NewsNation has announced it is moving Leland Vittert to the 9 PM ET hour previously occupied by Dan Abrams, while also signing Elizabeth Vargas to an extension.
On Balance with Leland Vittert will replace Dan Abrams Live in the network’s weekday lineup. Abrams announced his impending exit from the upstart cable news network in late 2024. He had been part of the network’s programming since it debuted.
Vittert joined the outlet in May 2021 after previously working at Fox News.
“I am grateful to NewsNation for the opportunity to host a primetime program, and thankful to our passionate viewers who tune in every night,” said Vittert. “As a team, we take our role in the media landscape seriously and will continue to be a source of fairness to all.”
In addition to signing an extension to remain with the network, Elizabeth Vargas will see her program move from 6 PM ET to 7 PM ET in the daily offering.
“I couldn’t be happier to be staying at NewsNation, and to be moving to the 7 pm hour weeknights,” said Vargas. “I’m excited to continue our mission to report the news for ALL Americans. I have an amazing team and am thrilled to be working with them.”
Elizabeth Vargas Reports launched in spring 2023, and has seen its total audience grow by 20% since it debuted, according to figures from Nielsen.
“We’re extremely happy to be bringing Leland and Elizabeth to our primetime line-up,” said Michael Corn, President of Programming and Specials. “They are extraordinary and experienced journalists who are fearless, smart, and curious. They have travelled the globe to deliver the news, and they have each developed a loyal and growing audience here at NewsNation.”
The changes in the NewsNation lineup will take place on Monday, February 10th.
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The Ramsey Network has announced a new podcast hosted by longtime Ramsey personality Ken Coleman, which will focus on the untold truth behind success.
Front Row Seat will feature conversations with the top achievers in a wide array of fields. Current guests scheduled to appear include former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, investor Dan Martell, and fitness influence Layne Norton, among others.
“Success doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s not a one-size-fits-all journey,” Coleman says. “Front Row Seat creates a space for listeners to hear the untold stories and the real, sometimes messy, path to becoming the best version of themselves. I have so much fun doing this show — it’s incredibly rewarding to dive deep into these conversations, and I can’t wait to share these incredible stories with our audience.”
The new podcast is the second offering from Ken Coleman. He’ll continue to host his regular program with The Ramsey Network.
In addition to the on-demand podcast version of the show, a video simulcast of each episode of Front Row Seat will also be available on YouTube.
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Comcast reached an agreement with NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California that has resulted in the regional sports networks being moved to a more expensive tier, requiring users to upgrade to receive access to local broadcasts of the San Francisco Giants, Golden State Warriors, San Jose Sharks, Sacramento Kings and Athletics. The networks had previously been available on the Popular TV package, accounting for a price difference of approximately $20 per month as of Tuesday, which is when the change went into effect. A similar move took place in Boston with NESN and NBC Sports Boston agreeing to deals with Xfinity moving to the higher tier.
According to a Comcast spokesperson, company data demonstrates that most viewers of regional sports networks are already subscribed to the Ultimate TV tier. Furthermore, the company conveyed that the decision to make this move was related to augmented programming costs, particularly as it relates to sports broadcasting rights. The company is offering promotional deals for users who are looking to upgrade their subscription plan. Conversely, customers who are subscribed to the Popular TV fan will have a reduction in fees.
“Comcast is pleased to have reached agreements with NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California to continue offering their networks in a way that reflects the changing video marketplace for local sports and provides our customers with a choice,” Comcast said in a statement. “We are notifying customers that effective [January 14, 2025], NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California will be available on the Ultimate TV level of service. While the majority of customers shouldn’t be impacted, we have promotional offers for customers with Popular TV service who want to continue receiving NBC Sports Bay Area and NBC Sports California.”
In addition to the aforementioned regional sports networks, the Ultimate TV subscription tier also includes league-owned networks, along with seven additional sports networks and more than 50 other channels. NBC Sports Philadelphia is remaining on the Popular TV tier at the moment, but Comcast has moved approximately 30 RSNs to its Ultimate TV tier for over a year as carriage agreements approach expiration.
