Inner Harbor Media has launched 87.7 The Spot in Syracuse, NY. The station went live at 3 pm yesterday, playing exclusively hits from the 1990s and early 2000s.
What We Know: The launch song was Quad City DJ’s “C’mon N’ Ride It (The Train).” The station’s core artist lineup includes Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, TLC, Nirvana, Mariah Carey, Pearl Jam, Dr. Dre, and *NSYNC. The format targets a generation that came of age during one of pop music’s most commercially dominant eras. Listeners can find the station at 877thespot.com.
What They Said: The Spot VP and Station Manager Sam Furco says the nostalgia factor is central to the station’s identity. “People still love the music of the ’90s,” he said. “These songs bring back memories of high school, road trips, concerts, and great times.” Furco added that the goal is building a fun, upbeat station Syracuse can connect with every day.
What Remains Unclear: No talent announcements have accompanied the launch of The Spot. The station’s programming hours and daypart strategy have not yet been disclosed. It also remains to be seen whether Inner Harbor plans to add a morning show or syndicated programming to build audience structure.
What It Means: The launch signals continued confidence in nostalgia-driven formats among independent operators. Meanwhile, Syracuse gains a new competitive option in a market that has seen limited ownership diversity. For Inner Harbor Media, the move represents a calculated bet that millennial listeners will respond to a familiar, music-forward station in the heritage-rich Central New York market.
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.
Pat McAfee actually dressed up Wednesday night, which alone told you ESPN viewed this as important television. Gone was the cutoff tank top and the sleeveless “I just left a backyard wrestling event in Indianapolis” look. Instead, McAfee traded his usual attire for a black short-sleeve collared shirt because ESPN had suddenly handed him primetime television and a parade of the most powerful people in sports.
The visual mattered because what ESPN threw together at the last minute wasn’t just another McAfee show. Rather, it was a giant flashing signal about who matters in modern sports media and why.
With an unexpected primetime opening after the Knicks quickly swept the Cavaliers, ESPN suddenly found itself scrambling to fill airtime. As a result, the network landed on The Prime-Time State of Sports, hosted by McAfee and his crew. The programming featured nearly every major commissioner in American sports: Adam Silver, Gary Bettman, Rob Manfred, Cathy Engelbert, Don Garber, and Dana White.
Meanwhile, the NFL was technically represented by ESPN insiders Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport because, as McAfee explained, Roger Goodell was “out of pocket.”
Still, there sat McAfee in the middle of it all, looking like the average guy who somehow wandered into the world’s most powerful sports board meeting. Only this wasn’t accidental. In fact, every commissioner wanted to be there.
That’s the real story. Not necessarily what was said over those two hours because the talking points themselves were predictable enough: expansion, AI, technology, global growth, “improving the fan experience,” and endless optimism about both the present and future..
Creating the Environment
Every commissioner sounded like they attended the same corporate retreat. You know the ones where leagues brainstorm future buzzwords while staring at PowerPoint slides and drinking expensive sparkling water. Even so, the bigger takeaway was this:
Pat McAfee has somehow become sports media’s safest space. Which, frankly, is incredible considering he built his empire screaming into microphones, punting footballs shirtless, and sounding like every guy at Buffalo Wild Wings after three domestic beers and a same-game parlay loss.
Yet somehow, commissioners trust him more than almost anybody in sports television. After all, Wednesday night made it easy to understand why. McAfee isn’t trying to nail anybody to the wall. As a result, that immediately separates him from almost every major sports media personality today because modern sports television is built around confrontation, debate, viral clips, and manufactured outrage.
Too often, somebody is yelling, interrupting, or pretending a Tuesday night officiating controversy is a constitutional crisis. McAfee’s formula, however, is different because he’s the everyman. He talks like fans talk. Reacts the way fans react. More importantly, he asks the kinds of questions normal people would ask.
Most importantly, he doesn’t approach interviews like he’s trying to defeat the guest.
Over two hours, McAfee asked every commissioner the same three questions.
What’s going right? What keeps you up at night? And what does the future look like? That was the entire blueprint.
McAfee Is Simply Different
Simple, fan-friendly, and probably terrifying to traditional sports media people who think every interview needs to turn into A Few Good Men.
There were no ambushes, hostile cross-examinations, or performative outrage designed specifically to generate social media clips.
After 30 years in sports radio and television, I can tell you exactly what most hosts would’ve done with that lineup. They would’ve hunted controversy in search of viral moments. Whenever commissioners came on my shows over the years, the temptation was always there. You wanted the uncomfortable answer, the tense exchange, or the moment everybody talked about the next morning.
McAfee went the opposite direction.
He brought up officiating and embellishment with Adam Silver. Lottery reform came up too. The NBA’s issues with flopping and Oklahoma City’s whistle-heavy playoff run floated through the conversation. Still, McAfee never pushed Silver into a defensive crouch or tried to turn the segment into courtroom drama.
Eventually, Tyrese Haliburton handled some of the heavier lifting afterward by discussing foul embellishment and competitive balance, and that pattern repeated itself throughout the night.
The commissioners handled broad “state of the league” conversations, while league-connected ESPN personalities helped flesh things out afterward. Jeff Passan joined the baseball discussion. P. K. Subban handled hockey. Monica McNutt discussed the WNBA. Meanwhile, Matthew Stafford appeared on the NFL side, though that conversation became more about Stafford himself than the league.
