’s questioning of his win and skills.
Hough, along with Country singer Mickey Guyton, appeared on “Watch What Happens With Andy Cohen” and was asked if there were any champs they might have disagreed with.
Guyton replied, “Bobby Bones.” Hough responded, “I actually agree with you, and I think it’s because of the fan base. It’s all about fan base on that show. He was not the best dancer.”
Bones took to his Instagram to claim he takes pride in being called the worst dancer.
July 2024 will be one for the history books. And it was one for the record books for Fox News Digital as it saw its best month in more than three-and-a-half years.
During the month, Fox News Digital was the top news brand in multiplatform minutes and views according to Comscore. The network closed out the month with 3.9 billion multiplatform minutes, 1.9 billion multiplatform views, and 119 million unique visitors to its plethora of digital platforms. Those figures were the best showing for Fox News Digital since January 2021.
July 2024 — like January 2021 — was a busy news month. Former President Donald Trump was struck by a would-be assassin’s bullet in July. Days later, he attended the Republican National Convention where he was officially named the party’s nominee for President, and he unveiled running mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) during the month. President Joe Biden also announced he would drop out of the race for the White House, thrusting Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the Democratic ticket.
The company was up 43% in total unique visitors compared to July 2023. It also saw upticks in multiplatform minutes (29%), and total views (11%) compared to the same time window in 2023.
Additionally, on social media the network saw 42 million social interactions, up 39% compared to July last year and 59% compared to the previous month. The network saw nearly double the interactions on Instagram (25.2 million) than on Facebook (13.4 million). On YouTube, Fox News scored 341.2 million views during the month.
Bob Morgan, President of iHeartMedia West New York region, takes over the newly expanded Upstate New York area.
For the past five years, Morgan has overseen operations in Binghamton, Syracuse, and Rochester, New York. Now, he will also assume responsibility for Albany, Poughkeepsie, and Sussex, New Jersey.
In 2012, he joined iHeartMedia as Market President in Rochester, following a 13-year tenure as Senior Vice President of Broadcast for American Tower Corporation. Before that, he led CBS Radio Rochester from 1994 to 1999.
Morgan said, “I am excited for the opportunity to be working with the talented teams in Albany, Poughkeepsie and Sussex. Our market-leading iconic brands have a long history of serving their communities, listeners, and clients, and I look forward to helping build upon that success.”
Mike Greenberg has been named the new host of Sunday NFL Countdown on ESPN, becoming the fourth person to hold the position in the history of the program. This decision comes after ESPN let go of Sam Ponder, who had hosted the show since 2017, along with Robert Griffin III ahead of the beginning of the National Football League season. Greenberg had reportedly been in consideration for the role in addition to NFL Live and SEC Nation host Laura Rutledge last week. Andrew Marchand of The Athletic was the first to report the news of Greenberg being named the new host of the program.
Outside of hosting Sunday NFL Countdown, Greenberg is on the air weekday mornings hosting Get Up! on ESPN and #Greeny directly thereafter on ESPN Radio. He has hosted studio programming surrounding a sports league within the ESPN portfolio in the past, anchoring NBA Countdown for two seasons before moving on from the program before last season. Greenberg will be joined by Tedy Bruschi, Randy Moss, Rex Ryan and Alex Smith, along with senior NFL insider Adam Schefter. Moreover, on-site reporters for the program include Jeff Darlington, Dan Graziano, Kimberley A. Martin, Sal Paolantonio and Lindsey Thiry, and sports betting analyst Erin Dolan will return to the program as well.
The new role for Greenberg marks the second hosting change to the network’s NFL programming in the last two seasons. Ahead of the 2023 NFL season, the network named Scott Van Pelt as the new host of Monday Night Countdown, which is adding former Philadelphia Eagles offensive lineman and New Heights podcast host Jason Kelce as an analyst. The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC) will broadcast the Super Bowl for the first time at the conclusion of the 2026 season from SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, Calif.
The Sunday NFL Countdown program will begin its 40th season with its first episode of the new year on Sunday, Sept. 8, starting a five-month stretch that concludes from the Super Bowl in New Orleans, La. in February. This program made its debut in 1985 as NFL GameDay, and it will continue to emanate from ESPN headquarters in Bristol, Conn., airing weekly from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. EST.