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The Wild Card round matchup between the Minnesota Vikings and Philadelphia Eagles averaged 25.4 million viewers on Disney networks as the Monday Night Football team broadcast the game on ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPN Deportes and ESPN+. Data from Nielsen Media Research demonstrates that the audience peaked at 30.1 million viewers in the 9:15 to 9:30 p.m. EST quarter-hour as the Rams were about to extend their lead to 24-3 ahead of halftime. During the first half of the game, which spanned 8:15 to 9:45 p.m. EST, viewership of the game averaged 28.3 million viewers. The game was moved to State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. in the “interest of public safety” due to wildfires in Los Angeles.
The broadcast of the Wild Card game was down 13% from the ESPN presentation of the Philadelphia Eagles and Tampa Bay Buccaneers tilt last year, which averaged 29.18 million viewers and was the second most-watched ESPN playoff game in history at the time. The six Wild Card games as a whole are said to have averaged 27.8 million viewers according to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data divulged by Sportico. This is representative of an 8% year-over-year decline after the games last season averaged 30.2 million viewers.
Play-by-play announcer Joe Buck, analyst Troy Aikman and sideline reporters Lisa Salters and Laura Rutledge were part of the game broadcast on Monday night. ESPN/ABC will broadcast the first matchup of the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs when the Houston Texans face the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday, Jan. 18 at 4:30 p.m. EST. The game will emanate from Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo. as the Chiefs look to become the first team in NFL history to secure three consecutive Super Bowl championships.
The Walt Disney Company is on the verge of completing its second season under a 10-year media rights deal reportedly worth $2.7 billion annually. Disney will broadcast the Super Bowl championship on ABC/ESPN to conclude the 2026 and 2030 seasons, marking the first time an agreement has included such rights. The Monday Night Football broadcast property averaged 15 million viewers per game during the 2024 regular season, marking the second-highest viewership of the prime time presentation in the past 24 years.
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Back in the day, just about every music radio station used superlatives to tout its music positions. They would create static positions like “The Most Non-Stop Music” or “Nobody Plays More Music.”
I remember when I was programming Hit Radio back in the 80s. We offered up “30-Minute, Non-Stop Music Sets!” Some stations even went out on the limb with “More Music—Less Commercials!” Once created, we would follow the rule of the day… “Name it, Proclaim It, Own It, and Pound it” over and over again!
All of this worked back then when radio was competing against itself when radio was the number one source for music discovery. Today’s consumers are more savvy, and rather than responding to the old, static approach, they require greater “connection.”
Back then, Pure Play and DSPs didn’t even exist in the brain cells of those who invented them. I mean, we had the Sony Walkman, but we purchased the music we heard on the radio. Don’t get me wrong; radio is still a source for music discovery, but I certainly don’t need to tell you that the competition has grown tremendously.
I believe the real music revolution began in 2001 when Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod, which was something neither radio nor Walkman could accomplish. It was when we first heard the term “A Thousand Songs in Your Pocket.”
At no time until then could you carry anything close to it. I remember having a CD pocket on my car’s visor that held a dozen CDs, which, when you consider the capacity, would only hold a couple of hundred songs…many of which you wouldn’t listen to.
The iPod gave consumers a chance to carry not only a thousand songs in their pockets but, better yet – “a thousand “FAVORITE songs in their pockets.
From the late 90s through the 2000s, we saw everything from streaming delivery services like iTunes, Pandora, and Spotify. Even AOL tried to stay in the game with AOL Radio.
Over the past 25 years, radio’s long love affair with consumers as the best music delivery service forced us to share our consumers. Music has always and will always be an extremely important component of radio but today – the music battle is not the fight that will cement radio as a compelling source of audio for technology savvy consumers.
Radio MUST continue to be on a quest for truly compelling content! For clarity – I am not suggesting that music doesn’t matter. But it must be wrapped inside the local, meaningful, compelling content that matters to the listener.
Here are some great radio brands:
1010 WINS New York, NY. (The longest-running all-news station in the nation.) Product: All News Branding: “You Give Us 22 Minutes – We Give You the World”
WXST Star 99.7 Charleston, SC Product: Urban Adult Contemporary Music Branding: The People’s Station (Gives the African American listener a voice.)
K-Love National Christian Music Product: Contemporary Christian Music Branding: Faith, Love, Positive Encouragement
Let’s take it a step further. Let’s think of some powerful brands with which we are all familiar. How many of those great brands ever mention being the “best” or having the “most”?
Does McDonalds ever talk about the best burgers or chicken? Does Nike EVER mention that they’re the best at anything? In fact, some of the great brands never even sell their products when marketing.
Think about the Snickers Betty White Superbowl commercial that almost everyone should remember. Click here to see it.