Throughout it all, McAfee remained exactly what he has always been: a fan with a microphone.
Setting a Welcoming Tone
That sounds simplistic, but it’s his superpower because McAfee doesn’t feel like a media guy. That’s not an insult. It’s exactly why this worked. Traditional sports media often approaches leagues like prosecutors building a case. McAfee approaches them like a fan sitting at a bar.
That’s a completely different energy, and the leagues clearly trust it.
This also wasn’t exactly a Presidential State of the Union address, and that felt intentional too. This was Pat McAfee hosting a primetime “State of Sports,” not Bob Costas moderating a roundtable on modern baseball analytics. ESPN clearly understood the tone it wanted from the start. This wasn’t designed to be a hard-hitting journalistic summit where commissioners got dragged under studio lights and interrogated for two hours.
Instead, it was supposed to feel loose, comfortable, relatable, and fun.
That’s why McAfee worked. If ESPN wanted somebody firing follow-up questions like they were presenting evidence in a congressional hearing, the network has plenty of people capable of doing that. However, that’s not what commissioners wanted to walk into on short notice. They wanted McAfee’s environment.
You could see it in the body language throughout the night. I can’t remember seeing Adam Silver more energetic in a public setting. Gary Bettman looked almost suspiciously relaxed. Meanwhile, Rob Manfred, a commissioner who often looks like he’s bracing for impact during interviews, seemed completely comfortable. Nobody looked tense or defensive. More importantly, nobody looked like they were walking into a money-laundering investigation hosted by Stephen A. Smith.
Stephen A. dominates interviews. Conversations bend around him. He creates moments, headlines, and sometimes brush fires visible from space. McAfee, on the other hand, doesn’t operate that way. He facilitates, celebrates, and amplifies. Stephen A. often becomes the story. McAfee makes the guest the story, and that’s precisely why commissioners trust him.
A few times, McAfee even committed what some media types would consider a cardinal sin by admitting he “doesn’t know” when asked about certain non-football issues. Most professional screamers at ESPN would never utter those two dirty words.
Trust is Currency
Maybe the perfect summary of the entire night came at the end of nearly every interview when McAfee sent off some of the most powerful people in sports with the same line.
“We appreciate the hell outta ya.”
Not exactly how Vin Scully would have done it, but perfect for what this show was.
The commissioners weren’t there because ESPN called. They were there because McAfee created an environment they trusted. To a man, they all knew they weren’t getting ambushed or walking into some made-for-social-media interrogation where the host tries to become the clip.
Instead, they were there to promote their sports, and, unsurprisingly, they all delivered variations of the same message. The future is bright. Technology and AI will improve the fan experience. Global expansion is coming. Their leagues are healthier than ever. Sponsors remain engaged. Fans are passionate. Most importantly, the best is still ahead.
For two straight hours, commissioners essentially repeated, “Business is booming, and wait until you see what our app does in five years.”
ESPN loved every second of it because this wasn’t journalism nearly as much as it was relationship management. It was a giant televised peace offering between ESPN and its billion-dollar league partners. Why wouldn’t they embrace it? These commissioners aren’t just guests. They’re business partners tied directly to television rights deals worth astronomical amounts of money.
In many ways, ESPN handed each league a two-hour commercial wrapped inside a relaxed, fan-friendly atmosphere where commissioners could promote the future of their sports without fear of stepping into a televised ambush.
McAfee was the perfect host because, unlike many modern television personalities, he doesn’t come across like he’s trying to outsmart everybody in the room. That authenticity matters. After all, fans can spot fake instantly. Instead, McAfee still feels like the guy yelling at referees from his couch right alongside everybody else. The only difference is that he now happens to be doing it while sitting across from commissioners.
That relatability has become incredibly powerful.
The night proved something important. The most influential person in sports media right now may not be the loudest debate guy, or the sharpest insider or the toughest interviewer. It may be the guy powerful people trust not to make the interview about himself.
In a sports media world built increasingly around ego, outrage and viral clips, Pat McAfee somehow built the safest room in sports. For two hours every major league in America voluntarily walked into 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.
I knew the Momentum conference was different before I arrived in Orlando .
You could see it in the pre-planning. The design aesthetics. The social media. The way Christian Music Broadcasters presented the event before anybody checked into the hotel.
I have walked through countless carpeted convention hallways wearing a lanyard and carrying a branded tote bag. I’ve watched grown adults nod thoughtfully while someone recycles the always-popular “We need to meet the audience where they are.”
Then I came to Momentum.
I am writing this from Orlando, where I was asked to speak on the main stage at Christian Music Broadcasters’ Momentum conference. My session was called “Perception Is The Real Problem.” I shared how radio is perceived, how we got here, and why we allowed it to happen. Most importantly, I presented a no-cost, no-financial-loss formula for how we can start fixing it.
My Conference History
I have attended CRS, Morning Show Boot Camp, NAB, The R&R, Gavin, and The Conclave. I have also produced my own conventions. Plenty of smart people and valuable conversations happen at each.
This is not a takedown of any of them.
However, the education, inclusion, logistics, and production level at Momentum exceed every radio convention I have attended, including my own.
The stage design, screens, audio, lighting, pacing, selected speakers, performances, and content all prove that Michelle Younkman and her team understand that audience experience is the mission.
Practicing What It Preaches
Imagine that: a radio event practicing what it preaches about audience experience.
Meanwhile, half of mainstream radio is still trying to improve the listener experience by running a PUMM report to find the best hours to hammer people with spots.
