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‘The Bret Mega Show’ Succeeds With An Exchange Of Stories

Jeff Lynn
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‘The Bret Mega Show’ Succeeds With An Exchange Of Stories

It’s been a big couple of weeks for the Y98 St. Louis-based “The Bret Mega Show.” A national rollout of the show picked up The New 96.5 Philadelphia. The show is also heard on 99.7 The Point in Kansas City and 105.3 The Buzz in Wichita.

I caught up with Mega to discuss the show’s content, ensemble cast and the national rollout.

“It’s super exciting, said Mega. “I feel like what we do in our industry, or at least for what we do on our show, is we’re storytellers. The more people who can hear our stories, the more impact they will have. I’m someone who over-romanticizes the power of radio, maybe, but I really do believe it.”

“I don’t even know if it’s an over-romanticized, because I feel like radio has an opportunity to sit shotgun with people on a regular day, whether on their way home from work or to work or wherever they’re going. Ride shotgun with them, connect with them, and make them feel something.”

“It can make you laugh when you’re on your way to your shitty job or can make you laugh when you’re feeling stressed out and you just need a friend to put some laughs in your belly. Or it could make you cry because they feel the exact same way. They can connect with you.”

“I feel like the thing that we need to serve more than anyone else is the listeners. That’s the first people we serve, then it’s our clients, and then it’s companies. The more people we can provide with interesting, compelling, and relatable content, the better. It’s super exciting for me.”

I shared with Mega that I once thought that being a great storyteller meant being able to spin tales and make things up. Now it means sharing your life and connecting with people on an everyday level.

“I do think they’re like trigger words for people, right? What does storytelling mean? What does it mean to truly be authentic? For me, it’s the reason I got into radio. When I was looking at schools and where I went to college.”

“My wife is my high school sweetheart. She’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever met in my entire world. We were in high school back in the suburbs of Chicago. I was just a popular kid who caused problems and partied and all that stuff. I applied to two schools. I ended up going and got into it on a tennis scholarship. One that my brother and my dad went to because that’s where they told me to apply.”

“I went to college in the U.S. Virgin Islands. I didn’t care about school or anything like that. I just wasn’t focused on it. I remember asking my wife, ‘Do you know what you want to be?’ This is when I’m 18 or 19 years old. She always wanted to be a mental health therapist and a play therapist for kids. And that’s what she is now.”

“She did what she said she was going to do. And I was like, I don’t really have any skills that can do anything like that. That’s cool that your skills can help people. And she says, ‘What do you consider your skills?’ Like very therapist of her. I said I like being social and hanging out with people, making them laugh, and listening.”

“She said, You have an ability to tell a story that someone else doesn’t have. They don’t have the same skill set or the same platform for you to tell the same story about what’s happening in their life. Oh my God, that’s what’s going on. That’s exactly what I feel.”

“She helped me shape that, and it’s always been my goal: how do I make an impact on other people’s lives that is positive. Whether it be helping the community through charity or through a story or whatever it is.”

In the show’s ensemble cast, each member plays a distinct role in the audience’s connection.

“What’s really cool is I feel like every single person on the show connects with a different type of audience member. Hannah and AB do all the heavy lifting on social media, and they are Gen Z. They’re connected with our younger audience. They are living their messy twenties, figuring out life and what that looks like.”

Kevin connects with our older generation of people, Gen X. He does all the technical things on the show, all the audio focus on the show. And I am in the middle of it, where I feel like the core demo is.”

“I have three kids. We have a newborn. I’m trying to figure out what it’s like to be a dad and juggle work and life, and kind of letting go of both those two worlds. I feel like in your 20s, you’re having so much fun, and you have this great friend group. Then you’re older when you’re like Kevin, who has a teenager and a daughter in college. You come to terms with where you are in life.”

How do you put together a show that is relevant across different geographic areas and different psychographics?

“We ran this in beta for a little while behind this. We were kind of practicing, and we’re working the show as if it were live in multiple cities. We did the work and repetition to get used to it.”

“They’re going to easily receive a show that brings them tons of colors, pop culture, trending stories, and personal stories. They’re going to receive that all in a full package.”

Is there a common theme that connects across markets?

“I feel this so strongly. Love is love. Jealousy is jealousy. These are the strong emotions. Our job as storytellers is to make people feel something. Just because someone’s in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Wichita, or any other city, love is love. It’s the strongest emotion in the world. And anger is anger. It’s all about the emotion of the show.”

“90% of our show is about our personal lives. Our personal lives are so relatable to anyone, anywhere, because we’re all going to go through it in different stages of our lives.”