How about this classic Amazon Alexa spot, which, again, without selling the product, puts you in a world of substitute Alexas.
The point is that while having the best product possible is always important, having a superlative brand that makes a compelling connection with the consumer is just as – if not more important.
I learned when conducting 15 years of radio research that great brands are not always the best products. I won’t list any of those for obvious reasons, but I’m sure you can get there on your own. To make great money, though – you need a great brand.
Run your brand through this litmus test. I’ve used this for decades. “A brand is a promise, based on a relationship, wrapped inside an addictive experience.”
That is the singular mission, where everything matters, and it requires a cohesive, collaborative effort from everyone on the team. I promise it will make your product so much more relevant, important, and compelling than just being another music station with the best or most.
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Welcome into the sales meeting this week, where our topic will be the third step in the sales process. You did your homework and uncovered a solid prospect. Then you did what you needed to do in order to get a face-to-face appointment with the decision maker. Now, it is time to go get all your answers in the client needs analysis.
The client needs analysis is the most important part of winning the business in my opinion. If you do a great job and ask the right questions, follow up properly and come away with the information that you need, unless the client is really not interested in bettering their business or really doesn’t have any money to invest, you should have a much greater chance of winning the business.
Ultimately, your job is to uncover the issue or issues that your products can help solve. And you get there by asking great questions, doing more listening than talking and letting the answers come to you from the client.
There are hundreds of good questions, and most people have the ones they like to go to. I know if you check out the RAB website, you can pull a ton of suggested questions, however, what you don’t want to do is just ask the same questions over and over again or worse, ask questions and then not listen intently to the answer.
Side story here…when I was in my late 20’s and doing sports talk radio in St. Louis as a host, I had no idea how to interview anyone. What I would consistently do is pay no attention to the guest while they were talking, because all I could think about was what my next question was going to be. So, no matter what the guest said to the previous question I or my partner had asked, it didn’t matter, I knew what I was asking next.
Later on, I started listening to more Howard Stern interviews and it somehow hit me that the conversations were much better when it was…well, a conversation. The only problem was I had already moved on to the business side of media. But my point for you is that it all go much better if you listen to the answers and then take the conversation where you want it to go, but it may never be the same route.
You have to talk to people the way they talk to you. There is an art in the client needs analysis. You have to play the role the way the client wants you to play the role. Get your mind out of the gutters, what I mean by that is if it is a client that is laid back and wants to talk like a couple of buddies at the bar, then you should follow their lead. If it’s all business, be prepared for that type of discussion.
Listening is something I am not great at. When someone says something and I want to make a point about it, I am more likely to jump out of my seat and start talking louder than the other person than I am to listen, be patient and respond accordingly when it is my turn. I’m also that guy that likes to be just as cool, if not cooler than you. So, if you tell me a story about that time you got to meet someone famous and hang out with them, I am going to tell you about the time I partied with Tone Loc (true story).
Neither of those is a great quality for a salesperson and I have had to work so hard to overcome those things. But like with anything else, the first step was realizing that I was doing those things and then I worked to correct it.
Listen and learn.
Not sure how you were taught, but when I am talking to someone about buying something, I want it to be their idea. So, I take all of the information I learn from the questions I’ve asked and when I come back, the solutions I am going to propose will relate directly to one of those problems the decision maker told me about. And I am not leaving that first meeting until I either feel like there are problems I can solve or that the person has it all solved themselves and doesn’t need my services (basically someone who wasted my time and has no money).
The other thing I am going to do before I leave that meeting is to repeat the problems back to the decision maker and get a verbal agreement from them that yes, those are the main issues they are working to solve and that if I can come up with a way to turn that problem around, there is a deal here to be done.
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Happy Birthday to SKOR North. It was on this day six years ago when the branding of 1500 AM in Minneapolis changed to that moniker and set in motion what would ultimately become an entirely new way to distribute daily sports content. The brand has been led by Hubbard Radio Minnesota Vice-President/Region Manager Dan Seeman and host Phil Mackey.
To summarize what happened between the time SKOR North launched and what it has become, Seeman explained, “It started as an AM radio station that was creating a lot of content for digital and that then morphed into a digital property that was creating some content for AM. And that’s a big difference.”
The idea first came up in the fall of 2018. Seeman gives all the credit to Mackey who he said was often coming into his office asking how they could think differently about what they were doing and the distribution of the content. Seeman said at the time they were seeing research which showed only 20-25% of the market was getting content from AM radio.