There is also an accessibility here that mainstream labels should notice. The record community and artists are not simply dropped in for a photo and a fast exit through a side door — which is also the name of my new single at country radio.
They are available. They appear willing to connect and work alongside the people helping audiences discover their music. Apparently, community works better when people are actually allowed to commune.
The conference is held at Sapphire Falls Resort in Orlando. Time is built in for attendees to go to Universal, rather than spend four days wandering a fluorescent hallway. That beats texting someone to ask if they can meet you at the Red Bar in the Encore lobby.
Although that bar does have some killer peanuts on the table — which, ironically, is the name of my second single at country radio.
The Real Problem With Radio
Radio spends an extraordinary amount of time talking about ratings, revenue, and resources. All important. All real. But we often discuss them like separate problems, when, in reality, they are outcomes of the bigger issue: perception.
How are we perceived by listeners? By advertisers? By artists? By young talent? By our own employees? By ourselves?
Lazarus Didn’t Come Back for Panels
There are many who wonder if the business is dying or how to keep our revenue alive. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead for a purpose. He did not bring him back to moderate a panel called “Monetizing the Tomb.”
Meetings at Momentum do not begin with, “How’s business?” They begin from a place of mission. The room is filled with hopeful, inspired people. They do not need yet another breakout session about authentic storytelling.
Momentum feels different because Christian radio is not gathering around its decline. In fact, it is thriving. As of last month, Christian radio became the most popular format by total station count in America.
Not Asking You to Convert
Mainstream radio does not need to become Christian radio. That is not my argument.
But it may need to borrow a little faith.
Faith that talent is worth developing.
Faith that radio can still be more than a delivery system for contesting and commercials. More than playing songs everybody already heard on TikTok and pretending discovery is happening.
The DJ With Every Name
Especially when the person calling it new music is a host named DJ Kidd Shotgun T-Bone Big Daddy Bubba Broadway Ace Hollywood Seabreeze. That host is telling listeners to lock it in and rip the knob off like the knob has not been gone since 2008.
The industry has spent years asking for more: more ratings, more revenue, and more resources.
The first move is not receiving more.
It is becoming something people want to believe in again.
That was the foundation of my message on stage: the better we are perceived, the more we can achieve, and the more we will receive.
For an industry searching for resurrection, it might be worth paying attention to the people who still believe in 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.
Spring and Fall are the seasons that get the attention: research, tactical funding, the most pressure. But Summer is the season that can truly separate the best from the rest. It can expose who’s built a brand, who’s building a brand… or who’s in coast-mode.
Many brands treat Summer like a three-month permission slip to relax and take the foot off the gas. “Ratings don’t matter as much.” “Everyone’s distracted.” “We’ll get serious again in September.” But while that mentality may be understandable, it’s more dangerous now than ever.
Memorial Day hits and listener lives explode into chaos — vacations, camps, beaches, new routines, different commutes, new habits. And when one habit breaks, it’s often replaced by another.
Summer is the Most Dangerous Season in Radio
Summer brings distractions, but also opportunity. And it’s a battleground. Hollywood learned this long ago. A studio’s year can be made or broken between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Brands like Coke, Red Bull, and Taco Bell don’t relax in Summer — it’s when they flex. Even inside RockTernative circles, Summer is festival season. It’s when artists are the most present and aggressive. While it may be harder to stand out, the brands and bands that stay loud all Summer stand a better chance to carry momentum and win in the Fall when the stakes are higher.
RockTernative should think the same way. Summer is both an opportunity and threat. Brands can touch new cume or further grow loyalty amongst loyalists. But Summer is also when a brand can lose the most listeners. There’s zero guarantee they’ll come back once the Labor Day hangover is gone. Especially now, when every listener has a thousand alternatives in their pocket.
One Boat Trip Away From Losing a Listener Forever
This isn’t paranoia. Every radio show or brand is one Lake Powell boat trip away from being replaced by whatever a friend puts on Bluetooth. If it’s your show or brand coming out of the speakers, you may have just stolen a new listener for life.
This doesn’t mean programming to P1 jet skiers. It means sharpening the Summer mindset. Because floating in neutral may not get you back to the boat.
Even if you’re taking vacation days or the GM calls for Summer Fridays, it doesn’t mean the audience is. They’re living harder and making new choices every day. Let competitors go away to sleepover camp — your brand can be the one that refuses to disappear.
Here’s how: Be Everywhere
Sounds cliché, I know. Some brands don’t even have street teams anymore. But in 2026, “being everywhere” matters more than it did in 1996. Be at every concert, even the fringe ones. Be at the beaches, lakes, parks, fairs, parades, downtown block parties, city BBQs. Show up with purpose. Give people a reason to listen to your brand instead of Spotify, Shawn Ryan or “Call Me Daddy.”
Cume will be erratic. That can be a good thing — the perfect time to experiment. New show characters or benchmarks, specialty shows, clocks or music burns. Give that local influencer a shot. Try things you’ve been scared to try. Summer is the lowest-risk, high-reward season for reinvention or evolution. It reminds the audience your brand is alive and awake… not off surfing waves in Hawaii.
Sound Like Summer
Make your brand sound and feel like the season listeners are living. Content and promotions that scream Summer. Imaging that reflects the mood. Flash mobs. Pop-ups. Daily deals. Listener challenges. I love what KROQ did last summer — they moved the morning show to “Summer Hours,” keeping it on until 11a. Making your brand sound like Summer isn’t a stunt. It’s being in tune and connected — and that’s how to win new cume and grow loyalty that lasts into the Fall.
