Fox News debuted The Will Cain Show in the 4 PM ET timeslot on Tuesday, and the program set records in its inaugural episode.
Cain replaced Neil Cavuto in the daily lineup at Fox News after Cavuto departed the network late last year after 28 years.
In his first program as a member of the weekday lineup at Fox News, The Will Cain Show featured an audience of 3.5 million total viewers, setting a cable news record for a debut program.
Additionally, the Tuesday show was the second-highest-rated Fox News broadcast in the 4 PM ET window since 2021. It was up 106% in total viewers and 128% in the coveted demographic compared to the 2024 average for the timeslot.
“I’m incredibly humbled and grateful to get such a warm welcome from the audience,” Cain told Barrett Media of his first-week ratings performance. “This show is going to grow exponentially over time in every way.”
Included in the 3.5 million viewers were 451,000 viewers in the Adults 25-54 demographic for Cain’s first program. 73% of all cable news viewers in the key demographic were tuned into the show helmed by Cain during the first program, while the new Fox News show commanded 68% of the cable news share in the window.
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The Bobby Bones Show has signed Eddie Garcia and Ray to contract extensions, keeping them with the show. The details of the new deal were not released.
Bones said, “They’re here for years and years. Because they both almost left, if I’m being honest. And we don’t want them to have to leave. It was a stressful period for everyone, including me.”
In revealing the new deals, Bones teased both the listeners and his other team members with everything from a new comedy show, shooting down drones over his house, and a winning scratch-off ticket.
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The U.S. Department of Justice submitted an amicus brief to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals last week arguing in favor of plaintiffs who sued the NFL in a class-action lawsuit surrounding the legality of NFL Sunday Ticket. Ahead of kickoff of the NFL season last year, a jury in Los Angeles awarded customers $4.7 billion in the antitrust case surrounding the out-of-market broadcasting package, which has been in operation since 1994. The lawsuit asserted that the league had inflated the price of NFL Sunday Ticket by offering the package exclusively through DirecTV, and the jury subsequently found the league liable. Yet the federal judge presiding on the case overturned the verdict, citing incorrect methodologies and unfounded claims.
“The United States urges this Court to vacate the judgment and remand for further proceedings,” the argument reads. “In dismissing Plaintiffs’ claims for injunctive relief, the district court apparently relied on an evidentiary failure regarding expert testimony that, in its view, doomed Plaintiffs’ damages claims. But even assuming the court did not abuse its discretion in excluding Plaintiffs’ expert testimony, different standards apply for damages and injunctive claims: a plaintiff seeking damages must show an actual injury, while a plaintiff seeking an injunction must show only a threatened loss.”
The amicus brief does not assert an opinion on whether or not the judge was correct to overturn the verdict; however, it does assert the troubling nature of granting a Daubert motion within the trial. This legal request excludes testimony from experts or science-based evidence from a trial, something the document refers to as a “usurpation of the jury.” At the same time, the brief articulates the qualitative evidence utilized to establish “a rule-of-reason violation” was not seriously considered to ground “findings of actual injury and damages.” The league continues to offer NFL Sunday Ticket, albeit through YouTube for the last two seasons under a seven-year deal reportedly worth a total of $14 billion.
“When the NFL removed Sunday Ticket from DirecTV, it looked for a provider that would maintain Sunday Ticket’s high price,” the brief reads. “During negotiations with Apple, the NFL internally discussed ‘a suggested retail price model that would provide incentive for them to keep the price high.’ The NFL rejected a bid for Sunday Ticket from ESPN, because of ‘the low NFL Sunday Ticket price points they wanted to offer, $70 a season, and offering to sell on a team-by-team product,’ which were ‘not going to be complementary to Sunday afternoon.’ The NFL settled on YouTube, which charges $349 per year to YouTube TV subscribers and $449 to non-subscribers.”
The government agency stated, “The NFL’s illegal actions are continuing,” and urged the court to “vacate the district court’s judgment” and bring the case back to the district court to consider evidence of threatened loss for the Plaintiffs. Moreover, it contends that millions of fans are facing a choice to either watch the local games or pay for Sunday Ticket bundle that is says charges “‘premium’ prices.”