“That’s a tough hill to sled,” Seeman said. “So, we were doing 1500 ESPN and really seeing where ears were going. And it was really Phil challenging me and him and others around us to think differently about how we do this.”
Mackey added, “We knew AM radio wasn’t going to be the solution 10 years from now to building audiences and connecting them to advertisers, which is what we do in this business, we build community, largely through audio, for a hundred years in the radio business. And then we connect them to advertisers and partners. And if we wanted to keep doing that and reach the bottom end of the demo, the younger end, 25 to 44 it was hard to pry them away from wherever they were to AM radio.”
The problem was clear, but the solution took some time to develop. Fortunately, Seeman, Mackey and the rest of the team working on SKOR North had support from ownership and were given the time necessary to work their way through it. The timing was good, too, as the company was very intrigued by the podcast space.
Mackey said he remembers Seeman saying to him that it was time to “take a chance and do something bold that no one’s really doing, which is build something digital off the back of an AM radio signal.
“And now it has morphed almost entirely into YouTube and podcast six years later, it’s kind of become untethered.”
As they look back on it all now that the concept has been more than proven, with social media, YouTube and engagement numbers to back it all up, Seeman said, “When I go back and look at the notes from what Phil was talking about, the vision and the mission really haven’t changed. And that’s extraordinary when you think about it. This idea was so crazy, it might just work, and it worked, and it is working. I look at revenue and I look at profitability. It works.”
While both Seeman and Mackey are incredibly proud of what they and the rest of the team have built, they are even more excited for the future. All signs point to continued success. “Here’s the best part of this story,” Seeman said, “the growth is unimaginable.”
From a content standpoint, the idea hit and grew fairly rapidly, it was the business side that took a bit to catch up. As the first ones in, they had the job of explaining what it was, how it would work and answering a lot of questions such as whether or not someone’s spot would run in afternoon drive on a podcast.
Today, there is a much better universal understanding of the way SKOR North distributes content which certainly helps. Seeman said the go-to-market strategy now is more about the fear of missing out and showing businesses how they can’t afford not to be in this space and in front of this audience.
Mackey said it’s been great to see clients who were skeptical about advertising on podcasts come back and talk about how they are blown away by the engagement from the SKOR North audience. Often times, while shows are going on, the audience is posting about specific show sponsors in the chat rooms.
“We have just seen this fire burning with the audience and the advertising partners,” Mackey said. “It’s unlike anything, at least in the 20 years I’ve been in this business, I’ve never seen it like this.”
From a content standpoint, those consuming the product have dictated what gets covered more and what is covered less. Ultimately, the fans decided they couldn’t get enough Minnesota Vikings coverage, so their main Vikings show, Purple Daily, became a show which airs 365 days a year.
As Mackey put it, “Why would we deprive the audience if they want more Vikings, and they want Vikings content on a Saturday in June? And that’s what they’re telling us, that’s what the metrics are telling us, that’s what the emails are telling us and the social media.”
Of course, once you have success others are going to try and replicate it. Mackey looks at all the digital sports content being produced today targeting Vikings fans versus when they started and sees at it all as a positive. “That competition brings more people to podcasting and YouTube and more advertisers to podcasting and YouTube,” he said.
The story of SKOR North is very much one in progress. Looking ahead, Seeman and Mackey see open field ahead. “There’s no cap on the digital world,” Mackey said. “So, if it makes sense for us in five or 10 years to have 20 different podcasts and 20 hours a day of content being created or whatever it ends up looking like, it’s fun to think about the fact that this is all uncapped space.
“The best thing you can do is build great brands and build audiences that are a community. And if needed, take them to wherever the distribution evolves and changes, then be nimble and be willing to pivot to those places.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
When Peyton Manning officially retired from the NFL after a distinguished 18-year career, he made it clear that he did not want to be a typical broadcaster. In speaking with Josh Pyatt, the co-head of WME Sports, he outlined a situation where he would be able to stay home on the weekends and work on Monday from his living room. This idea materialized into Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli, the hit alternate broadcast that recently averaged more than 1 million viewers for its fourth consecutive season. The show was part of the formation of Omaha Productions, a growing media company that produces original audiovisual content disseminated to various partners.