And that’s the real point here.
Summer may be a break for some, but that mindset is dangerous. Summer is when a brand can easily lose listeners and never get them back… or they can attract new listeners and keep them for years.
That’s why Summer separates the best from the rest.
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.
Every radio programmer in every city across the country will tell you their market is different than all the others. But few can prove it like Todd Nuke’Em. And they are, to a degree, because every city has unique histories and local quirks. But some places, like Salt Lake City — home of Broadway Media Alternative KXRX (X96) and Program Director Todd Noker, known to listeners as Todd Nuke’Em — truly stand apart.
Being the home of the Mormon Church has an outsized impact on the values of the market, giving it a highly conservative undercurrent. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t big city liberal influences as well. “It’s a different sort of culture,” Todd explains. “You have conservatives, but Salt Lake City proper is quite liberal and even in Salt Lake County you start to see things branch out.”
That’s the background where Todd has been involved with programming Alternative music since his career. He started in the late ’80s at KJQ-FM. According to Todd, the station “collapsed” in 1990, but by February of 1992 he, along with the morning show and other staffers, launched X96. Since that time, he has risen through the ranks to Program Director, a title he’s held since 2003. “That’s 23 years, wow! What have I done with my life?” he jokes.
The Music Guy
While he manages the highly successful morning show Radio from Hell. Which still features the people who came from KJQ, he also charts the musical course of X96. “In many ways I’m the music guy and even more so the historical music guy because I was there when Nirvana was a baby band,” says Todd.
He’s putting that knowledge to good use as X96. Along with a couple of other stations like 91X in San Diego and 99X in Atlanta, recently started featuring more first wave, pre-1991 Alternative product in the music mix.
“We started to see what was happening on Spotify and Tik Tok with younger people discovering that music again. And we realized era doesn’t matter to listeners,” Todd explains. “If it was a huge hit then, it’s a huge hit now.”
Reclaiming What Alternative Radio Left Behind
Bands like The Police, Tears for Fears, and The Talking Heads have come back onto the radio station, breaking the typical Alternative radio narrative. That narrative separates music into before and after Nirvana, with the earlier product being all but ignored by the format. This is something Todd disagrees with.
“It’s all alternative. Who cares if it’s from 1989? We just ignore that self-imposed stigma at the format of how we just can’t play anything that’s from 1990 or before,” he says. “You should not let the Classic Rock station steal U2 from you. That’s your band.”
He also adds that he isn’t talking about just a token song once an hour. The station tries to do something memorable at least once each quarter-hour. “Nobody remembers the station that only plays the top-researching songs. They remember when you break the rules. That’s what sticks with people,” explains Todd. “Yes, you still have to play the hits 80 to 90% of the time, but you’ve also got to break the rules sometimes and make a moment.”
Sometimes the Unexpected Is the Point
Part of the strategy for being memorable includes taking a lesson from Adult Hits stations. Much like how those formats purposely put songs next to each other that might not fit together. Todd isn’t afraid to play disparate songs back-to-back. “I think we as programmers can get sort of bogged down with which two songs shouldn’t play next to each other. But as the Jack FMs and the Bob FMs have shown us, sometimes those train wrecks are delightful.”
To be clear, by no means has the station abdicated playing new music. But like with the gold songs, X96 isn’t necessarily following the rest of the format’s lead when it comes to currents. Todd sees a lot of tracks being labeled Alternative that he feels are pop tracks being pushed to the format for market share. “You have to be careful when you start looking at streaming numbers to determine your playlist,” Todd says. “I’ve seen what my eleven-year-old niece does on Spotify and if you start programming your station based on that you’re going to be in trouble.”
Modest Mouse to Sleep Token — Old and New Can Coexist
While he has played pop-crossover tracks like Sombr’s “Back to Friends” and Hozier’s “Too Sweet,” he is also embracing the large number of new releases from legacy acts like Modest Mouse, Muse, Evanescence, and Sublime. Todd is also seeing success with some acts that come from the Active Rock side of the spectrum. Artists like Bad Omens and Sleep Token have been successful for the station. “I think those acts vibe really well on a station that plays Linkin Park.”
But he stresses that this approach might not work for everyone. Between his experience in the market and station research, the music on X96 is dialed in to fit Salt Lake City, where there has been at least one if not a couple of Alternative stations on the air since the 1980s. “I would emphasize that our approach works because we are locally programmed. We don’t care if this recipe works anywhere other than Salt Lake City, that’s where our meters are.”
In fact, when it comes to X96 programming, being locally focused goes far beyond the music. “We work hard to throw our arms around Utah, and I think listeners feel that,” says Todd. He believes committing to localism is the only real hope for radio’s future. “Being local is the only way radio survives. If it all gets homogenized into the same playlist on 50 stations with some overworked voice tracker, it dies.”
A big part of that local approach is having a morning show that’s celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. Radio From Hell is led by Bill Allred, Kerry Jackson, and Gina Barberi, who have built a large, devoted following and are not showing any signs of slowing down.