“You’re going to get through it. You’re going to survive. Or I’ve been there, Bret. I’ve been in the newborn stage with two young kids. You will make it through it. And those stories, it doesn’t matter where you tell them.”

“That’s why the same popular shows everywhere are ‘The White Lotus,’ ‘Love Island,’ ‘The Bachelor.’ All the shows are exactly the same. It’s because it’s a story that connects with them in some way, shape or form.”

Aside from his obvious passion for radio, Mega is just as passionate about his team.

“I just want to reiterate just how amazing, smart, and passionate my team is. There are times when I’ve seen a host who constantly tries to steal the spotlight. But for me, we rotate who’s the star of the show each day.”

“Each person is going to come in, and the show might all be about Hannah or might all be about AB. I feel like I’m a selfless star. I want other people to score on my team. I don’t care if I walk away with zero points and Hannah gets a hundred points that day as long as the team wins.”

I asked Mega for a 30-second elevator speech about the show.

“We are a show that shares our lives in hopes that listeners share their lives back. That’s the show. We share everything that’s happened in our lives and hope the listener can be the star.” 

“The star of our show isn’t really us. It’s the people who call into the show. We’re constantly being shocked by listeners. We are a listener-driven interactive show that shares its stories and hopes that other people share their stories back. And luckily for us, our listeners do trust us enough to do that.”

“It’s really about the exchange of stories between friends. 

And while Mega admits he may not have been that focused in college, he is now very proud of his work ethic.

“I don’t have any skills that are more than anything that’s better than anyone else. But I will outwork you. If you and I were to get on a treadmill, I would rather die than get off that treadmill. I would rather die than quit.”

“So one of the things that I think we just keep doing is we just keep coming back with more and more content, more and more ideas.

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. 

10 Events That Transformed Business And Media

Bob Lawrence
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10 Events That Transformed Business And Media

Over the past 125 years, we have undergone profound transformations in the way we all do business. Just think about how your business and personal life has been forced to change based on outside events. If you were to come up with a list that wrote the history of not just America, but the entire world, what would make your list?  

These stand out to me as those that deeply reshaped business, media, government, politics, and our role in the world. My list progresses through the events that impacted the world most, and is not in chronological order. You will find no judgment below. This is only meant to shine a light on what we have endured over the last century – and why we are all who we are. 

COVID-19 Pandemic (2020–2022)

This is the one we have all lived through. We all share the common experience as the pandemic led to over a million American deaths and upended every aspect of life. It exposed weaknesses in public health and social systems. Accelerated digital transformation and reshaped work, education, and political discourse and will likely continue for generations to come. We became more “vaccine” conscious and could almost identify politically by our thoughts on the COVID vaccine and masks.

 

The Technology and Internet Revolution (1990s–Present)

The rise of the internet, smartphones, and social media transformed how Americans live, work, and interact. It disrupted traditional industries, reshaped politics and journalism, and gave rise to a digital economy and culture. Changed the music industry forever and reshaped the way consumers listen to the radio. It brought on new forms of competition to our landscape with the advent of streaming services. 

Women’s Rights Movement (1960s–present)

Feminist movements led by women like Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem brought about major change to gender equality, reproductive rights, and discrimination, particularly in the workplace. We witnessed historic court decisions, including Roe v. Wade (1973) and Title IX (1972), as well as ongoing battles for equal pay and protection. We still have fewer women in media than men, but that is changing. Noticeably so in the sports broadcasting world. This slope became somewhat more slippery with the addition of the relatively recent issue of transgender men in women’s sports.  

The 2008 Financial Crisis

This nightmare scenario was sparked by a housing market collapse and large banking failures, making this “Great Recession” the worst economic downturn since the 1930s. Millions lost jobs, savings and retirement accounts, and their homes. Government bailouts and stimulus packages helped repair the damage, but they also reshaped the perception of Wall Street and government regulation, adding to the perceived economic chasm between the wealthy and the poor. Advertising dollars spent took a serious hit as the crisis spread throughout the media world. 

The 9/11 Attacks (2001)

That clear, sparkling Monday morning changed the face of America overnight, faster than any since Pearl Harbor in 1941. It was the first time America was attacked on its mainland. Those terrorist attacks in New York and Washington killed nearly 3,000 people and triggered the War on Terror. The USA invaded Afghanistan and Iraq, expanded domestic surveillance through the Patriot Act, and permanently changed national security priorities. We would never navigate airports and board airplanes the same way again. Media organizations would focus on the attacks for months and years to come.