Throughout his time with William Morris Endeavor, Pyatt has successfully actualized a vision to create distinctive media entities surrounding athletes. For example, he represents Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James on the entertainment side and helped proliferate the reach and scope of SpringHill Company. Moreover, he and his colleagues started working with international soccer star Lionel Messi and his 525 Rosario business to ensure that upon his retirement, he is able to step into a multifaceted media venture.
“I look at each client like they’re a business, and, ‘How do I grow that business?,’” Pyatt said. “Their business may just be in the broadcasting space, and that’s fine, and we figure out ways while they’re playing to kind of make sure they’re still doing things or they’re involved in things or they’re watching what’s happening in the marketplace.”
Pyatt does not consider himself to be a conventional broadcast or television agent, instead exhibiting characteristics of those focusing in both genres. While he has the ability to build and scale businesses for someone interested in cultivating a production company, he also knows how to ink deals for broadcasters with major networks. Furthermore, he is able to blend both of these enterprises to work on unparalleled portfolios for those in the business. For example, WME signed Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant three years before he retired from playing basketball, and Pyatt understood that he did not want to do the same thing as other athletes.
“I was on the one-yard line of Kobe Bryant joining Turner as someone who was going to help them create programming,” Pyatt said. “Not be on Inside the NBA, not be on a basketball show – he was going to help them create kind of next-generation basketball analysis that helped educate and inform, and it all [fell apart] at the last minute, and ultimately, he ended up getting into business with Disney and ESPN+ and created Detail, which was a version of an idea we were talking about.”
Pyatt represents a variety of professional athletes and broadcasters who take part in studio programming, live game broadcasts and other projects, some of whom include Stephen A. Smith, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Burkhardt and Álex Rodríguez. In his role, he also shares oversight of the rest of the department, which consists of other clients in sports media and representation for collegiate and pro athletes. In the end, it is his job to gather information, present it to his clients and chart a path forward to determine how to achieve their individual goals.
“It’s on me to figure out what everybody’s doing, what people are looking for, crafting a strategy with my clients for what they want to accomplish,” Pyatt said “Then it’s knowing what the marketplace looks like so we can take that strategy and drive it home. It’s part of the areas of the job that I really like. It allows you to go out and learn a bunch of different things about a bunch of different companies.”
Upon graduating from Loyola Marymount University, Pyatt worked in finance for three years as investment banking and venture capital endeavors proliferated. Yet he had always been around sports and had friends who thought that he would become an agent. After three years in finance, Pyatt decided to explore a career in representation and wrote a letter to longtime WMA agent Steve Dontanville, an alumnus of his school. From there, he proceeded to call him once a week for nine months before Dontanville finally answered, took a brief meeting and hired him to work in the mailroom as a trainee, a tangible display of persistence and dedication.
“If you believe in something and you want to go do something, it’s not going to come to you,” Pyatt said. “You have to get up and you have to take it every day, and that’s kind of the way I’ve tried to model what I do. It is, ‘Every day, how do I get up and make my business better than it was the day before?’ so I just stayed on it.”
After some time in the business, he decided to explore sports representation and signed Michael Strahan in the early days of his time with FOX Sports. Although Pyatt does not work with him anymore, he has a profound amount of respect for Strahan and recognizes the impact he had with athletes exploring other genres. In addition to analysis on FOX NFL Sunday, Strahan started working on daytime television with shows such as Live! and Good Morning America.
“There’s not a lot of people who have the opportunity to be Michael Strahan where they’re a broadcaster, media personality, producer, an ambassador, and I think that’s the trick – finding those guys that are multi-hyphenates that can do all of those different things,” Pyatt said. “But at the same time, finding guys that are just broadcasters but are very good at that, making sure you all explore all the different opportunities for the different types of clients, and I think that starts candidly with listening to people.”
Pyatt was named the co-head of WME Sports in 2020 with Karen Brodkin, who looked to move back into the representation business after largely focusing on action sports, tennis and golf. The company had moved out of team sports such as baseball, football and basketball in previous years, but it detected an opportunity to return to the space and began systematically recruiting agents.
“The idea was, ‘How can we organically grow this?’” Pyatt said. “We weren’t going to go out and buy five or six other sports agencies. We were going to find the right people culturally that aligned with what we were looking to do, that were aggressive, that were animals, that wanted to go out and build a business and build it fast, and we started slowly but surely building this group and went from 40 people to over 200.”