Unscripted, Unfiltered, and Unmistakably Local
The show is liberal and is not at all afraid to discuss politics. According to Todd, what really makes the mornings special are the segments spent discussing their lives, which, of course, take place in Salt Lake. “It’s like an episode of a local reality TV show. They have these discussions that aren’t planned about life that are the golden moments of the show. That’s where their natural talent for comedy and the chemistry of being together for forty years shines through.”
Another factor that allows X96 to stay intensely local is the freedom that comes with Broadway Media’s ownership rather than being part of a large radio conglomerate. Todd sees that independence as a major advantage. “They can’t be local. They’re centralized, homogenized, and automated. You can beat them by being deeply local.”
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.
What is a podcast in 2026? Is it an on-demand audio file recorded from earlier live broadcast content? Could it be defined as on-demand audio taped and edited for distribution? Is a podcast audio? Video? Or a combination of the two? Can it be downloadable or only streamed? There are so many factors tied to a singular question that doesn’t have a straightforward answer.
That’s why I had to chuckle a bit when I read there’s currently a “secret taskforce” made up of twelve podcasting leaders discussing this very question since July of last year. People who work for Spotify, SiriusXM, YouTube, among others, are meeting to figure out exactly what distribution platforms can agree on when it comes to answering the question: What is a podcast in 2026?
We here at Barrett Media had the same issue. When compiling our Barrett Media rankings nominees late last year, we debated what defines a podcast. Does a program, show, or podcast such as The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny belong in the same rankings as The Pat McAfee Show or First Take? We knew many of the shows we placed on the list had a digital-first approach with little to no additional distribution compared to others.
It’s not just a dilemma we faced at Barrett Media. It’s also a controversy in other parts of the sports media landscape. Advertisers allocate budgets for different types of advertising in the digital space, and they require specialized attribution that’s more uniform across platforms.
It’s no different than if my local body shop placed ad dollars with a radio station but received four different types of attribution data: one for over-the-air radio and others for on-demand audio, streaming video, and social media.
Advertisers need clarity, and a lot of advertising dollars are on the line.
Is This Worth The Time?
Hence why I chuckled when I read the report that this “secret taskforce” has debated this issue for almost a year, yet still hasn’t produced an official answer.
Keep in mind, the term podcast is rooted in Apple’s signature “pod” era of the early 2000s. Without personally knowing whether there’s Apple representation in the “secret taskforce,” one has to wonder: if there is, could some politicking over a potential brand change be taking place?
Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall in that room?
The singular hurdle all these companies need to overcome is how to measure success and attribution on their individual platforms. Data is the currency that drives advertising dollars. The more data points, the better. Even more valuable is a clear picture of attribution tied to point of sale, which is huge for securing additional advertising dollars.
Each of these companies invested in dynamic analytics tailored to fit its own business model. On the surface, one company’s metrics don’t match what another company is selling. As a result, advertisers have budgets available but often hesitate to spend because of confusion over which budget bucket the content belongs in. Is it video or audio? Is it creator content or something else entirely?
According to a survey from podcast advertising agency Oxford Road, 76% of brands said they’d increase their podcast ad buys if YouTube attribution were standardized with audio. The on-demand audio space already has its formula. The issue is video never asked for the cliff notes, nor should it have to.
Video metrics are different from audio metrics. Downloads are different from watch time. Time spent listening is different from average percentage viewed.
Advertisers are demanding action. Why? Because a potential additional $1 billion in ad spend is on the line.
Getting Answers Soon?
The best part of the story I read, however, was the following: (via The Hollywood Reporter)
“The chosen definition and metrics are to be determined by a vote of members, who’ve met at least monthly since the group’s inception. But because there were competing interests at play within the task force, as well as proprietary information and advantages companies may want to retain, Oxford Road CEO Dan Granger noted that members who disagree are also allowed to attach a dissent. Proposing standardized metrics and a definition also doesn’t mean it will automatically be adopted across the industry or even by every company in the taskforce.”
So, let me get this straight.
Advertisers are demanding clarity and uniformity from distribution platforms.
Those distribution platforms formed a “secret taskforce” to address those demands.
The “secret taskforce” can propose clarity and uniformity but can also offer dissent, preventing a sweeping ruling on the matter.
Then you’re telling me the proposed metrics and definition of podcasting still might not be adopted universally?
What’s the point of this “secret taskforce” then?
Maybe that’s the real answer to the question of what a podcast is in 2026. A podcast is whatever each platform needs it to be at that particular moment. Audio companies want audio metrics. Video platforms want video metrics. Creators want the widest possible reach. Advertisers want one clean and simple explanation for where their money is going.
Yet every company involved also wants to protect the proprietary data and business advantages they’ve spent years building.
That’s why this “secret taskforce” feels less like a solution and more like a group project where nobody wants to share their notes. Everyone agrees the industry needs clarity, but nobody wants to surrender control of the scoreboard.
So while the “secret taskforce” debates definitions, dissent clauses, and standardized measurements, the rest of the industry keeps moving anyway. Audiences aren’t sitting around wondering whether they’re consuming a podcast, a video show, a digital broadcast, or creator content.
They’re just hitting play.
Ironically, consumers already solved the problem. It’s the companies making money off them that still can’t decide what to call 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.
There’s a version of this story where a Seattle-area radio host stays in Seattle. Jason Rantz isn’t living that version. The Seattle Red 770 host has quietly built one of the more remarkable cable news footprints in local radio, logging more than 1,000 appearances on Fox News since 2019 and showing up regularly on CNN, NewsNation, and Fox Business.