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Upon Warner Bros. Discovery choosing to exit the regional sports network business, the Pittsburgh Penguins organization found a new television home through a joint venture with Fenway Sports Group. Commensurate with the creation of SportsNet Pittsburgh, which is operated by New England Sports Network, the franchise introduced new members of the Penguins television broadcast team that have worked to provide stellar coverage of a team with a storied tradition of winning and simultaneously ushering in a new generation. This phenomenon extends to the broadcast team as Josh Getzoff works his second season as the television voice of Penguins hockey, through which he has called signature moments and accomplishments.
Getzoff was assigned to the role as part of a two-step transaction that involved Steve Mears moving from television to radio. Even though he found the situation with Mears to be difficult, he was ecstatic to receive the opportunity to fulfill his dream of calling games on a visual medium. Getzoff had refined his craft on the airwaves for the previous eight seasons working in commentary and hosting roles. Over his decade with the team, he has developed an inclination for the city and considers it a privilege to call PPG Paints Arena his workplace. Before every game, he reminds himself that he occupies a “get-to job” and does not take his assignments for granted.
“It was an emotional time [with] excitement when I got that call, and the one thing I’ve always promised myself is the one thing I can control in this role is just standing tall enough to fill my own shoes,” Getzoff said. “Not being anybody else, but at the same time, every game is an opportunity.”
In the preceding seasons, Getzoff had called select Penguins games on radio as Mike Lange was nearing the end of his career. Widely regarded as a legendary figure in the business, Lange provided constructive criticism and feedback to Getzoff from the beginning and took him under his wing. Getzoff is forever grateful for his mentorship and inculcation, and they still maintain regular communication despite no longer working together. Moreover, he has been able to leverage relationships within the sport to facilitate the switch from radio to television broadcasts.
“This sport is the best because the people who work in it are the best, and they’re gracious with their time and gave me advice and thoughts that they did when they made transitions because essentially, everybody at some point was on the radio before they got to television,” Getzoff said, “so it was interesting just to kind of pick guys’ brains around the league and learn a little bit more.”
Although both platforms contain elements of informing and entertaining the audience, there are inherent differences between radio and television. Getzoff observes that the radio broadcast resembles more of a play-by-play call, whereas telecasts are full-fledged productions containing graphics, replays and other visual elements. As a result, there are instances where he does not need to describe the exact location of a skater or synthesize complex quantitative metrics; rather, he can let the picture disseminate these tidings and keep his discourse concise.
“You have to find a way to find that middle ground of excitement while selling the moment with the rise and drop in your voice, the emotion in your voice with less words,” Getzoff said. “I think out of the gate, that was something that I knew was going to be an adjustment – I wasn’t blind to that fact – and it was, but I think as the year went on last [season], I started to find ways to find a comfort zone within that.”
While Getzoff was familiar with hockey when he began broadcasting, he worked to learn about different intricacies from the vantage point of a media member, including viewing morning skates, recording line rushes and parsing game notes. On a typical gameday, he will attend the early session and have conversations with personnel before taking part in several additional hours of preparation. From there, he arrives at the arena to rehearse for the broadcast and has didactic boards brimming with self-updated statistics, storylines and miscellaneous intangibles.
“I’ve always been a believer that the only thing you can control is your preparation,” Getzoff said. “You and I have the same idea of what’s going to happen and [the] same knowledge of what’s going to happen once the puck drops. Anything could happen, but I can out-prepare you, and I can be ready to go for any kind of statistic or any kind of thought that potentially would come across over the course of a game, and that’s something I set out to do.”
Getzoff looks to emit his passion for hockey within all of his calls ranging from authentic excitement to earnest disappointment in the action. The Penguins achieved a scintillating start to the regular season, but the team has struggled of late and sits near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. Getzoff acknowledges the importance of being honest with the fans and recognizing the transitional period that took place after the team won three Stanley Cup championships in an eight-year span. Safeguarding against pantomiming his affectations, he is conveying his genuine self to the listeners and illustrating an energetic disposition.
“I talk to people the same way, for the most part, off the air that I do on the air,” Getzoff said. “I realize that I’m a little quirky and I can be a little goofy at times, maybe even a little bit weird at times, but I would say that most people in the media world are a little bit weird if you get to know them.”