In approaching a typical negotiation, Pyatt ensures he has knowledge about the marketplace and the desires of a client while searching for premium properties. For instance, he wants to have clients in golf working on The Masters Tournament since it represents a pinnacle of the sport. Additionally, he aims to work with the top echelon of professionals in whatever business they are working in and scaling businesses that can generate success in a variety of ways.
“I want them on high-profile opportunities getting paid as much as they can in the right situation with the right people because that’s how the network’s going to win, right?,” Pyatt said. “You look at Inside the NBA – that show works because those guys get along, and in turn because those guys get along, it works for the network and the network looks good and the network makes money, so it’s a triple asset.”
Whenever Pyatt is evaluating potential clients, he tries to find people who are entrepreneurial and have interest in growing a business. In order to effectuate that process, he ensures his clientele are speaking with subject-matter experts in relevant fields. Pyatt does not believe people can effectively represent themselves in the business, pointing to relationships, experience and previous mistakes that agents can leverage. With a proclivity to work, he remains focused on his existing client roster and also contemplates how to continue its growth.
“A lot of it is, now, working with the clients that we represent, which means really sitting down and spending time with them in the offseason when they can focus, and their attention span is directed at what we’re there to do and accomplish, and then what I try and do is work with the people in their lives to move the ball down the field,” Pyatt said. “Each one of these guys has someone in their life that is helping them. My job is to work with them to create opportunities so that when they are not playing their sport, whether that’s an offseason or when they retire, that we have already started the process, that we’re already down the field.”
Source: Stephen A. Smith has signed with WME for agency representation. He's being repped by Josh Pyatt and Jon Rosen, and Endeavor President (and former ESPN boss) Mark Shapiro will be leading his ESPN contract renewal negotiations down the road. pic.twitter.com/QAvKB0bohZ
Over the last several years, a variety of technology firms and digital media companies have been involved in conversations surrounding sports media rights. Amazon’s Prime Video recently added a marquee property in the NBA to its overall portfolio, which had included the NFL on Thursday Night Football for the last three seasons. Pyatt has also evinced what Netflix is doing with its foray into live sports, airing events such as the NFL Christmas Day doubleheader, Paul-Tyson fight and Monday night editions of WWE Raw. All the platforms have their differences, he said, but they have collectively helped augment the number of total buyers who are interested in hiring media talent.
“The changing of the business dynamic in terms of the impact streaming has had on the building, I think that’s probably the scariest and most exciting [thing] all at the same time,” Pyatt explained. “It’s creating opportunities, [and] it’s taking away other opportunities.”
Sporting events were responsible for 80 of the 100 most-watched television shows in 2024, demonstrating the value the competition has in attracting audiences. Seeing that Game 5 of the World Series made the list, along with incontrovertible growth in women’s sports and college football, were encouraging signs for Pyatt entering the new year. As WME Sports aims to work with best-in-class clients and defy the odds in building businesses, Pyatt looks forward to being immersed in sports media in the present moment while molding a canvas for tomorrow.
“The business is changing,” Pyatt said. “I enjoy learning about those changes and finding clients that I feel like are interesting and that I get excited about. I think working with new clients that I’m a fan of allows me to look at it in a way that keeps me excited in the business, and if I’m not excited, I won’t do it anymore.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Derek “Big D” Haskins and Sean “Bubba” Powell host the Nashville-based “Big D & Bubba Show.” Compass Media Networks syndicates the show to over 100 stations. Additionally, the show is broadcast to 177 stations worldwide through the Armed Forces Radio Networks.
The duo recently took over hosting “Honky Tonkin’ With Big D & Bubba,” previously “Honky Tonkin” hosted by Country star Tracy Lawrence.
I caught up with the duo to pick their brains about the show’s success as well as the addition of “Honky Tonkin’ With Big D & Bubba.”
The duo got together in 1996 at WTGE in Baton Rouge. According to the Big D, the show was a little rough in the beginning.
“We were pretty bad. I mean, really bad, really unlistenable, and it took us a little while to get stuff ironed out. Finally, we kind of figured it out. It took us three to four months I knew where we wanted to go. We sorted it out and figured out that this is the kind of show we want to be.”
“They tasked us with trying to figure out the best way to do this multi-city stuff, and so we experimented, made mistakes, figured it out, made more mistakes, and it’s funny because we started off doing pure voice tracking, and then we realized that oh, no we can do this in segments.”