He doesn’t treat the television circuit as a distraction from his day job. Instead, he treats it as an extension of it — and the numbers bear that out.
The hustle isn’t incidental. Rantz actively courts the chaos that comes with constant travel, rapid-fire topic changes, and stepping into debates with people he’s never met hours before airtime. Yet, he says none of it feels like a grind.
“It’s always fun,” said Rantz. “It’s busy, there’s no doubt. But I don’t normally view it as busy work, if that makes sense. I enjoy doing the TV debates. I enjoy travel. And I enjoy talking about issues that I actually care about. So I get a lot of excitement out of it.”
Built for the Format
Not everyone thrives under the conditions cable news imposes. Panels move fast. Hosts change topics mid-thought. Bookers hand you a subject two hours before you go live. Rantz doesn’t just survive those conditions — he’s built for them. Growing up in Los Angeles and now planting his flag in one of the country’s most liberal cities has, paradoxically, prepared him well.
“I’ve never really felt uncomfortable in that situation,” Rantz stated. “I think that’s mostly because I grew up in Los Angeles and now live in Seattle. I’m surrounded by people who disagree with me on pretty much everything, so I’m always in that same position where I have to defend a view I hold. You’re either naturally comfortable or you’re not. And I’m lucky that I’m naturally comfortable in those positions. I’m open to it. Not everyone has the personality that wants to defend their positions, and it’s certainly easier to monologue than it is to debate, but I enjoy it. I legitimately enjoy talking to people I disagree with.”
That comfort translates directly into how he navigates multi-guest panels, where time is scarce and discipline matters. He’s learned to let the host run the show — something he says isn’t always easy for people who are used to controlling their own airspace.
“On the TV side specifically, if I’m on a panel and not leading a segment, I don’t control the interview, nor do I try to control it,” the Seattle Red 770 host shared. “I want the host to control it the same way I would want to control the conversation if I were the host. So I go with the flow. I don’t make up positions. If I don’t have a strong position, you’re not going to hear me fight passionately on behalf of something. But as someone in talk radio, I usually have a position on everything and a lot to say about everything.”
More Than a Media Hit
There’s a business case behind every cable hit, and Rantz makes no effort to hide it. Each appearance on CNN, Fox News, or NewsNation reaches audiences who’ve never heard of Seattle Red 770 — audiences he can convert into podcast subscribers and readers of Seattlered.com, his Pacific Northwest news outlet launched last year.
“You get in front of people who either haven’t heard the perspective or have no idea who you are,” Rantz said. “My show is local to Western Washington, but it’s available on podcast platforms, and we talk a lot about issues that matter to national audiences. It continues to grow, presumably because I’m doing these kinds of appearances. Someone finds out who I am in Texas or Oklahoma or New York and becomes a podcast subscriber. Beyond that, I do a lot of work in the digital space. We launched Seattlered.com last year, and that covers more than just Seattle — it covers the Pacific Northwest. There’s certainly value in getting in front of national audiences who don’t even realize I have a radio show.”
Then comes the feedback loop. A Fox News hit on Tuesday becomes content fuel for Wednesday’s radio show. The two platforms don’t compete with each other — they feed each other.
“When you host a solo show, you’re reacting a lot,” stated Rantz. “If I do a segment on CNN the night before or with Laura Ingraham on Fox News, which I just did yesterday, I can come onto the show the next day and talk more about some of those issues. Regardless of what show you do, there’s only so much time dedicated to a topic. You can expand and make points you weren’t able to make on television or build on points you already made.”
Rantz shows up on Fox and Fox Business two to three times weekly, CNN every other week, and does a regular slot on NewsNation’s Katie Pavlich Tonight. He credits his continued bookings to a simple approach: stay honest, argue in good faith, and don’t hog the mic.
“I think it has a lot to do with whether or not you’re approaching things in good faith,” Rantz said. “If you are honest in your takes, people can disagree with you, but there are basic sets of facts. If you’re going to make stuff up, I imagine people aren’t going to want to book you or hear you. I think there’s more respect for people who engage in fact-based opinions. You start with facts and analyze from there. As long as you’re able to do that, and the audience, bookers, producers, and hosts respond positively, they’ll ask you back.”
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When The Real Housewives of Rhode Island came to Providence, one radio station was already there waiting.
Seeing It Coming Before Anyone Else
Most local media outlets waited for Bravo to make it official. Bekah Berger didn’t.
The 92 PRO-FM morning show host and entertainment reporter started tracking the story in summer 2024, when a vague casting notice surfaced seeking Italian American women entrepreneurs in Rhode Island. No network. No franchise name. Just a whisper.
Berger brought listeners along for the ride anyway. Through her daily entertainment segment “Bekah’s World,” she tracked every rumor as it surfaced. “I took listeners on the same ride I was on,” she said. She covered it on social media, sparking conversations that were, by her own description, “always engaging and sometimes even a little divisive — if you can believe that.”
By the time Bravo formally announced Real Housewives of Rhode Island in May 2025, 92 PRO-FM had already built an audience that was primed and ready.
That kind of early investment is rare. It paid off.
Building Something Bigger: The Real Talk Rhody Podcast
When the official announcement dropped, station management didn’t just encourage more coverage. They pushed Berger to launch a dedicated podcast.
Real Talk Rhody was born. It airs weekly and focuses on RHORI episode recaps, cast interviews, and spotlights on local people connected to the show. Outside of the season, it pivots to covering Rhode Island and Southern New England more broadly.