Despite being embedded in local news coverage and enjoying his responsibilities, Getzoff always retained a desire to call hockey games but realized the limited number of jobs connected to the NHL. While working on news stations in local markets, he would reach out to teams to see if they needed anything and also practiced by simulating a broadcast with a tape recorder. Getzoff would then take these recordings, add ambient sound and create mock demo reels of his announcing to distribute.
“It was always something in the back of my mind, [but] I don’t want to say a pipe dream because I felt like if I was given an opportunity, I could really start to grow in it, but there’s just so few chances to get those opportunities that I never was sure how it would come about,” Getzoff said. “So I kept positive, I kept hoping, but I didn’t know where or when it would come, and I’m glad it came in Pittsburgh.”
During his time on television, Getzoff has worked with a rotation of analysts with playing experience that includes Phil Bourque, Colby Armstrong and Mike Rupp. Having familiarity within these different commentary arrangements, he knows their characteristics and is able to accentuate their respective strengths. This allows the game broadcast to assume various timbres that align with numerous situations, the ability to expound on distinctive experience and hearing a variety of firsthand narratives.
“As you go on in your career, nothing is ever set in stone as far as what the situation is going to be year to year, so I’m just grateful to be in there, and I’ve enjoyed getting to know these guys more, getting dinners with them on the road, hanging out with them, spending more time one on one and just building chemistry,” Getzoff said. “It’s been fun, the last year and a half.”
Broadcasting hockey matchups over the 82-game season while traveling the country can be an exhausting task, but Getzoff has gradually surmised how to maintain energy and avoid sentiments of fatigue. As someone with a penchant for traveling, he likes to explore cities on the road but also evinces how the season resembles a marathon rather than a sprint. Even though the act of calling a game is usually stationary in nature, he does not surrender to languor and values a healthy lifestyle.
“We’re fortunate that a lot of these hotels we stay in have pretty nice gyms, so I’m always in the gym, I’m always trying to take care of my body and make sure that I’m in a good spot physically or as best as I possibly can be so that I can excel and just be mentally and physically prepared to perform every single night,” Getzoff said. “It’s different than an athlete obviously, but it’s similar in the sense of just the body maintenance and body care can go a long way.”
Working with SportsNet Pittsburgh and being a sports fan, Getzoff is cognizant of the advantages associated with local coverage. A burgeoning number of teams have either taken ownership in the broadcast entities and/or offered direct-to-consumer functionalities by which to access game presentations. Being able to implement Fenway Sports Group into this network is something Getzoff acknowledges as being helpful, along with hiring professionals mindful of the locale.
“I think it’s ultra-important from the local angle, and I hope that there can be a way where this is sustained and not just buoyed,” Getzoff said, “not just in Pittsburgh, [but] across all the markets that have sports teams in the U.S. because that connection to the fans is so important.”
As Getzoff continues to progress throughout his career, he would be interested in reviewing national broadcast openings so long as they do not interfere with the Penguins. The city has become his home, and he does not intend to be leaving any time soon. Getzoff holds the organization in high regard and is appreciative of the platform to which he has been entrusted, seeking to uphold the lofty standards instantiated heretofore while also putting his own stamp on the venerated pulpit.
“I feel such an attachment and such a desire to be a part of what the Penguins have and what they’ve continued to build and what they’re now building back up,” Getzoff said. “It’s a place that I’ve just really come to love and enjoy being a part of the community with, and hopefully this is something that I get the opportunity to really make a long standing point of my career at.”
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The historic nature of the non-consecutive terms is a fascinating storyline in itself, and that’s before even factoring in what President Trump went through legally — and physically — with multiple assassination attempts in recent months.
For the first time in 20 years, a Republican Presidential candidate won the popular vote, while Trump also had the largest electoral college victory for a Republican since 1988. There’s no doubt there’s plenty of enthusiasm for Trump, but it was a harder week for talk radio hosts than one might initially believe.
It’s easy to wave the pom-poms with your audience, which is going to lean right-of-center, but how long can the celebration go on from a listener’s perspective before it’s repetitive and boring? And for those listeners who voted, but aren’t die-hard MAGA, what are you giving them that makes them think differently? Informs them? Makes them laugh? How are you standing out when the cheerleaders are a dime a dozen on every platform imaginable?