“We broke radio. We started doing segment shows and showed that you can do basically one show for most markets and then fill in the gaps with local content.”
“Amarillo was our first affiliate. “Now we are on 100 plus radio stations plus the official Country morning show of the United States military on Armed Forces Radio.”
The show is unique in that it is done live in real time allowing for callers and interaction with the listeners.
“There are people in radio who are doing it when they can, and we’re doing it when the show is on, so when you can call us. It’s weird to say that we actually have phone calls, and that’s a selling point now. And there’s a reaction. It’s interaction,” said Bubba.
“It’s happening right now. The great thing about radio is that everyone can experience it at the same time, and it’s dynamic, so it’s changing. So, a caller calls in and says, Hey, I’m on the side of the road. How do I change the thing for the tire pressure or whatever.”
“Then someone will call in, and then someone else calls in, and then we get resolution, and you got a bit that happened in 35 minutes real time with real callers from around the country.”
With a worldwide audience, being funny may not always be appropriate. So, how do they handle something like the Los Angeles wildfires?
“We have people driving on the 5 around Santa Clarita who have checked in and given us real-time reports. It’s the same with the flooding in North Carolina and the hurricanes on the Gulf Coast or wherever the tragedy is. We have a station there.”
“We have a lot of real-time information coming in as a man-on-the-street type thing instead of being presented by a news reporter. One of our listeners is in the car, going, “Hey, I’m driving by the fire.” I can see it from the car now. It’s getting a little close.”
As the show evolved, so did the idea of adding characters to the cast. Jessica “Carsen” Humphreville joined the show, bringing a female voice and perspective.
“Adding Carson was a big deal in the early days of doing the show. Everybody felt like, oh, you need a female voice, and we fought it, and we fought it and fought it, and then one day we went, you know, we need a female voice,” said Big D.
“We needed another opinion but didn’t want a giggle box. We wanted somebody who would be just as strong, just as vocal, and just as steadfast as the two of us who also understood the ins and outs of radio, the formatics of how to make a bit work, and Carson was it.”
“We looked, we looked for a while, and she was the absolute best person for the job. There was no question about it. I’m saying Carson is the best female in radio.”
The duo recently took over hosting duties for the weekend syndicated program, “Honky Tonkin With Tracy Lawrence,” rebranding it “Honky Tonkin’ With Big D & Bubba.”
“We tried to convince him to stay on, but he’s got a lot of really good stuff going on in his life, and we’re so excited about it, so we looked at all the options,” said Bubba.” Who can we bring in?”
“We looked at other artists from that era and talked to several radio people that we reached out to as well. One day, Big D’s wife Kathy said, ‘Why don’t you and Bubba host it?’ The thought had never even occurred to us because we already have enough on our plate.”
“The show has not skipped a beat. Our very first guest on the show was actually Tracy Lawrence. We followed up with Mark Wills and then went on to it. It’s a very organic and very fun show.”
Playing and interviewing 90s artists means coming full circle for Big D & Bubba.
“We love that music. That was the music when we started in 96, and we would play 80s, 90s, and 2000s on that show. We had so many friends who are artists that got their start in music on our show, and now they’re coming back, and we’re talking about great stories from Mark Wills or Tracy Lawrence, all the greats of Country music in that era.”
“It’s cool to reconnect with a lot of these guys because we haven’t seen them in a bit, and they’re like, oh my gosh, you are my very first interview. I can’t tell you how many. If we called ten people, at least five would say you were my first radio interview, and I’ll never forget it.”
Those relationships will allow “Honky Tonkin’” to be a labor of love.
“It’s almost like having a hobby, but like really enjoying and having a passion for something and doing it on the weekends. It’s a lot of fun, and the music is hotter than it’s ever been in that era. We’re proud to be leading the way.”
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Barring a last-second miracle, TikTok is set to be banned this weekend. And, in my opinion, news/talk radio should lead the charge to reverse that decision.
News/talk radio has a long history of advocacy, including political advocacy. One of the best non-candidate examples of that is the early 2000s campaign launched by SuperTalk 99.7 WTN host Phil Valentine to stop a plan by the state of Tennessee to implement a state income tax.
Now, while I wouldn’t want a similar situation — residents famously defaced the state capital building — to unfold with the TikTok ban. Still, the ultimate outcome of reversing its demise would be a welcomed one for me.