Berger had wanted to launch a podcast for years. She’d considered a parenting-and-pop-culture concept — “Mom and Pop Culture,” she called it — but it never clicked. Then RHORI arrived and everything aligned. “As soon as it was officially announced and management and my family encouraged me, it really felt like it was all meant to be,” she said.
The podcast gives her room the morning show format doesn’t allow. Longer takes. More freedom with timing. Deeper conversations. Berger edits her own audio and pulls sound clips herself — skills that give Real Talk Rhody a tighter feel than many local podcast efforts. “I’ve always asked the question: what is a podcast anyway? Isn’t it just a long form radio show?” she said. “I believe it is.”
This wasn’t a solo operation. 92 PRO-FM went all in as a team.
Afternoon host Jess Schiano used her existing relationship with Twin Oaks — the iconic Rhode Island restaurant — to lock in a premiere party venue. Personalities Barbi Jo DiMaria and Kim Zandy contributed their own connections and presence. The promotions team handled logistics before and during the event.
Berger is generous in crediting her colleagues. “Really all of the 92 PRO-FM personalities embraced the coverage,” she said. When a local story this big lands in your backyard, that kind of unified response matters.
The Twin Oaks Premiere Party
The event itself delivered something money can’t manufacture: authenticity.
The station hosted a season one premiere party at Twin Oaks, a restaurant woven into Rhode Island’s cultural fabric. They kept one detail quiet — some of the cast would actually be there. Jo Ellen, Kelsey, and Liz showed up despite a packed evening of obligations. “We never actually announced that some of the housewives would be in attendance,” Berger said. “The fact that they took the time to come to our event meant a lot to us, Twin Oaks, and the listeners.”
What unfolded was, as Berger described it, “wonderfully meta.” Listeners watched the housewives watch themselves on screen. The room held fans, cast members, and local pride all at once. “I want to replay that moment over and over,” she said. “It embodied what Rhode Island should be about — local connections and support for one another.”
Not every Rhode Islander is a Bravo fan. Berger knows this and doesn’t pretend otherwise.
“I’m very well aware that not everyone lives in a Bravo bubble like I sometimes tend to,” she said. She balances RHORI coverage with everything else her audience expects. She’s watched skeptical listeners gradually come around, and she respects those who haven’t. “I also know Rhode Islanders love hearing about fellow Rhode Islanders doing major things. That’s why Real Talk Rhody has been such a safe space for me — and a great option for those who want more coverage on RHORI.”
That balance is part of why the coverage lands. She’s a credible entertainment reporter first. The RHORI enthusiasm feels earned, not performed.
What’s Coming Next
The momentum isn’t slowing. Berger has a full guest lineup ready for Real Talk Rhody, including more cast interviews. On June 20th, she’s hosting a live Q&A panel at Bally’s Casino in RI featuring cast members Jo Ellen, Liz, Alicia, and Kelsey in a Watch What Happens Live-style format.
On Real Talk Rhody, Berger has already had strong conversations with the new “Bravo-lebrities” Liz McGraw, Alicia Carmody, and Rosie Woods DiMare. “They didn’t skip a beat,” she said. “They’re fun and funny and genuinely themselves.”
As for whether Berger herself might appear in a future season? She deflected with the self-deprecating humor that makes her good at her job. “I shop very often at the Dollar Store. I currently have two loads of laundry to fold. Trust me — they don’t want me.”
Rhode Island does, though. And 92 PRO-FM made sure to show up for it.
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Nobody asked for a rulebook on what counts as a podcast, and yet, here we are. Oxford Road, a podcast advertising agency, has assembled a 12-member task force featuring representatives from Spotify, SiriusXM, YouTube, Libsyn, and Podscribe to do exactly that — define what a podcast actually is. It’s a noble goal. It’s also, almost certainly, a futile one.
To be fair, the impulse makes sense. Advertisers have poured serious money into the podcast space, and they’d like to know exactly what they’re buying. Publishers want credit for every listen. Platforms want to protect their turf. Everyone has a stake in how the word “podcast” gets used. But wanting a clean definition and getting one are two very different things.
The medium has always resisted easy categorization. Podcasting grew up outside the system — no FCC license required, no Nielsen ratings to chase, no program director standing between a creator and their audience. That renegade spirit isn’t just lore. It’s baked into the DNA of the format.
The Definition Problem
So what happens when Oxford Road’s taskforce actually delivers a definition? The most likely outcome is something broad enough to include on-demand audio and video — which, functionally, describes nearly everything that doesn’t air on terrestrial radio or TV. That’s not a definition so much as it’s a description of the modern media landscape.
YouTubers will bristle at being lumped in with traditional podcast publishers. Traditional podcast publishers will bristle at being compared to YouTubers. And advertisers — who drove the entire demand for clarity in the first place — will likely find themselves no better equipped to make buying decisions than they were before the taskforce convened.
The tension here isn’t just semantic. It’s structural. Video podcasts, audiograms, serialized radio content dropped into an RSS feed, live-streamed recordings edited for on-demand release — these formats all exist on a spectrum, and drawing hard lines means leaving someone out. Someone with lawyers, lobbyists, or at minimum, a very loud social media presence.
Will Anyone Actually Follow It?
Even if the taskforce lands on a workable framework, adoption is far from guaranteed. Podcasting’s history is littered with industry attempts at standardization that never quite stuck — measurement standards, download definitions, attribution models. Progress has happened incrementally, but rarely because someone issued a decree.