And then, of course, the ultimate question for local shows: How are you localizing it?
When the job is to “play the hit”, as Cumulus SVP Bruce Gilbert noted in this video from a BSM Summit with Barrett Media’s Jason Barrett, and the hit is the most obvious story in the country, it might sound like a show where you can coast, but those shows are arguably harder.
That’s because a host needs to think of different, relatable angles to re-engage and recycle with the audience, while not coming off as repetitive and stale. And unless there was a huge local story (i.e. Wildfires in LA), there was only one topic to play off of earlier this week.
The next layer is what are the topics/angles that will have broad appeal on the air, and ideally appeal to your in-demo listener, who may be just as likely to listen to sports talk or a rock station. The P1 is going to be there this week, but broadening to the P2s and P3s is where the audience growth has a chance to explode in a week like this. What unique topics and angles can you hit on that appeals to a casual listener, who tunes in because it’s Inauguration week, hears an awesome and creative segment, and says to themselves, “I’m coming back to this station for more.”
Meantime, there’s the conversation about how to best localize this week. Many stations had shows and staff on the ground in Washington D.C., which is an awesome way to bring your audience behind the scenes of the inauguration. There are stations who did watch parties, traveled with listeners and were creative in other ways to engage their audiences during the monumental moment in American history.
While some argued Trump fatigue based on TV ratings from Nielsen, which showed a peak audience of 34.4 million viewers tuned in live on major TV networks, down from Joe Biden’s 40 million in 2021, that’s more a sign of the way we consume media. First off, 34 million viewers is still likely to be more than any event in this country this year, other than the Super Bowl, and maybe the AFC and NFC Championship Games this weekend.
Last year, the Oscars drew 19.9 million viewers, while the Grammys got 16.9 million. Earlier this month, under 10 million tuned into the Golden Globes.
Now, as the week progressed, the story of the inauguration faded by mid-week, and this allowed stations to revert back to heavy local news coverage, while sprinkling in the top national stories happening during the first week of the Trump administration.
But these weeks are basically auditions for new audiences. People are tuning in to hear you “play the hit”. I hope you took advantage in the most creative and fun way possible, and then you can get this new audience back for that next occasion and quarter hour.
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KYW Newsradio has been a staple in the Philadelphia community for decades. Six decades, in fact, as the outlet is celebrating its 60th anniversary in the all-news format in 2025.
To celebrate the anniversary, the Audacy Philadelphia station unveiled updated imaging and studio signage, with a new special logo created to prominently feature a diamond to commemorate the station’s longstanding all-news tradition.
“Local radio is vital more than ever, and it’s a privilege to work at a media outlet so connected to this region,” Audacy Philadelphia Senior Vice President and Market Manager David Yadgaroff said. “For generations, Philadelphians have turned to KYW for everything from breaking traffic updates to complex international headlines.
“When I walked in the door as an account executive in 1992, I was so excited to work at KYW Newsradio. That sense of pride has only grown and intensified,” he continued. “I’m in awe of our team and their impact on the community, and we’re excited to dedicate this year to those who have devoted their lives to reporting the facts.”
The station shared that it has delivered more than 3 million traffic and weather updates in its time in the genre, while also covering 15 Mayoral races in addition to two World Series and one Super Bowl parade since its shift in September 1965.
Originally airing on 1060 AM, KYW Newsradio added an FM simulcast at 103.9 in 2020.
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Cumulus Media Country KCSC, Dallas morning host Mark “Hawkeye” Louis is the winner of the 2025 Tom Rivers Humanitarian Award presented annually at the Country Radio Seminar.
The Tom Rivers Humanitarian Award is awarded to an individual who displays a magnanimous spirit of caring and generosity in service to his or her community.
This individual should be fully invested through hands-on action, demonstrating a personal commitment of time, talent, and resources to community causes.”
“Hawkeye’s charitable work has made a significant impact over the past two decades. His involvement with Cook Children’s Hospital began in 2002, and he has served as a camp counselor for the hospital’s Camp Sanguinity for cancer patients and as a board member from 2004 to 2006,” according to a CRS statement. “He led the launch of KSCS’s first radiothon in 2014, which, along with sister station KPLX, has raised nearly $4.5 million to date, including over $1 million in 2023 alone.”