I’ve grown to love TikTok. Not because I’m some sort of Chinese Communist Party spy hellbent on the downfall of America. But because the algorithm shows you what you like, not what you don’t. I’ve learned countless new recipes, been exposed to podcasts that I never would have seen without the app, and have found comfort in watching things I like be put right in front of my thumbs with the utmost ease.
Are there downsides to the app? Certainly. My attention span is significantly shorter than it once was. And it wasn’t long to begin with. I now find myself dumping out of uninteresting content much quicker than I did before I was addicted to a short-form video app. But, overall, the positives far outweigh the negatives in my book.
For Radio Executives
Companies are always looking for the “13th month” or for extra non-traditional revenue sources. Digital video is a great avenue for that. YouTube and TikTok CPM’s are actually pretty good, and if you can capture your content in an effective way for a TikTok audience, which you’ve prioritized, built, and grown, the money is going to be pretty good.
How many times have you ever heard someone say “No, we don’t need another revenue source”? Never? Exactly. Take every opportunity you can to turn content into cash. TikTok is a tool.
For Program Directors
Several podcasts — from Theo Von to The Basement Yard to The Broski Report to Bad Friends — have seen their profiles grown almost exclusively from clips on TikTok. New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce is now one of the largest podcasts on the planet. Why? Well, one, because Travis Kelce dates Taylor Swift. But two, because they’ve used TikTok to hook people.
What better way to bring younger members of the demo to your station, shows, and brand than by being on an app they use daily. Especially in diary markets where brand recall is insanely important, the days of simply relying on saying the station name on the air a bunch are over. You have to be where the audience is. And a larger chunk of your audience than you might expect — both current and future — are on the app.
Plus, it’s a good proving ground for perspective talents. Digital video isn’t going away anytime soon, whether TikTok is banned or not. There will still be YouTube Shorts and Instagram Reels to contend with.
But having up-and-coming talents begin to hone their craft in short-form video clips allows a low-pressure chance to learn, grow, and discover who they are as a host. It generates social content, which generates revenue, builds your audience, and allows you to scout the future of your brand. It’s a rare triple win.
For News/Talk Radio Hosts
If you ask politically minded college students who are some of the most relevant people in the space, do you know who they will likely tell you? Charlie Kirk. Why? Because he committed to reaching young voters and those interested in politics with his campus tours and his use of TikTok.
I’ve said before and I’ll say it again: If you don’t exist on YouTube, you don’t exist to people 35 and younger. And if you don’t exist on TikTok, you don’t exist to people 25 and younger.
There are fewer relevant platforms in 2025 than TikTok. If news/talk radio hosts want to remain relevant — and who doesn’t? — you need to be on the app. Sure, you might be able to continue to ride your current audience for another decade or so, but if you are a host like Charlie Kirk, or on the local level, and you’re younger than roughly 50, you need to start thinking about how you’re going to incorporate today’s 35-year-old to still be a consumer of your content when they’re a 50-year-old.
Simply trusting AM/FM radio isn’t going to get it done. TikTok can be a big driver for that. Charlie Kirk’s relevance today is partially built on the app. It is something worth emulating whether it be on the local or national level.
For Producers
Producers are always scouring the internet for content. TikTok is such a fantastic avenue for it. Especially once you get your algorithm trained to feed you things you can use in a news/talk environment. Everyone has an opinion on everything today. But the advantage of TikTok is it isn’t a Facebook comment or post published to X that needs to be read by your host. There’s audio of someone’s opinion on any given topic available at your fingertips that you can turn into clips for your show.
It can serve as a great jumping-off point for a segment or to get the reaction of your host. It couldn’t be easier.
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To be frank, I’ve always hated the “slippery slope” metaphor because it begs the question “Where does it end?” The answer is always “somewhere.”
But I truly believe banning an app like TikTok is a slippery slope. For a medium that has hung its hat on championing free speech, the idea that a platform could be banned because of who it is owned by — and I realize its ownership isn’t a feature, but the point remains — should be concerning for those who continually talk about their want of limited government and free speech. Countries that are committed to free speech don’t ban apps.
Ultimately, TikTok is a content creation tool. As content creators, we should be at the forefront of opening up new avenues for our consumption.
Also, I’ve always believed in the idea of going where the party is, rather than trying to create your own party. And right now, the party is on TikTok. But the party is about to be busted up if you don’t do something about it.
So, party on. We, collectively, have a strong enough voice to influence those who have the power to change the decision. Use it.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