The creators who built this medium from scratch didn’t wait for permission, and they’re not likely to reshape their identity around a definition they didn’t author. Advertisers, meanwhile, will keep buying what performs — definition or not. The market has its own logic, and trade definitions tend to matter most to people inside the trade bubble.
That doesn’t mean the exercise is worthless. Getting Spotify, SiriusXM, YouTube, and Libsyn in the same room — or at least the same taskforce — is genuinely significant. If the group can establish even a baseline vocabulary that advertisers and publishers use consistently, that’s a real win. But the bar should probably be set there, not at some sweeping redefinition of what counts as a podcast.
The industry needs this conversation. It just shouldn’t expect a resolution that makes everyone happy. Some definitions don’t resolve debates. They only move them to a different conference room.
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I got good news and bad news for you. The good news? Most Americans know what it takes to be a good consumer of news. The bad news? The news is irrelevant. And perhaps social media is to blame.
Almost halfway through the year, we’ve seen multiple outlets hand out layoffs. And last week, we held a funeral service for CBS News Radio. While 47% of Americans believe it’s important for people to regularly get news, the other half of the country says they get news “mostly because they happen to come across it.”
Read that again. Half the country, a large majority of whom are young adults, gets news “mostly because they happen to come across it.” This spells disaster for our future unless we act.
This data comes from Pew Research’s latest “short read.” Quietly, this month, the outlet released “What Americans Think It Takes to Be a Good News Consumer.”
The Good News
The great news is that people know what it takes not to become a brainwashed partisan consumer.
Pew reports 20% of those polled believe “being discerning or skeptical” is part of being a good consumer of news. They added, “Another common description of a good news consumer is someone who remains informed.
The 17% of responses that included this idea said things like “Follow the news on a daily basis” and “Try to stay informed on current events.”
Other key phrases people put forth as hallmarks of a good news consumer include “find reputable outlets” and getting news from “a variety of sources.”
The Bad News
The “short read” opened up like the 1984 version of Apple Writer II and can be easily overlooked. In part because it doesn’t have the visuals we’ve become accustomed to. But also because it isn’t one of Pew’s top three data points when you visit their media page. It didn’t hit the home page; to be honest, it’s a little buried.
The report comes as a follow-up to February’s data dump about America’s relationship with the news. The media as a whole can’t survive if people are flippantly coming across their latest and greatest report amid doomscrolling. Literally, if you play craps, roulette, or blackjack, you’d have higher odds of winning than of popping up in someone’s compulsive scrolling.
So for us, as curators of the news, our goal shouldn’t be to make the most explosive news — even though that’s seemed like the go-to approach since Buckley vs. Vidal in 1968. Instead, we should Make America Care Again.
The MACA Plan
Why should we make America care again? Because as mysterious as Meta, Google, and any other tech company is about their algorithms, it all comes down to a very simple, stupid science: overstimulate the brain with dopamine to keep you coming back for more. That’s it.
I don’t care what any tech nerd has to say about algorithm technicalities. Social media — where most people are getting their news — is designed like a slot machine. Don’t like what you see on your Twitter feed? Pull down, and it’ll populate more stuff you care about.
And there’s that word again: care. The internet knows what our audience — or potential audience — cares about. The algorithm nerds won’t be changing anything in our favor. So unless something on our end changes, there will come a day when people won’t “happen to come across” news anymore.
This is why you need to meet people where they are with the news.
Meet People Where They Are
Here’s a prime example. In April, New York State lawmakers passed a law banning potassium bromate, red dye number 3, and propylparaben. So what did every single news outlet do? They went and talked to restaurant owners. The story became about how this will affect a small business’s bottom line — and, of course, the world’s best pizza and bagels.
Not a single outlet in the number one market went and talked to regular people about the change. This is one of the most obstinate failures to meet people where they are.
All you had to do was turn to any customer in that restaurant and ask, “Do you think this legislation will affect your daily bagel and smear?”
There are more than seven local TV stations in various languages, plus multiple radio news and digital and print outlets in that market. How not one news director, managing editor, reporter, or photographer thought to ask a customer whether they were concerned about the taste of their food is beyond me. You failed to make the audience care.
Instead, reporters filed a report and hoped that with the right SEO phrases and algorithm tricks, it would magically appear in every New Yorker’s news feed. Well, it didn’t. You made it about the business, not the customers who keep the business alive. You didn’t give regular people a reason to care.
Sure, lots of people will care about lots of different things. But the one thing everyone in this world cares about is the impact anything — legislation or otherwise — will have on their life.
The best example I can give you is this: as a mom, I care about the food legislation because my born-and-bred New York kids won’t taste red dye #3 on their Sunday morning rainbow bagel with strawberry cream cheese.
When they say, “Mommy, this tastes different — I don’t like it, can I have something else?” and I have to buy a whole other breakfast because red dye #3 was replaced with beet root powder and the potassium bromate is gone, that’s when I’ll start to care. Sure, I’ll be happy it’s healthier, but at the end of the day, this change is going to affect my bottom line, and that’s why I care.
So yes, you can make people care about the news. You just need to think outside the box and get the audience involved. It’s not about you, and it’s not about whatever local business you’re interviewing. It’s about the community in which that business is built.
People “happen to come across news” when it affects their community. That’s when people will care. Just one extra question can expand your reach tenfold.
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.