In 2023, Hawkeye’s annual “10,000 For The Troops” collected 152,000 hand-made cards for active-duty troops. Pets For Vets raised $20,000 to train service dogs for disabled vets.
Additionally, in 2023, he sold his collection of 17,000 baseball cards for $10,000, which raised $10,000 for Cook Children’s Hospital.
The award will be presented at this year’s “New Faces Of Country Music Show” on February 21 at the Omni Nashville Hotel during the Country Radio Seminar.
Graphic: KCSC Website
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Will Compton and Taylor Lewan’s Bussin’ With the Boys podcast has a new home — FanDuel. According to Front Office Sports, the former longtime Barstool podcast agreed to a sponsorship deal with FanDuel and, while no official figures have been released, FOS reports that the deal was “lavish” by all accounts.
Whatever the dollar amount was, it was enough to pry Compton and Lewan from Barstool, a home where the guys wanted to stay but couldn’t turn down the money. The guys indicated during Bussin’ that they would’ve taken a 10 or 20 percent “hometown discount,” but that the offer Barstool CEO Dave Portnoy could realistically make wasn’t even within 40 percent of FanDuel’s number. It’s all love from the Bussin’ guys, though, as Lewan said, “We feel very lucky, and I feel very humbled to be a part of an experience at a company like Barstool for as long as we have been.”
Portnoy echoed these sentiments on last week’s The Unnamed Show, where he was happy for his departing stars and didn’t blame them for leaving. “I actually think it speaks to when we try to get new people, the people here are doing great, but look at the people who have left — they got monster deals,” Portnoy said. “The Barstool Effect works, it’s what we tell people when they come in, there’s no way I could ever begrudge them. I would take their deal too if I was in their shoes.”
According to FOS, Bussin’ will keep its IP and feed, meaning they won’t have to start over from scratch, a major win for the show. There’s been no official word as to when the FanDuel sponsorship will begin.
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Norah O’Donnell signed off from the CBS Evening News on Thursday evening, concluding a more than five and a half year run leading the legacy news brand.
O’Donnell announced her exit last year, noting that she would remain with the program until after the presidential election. She later determined she would stay with the show through the presidential inauguration, which took place earlier this week.
“This has been the honor of a lifetime to anchor this legacy broadcast,” said O’Donnell. “The CBS Evening News is, for good reason, the longest-running evening newscast in America. It is powered by the finest journalists around the world, the correspondents, producers, researchers, and crews who work tirelessly to bring you the news every night, and that won’t change, because journalism matters. I know that because I’ve heard it from so many of you, our viewers.
“So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for trusting us and welcoming hard news with heart into your homes. I will miss you too, but I will see you on CBS News programs, including Mornings, 60 Minutes, Sunday Morning, and in prime time. So for the final time, that’s tonight’s CBS Evening News. I owe it all to everybody I work with, honestly.”
With the departure of Norah O’Donnell, the evening news broadcast will move operations to New York, away from Washington D.C. Additionally, the new program will now be anchored by a rotating group featuring John Dickerson, Maurice DuBois, and Margaret Brennan.
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With the calendar flipping to 2025, the news television industry has continued to undergo layoffs, with NBC News being the latest outlet preparing to slash jobs.
According to a CNBC report, the network is preparing to join CNN in enact a round of layoffs. However, unlike CNN, this round will reportedly be significantly smaller. “Well under 50 people” are expected to lose their positions with NBC News, the report suggests.
The layoffs at NBC News come on the heels of the revelation that CNN was slashing roughly 6% of its workforce — around 200 employees — as part of a restructuring. Like CNN, the NBC News layoffs are expected to mainly affect those working behind the scenes as producers, technicians, and editors, rather than on-air staff.
The network will hope to streamline its newsgathering operations with the reduction in force.
Layoffs at NBC News coincide with parent company Comcast previously announcing plans for the cable assets in its portfolio — namely MSNBC and CNBC, among others — to be spun off into a separate entity called SpinCo.
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