The Vietnam War (1955–1975)

This was a long, controversial conflict that divided the nation and the first war where we saw daily pictures and film of frontline action on nationwide, network newscasts. While we only sent advisors at the beginning, we began full-scale involvement in 1965. This action eroded public trust in government, spurred widespread protest, and reshaped U.S. military and foreign policy thinking for decades. It was the fodder of organizations like “Students for a Democratic Society” and its offshoot, the “Weather Underground,” which took responsibility for at least 25 bombings at the US Capitol, the Pentagon, and the California Attorney General’s Office. 

The Cold War (1947–1991)

This standoff with the Soviet Union defined American foreign and domestic policy, leading to many major conflicts like Korea and Vietnam, the arms race, and the space race. This forced nations to become more conscious of nuclear threats, and also was the catalyst for frightening conflicts like the October Missile Crisis in 1962. The Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union, leaving the United States as the sole superpower of that time.

The Civil Rights Movement (1950s–1960s)

Led by figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Rosa Parks, the movement dismantled legal segregation. It resulted in landmark legislation like the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Voting Rights Act (1965). It redefined American ideals of freedom and justice. 

World War II (1941–1945)

After entering the war in 1941, the U.S. became a global superpower. The war was fought on an eastern front throughout Europe and in the west with Japan. WWII ended the Great Depression, mobilized American industry, and led to the creation of global institutions like the United Nations and NATO. It also began a new era of American leadership on the world stage. The war ended with Germany’s surrender to Allied forces in May 1945. Followed by the Japanese surrender in September 1945, after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The Great Depression (1929–1939)

The worst economic collapse in U.S. history caused widespread unemployment and poverty for an entire decade. President Franklin D. Roosevelt expanded federal intervention in the economy and created a lasting social safety net through programs like Social Security. 

These events changed more than just policy or leadership. They shifted how Americans view our place in the world. The world of journalism changed greatly during these events and continues to evolve through the current events of today. In the end, regardless of your POV, these are the global events that shaped our values, core beliefs, and the way we view the entire world stage.  

 

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. 

How the Stanley Cup Final Established TNT as a Hockey Network

John Molori
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How the Stanley Cup Final Established TNT as a Hockey Network

With their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship, the Florida Panthers have cemented themselves as a team that history should remember. Coverage of the Stanley Cup Final was equally memorable, with TNT and truTV providing terrific angles and analysis.

Perhaps the true test of a broadcast team is how they perform in historic moments. Game 6 of these finals was not epic in terms of the score, with Florida taking home a dominant 5-1 victory over Edmonton to clinch the Cup.

What was notable, however, is the performance that the entire TNT broadcast crew delivered—from the on-air personalities to the expert production team providing color, action, and amazing visuals. As the clinching game ended, TNT captured the pure joy in the Panthers’ faces as they anticipated lifting Lord Stanley’s mug.

Play-by-play announcer Kenny Albert was an absolute booth maestro. Picking up the action with two minutes left in Game 6, Albert fully understood the magnitude of the moment with his voice, inflection, and tone. As Florida inched closer to the championship, Albert provided a neat recap of the Panthers’ playoff run, detailing how they got to this point. These teams battled right to the end, as evidenced by Edmonton’s Evander Kane delivering a couple of slashes to Florida’s Matthew Tkachuk. TNT’s cameras subsequently caught Tkachuk and Brad Marchand joking about the play on the Florida bench, as if to say, “Slash away, bro, we are taking home the Cup.”

Primetime Players Shine in the Big Moments

This series and game truly ensconced TNT as a hockey network. The production crew provided awesome crowd shots and audible audio of Panther fans singing “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” to the Oilers. Albert, ever the timing ace, offered individual statistics on several Panthers’ players as the clock wound down to under one minute. This is a skill—the ability to dole out information while recognizing the fact that a championship is about to be won.

Albert also took the time to read the names of the entire TNT production crew, thanking them for a job well done throughout the season. This was Albert in his fullest form. His voice rose as the game clicked off its final seconds and he bellowed, “The fans rise here in Sunrise, Florida!”

With eight seconds remaining on the clock, bedlam broke loose as the Panthers emptied their bench and skated toward goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. TNT’s skilled videographers captured the pure joy of the players with helmets off, gloves off, and equipment strewn all over the ice—just a bunch of guys who had battled together for months reaching their ultimate goal. It was breathtaking television.

Broadcast teams often screw up these moments by talking too much or missing key shots and angles. TNT did no such thing. “The Florida Panthers win their second consecutive Stanley Cup,” Albert yelled as the final horn sounded. He then kept silent as TNT captured shots of the Panthers’ coaching staff group hugging on the bench, fans going absolutely wild, and players forming a jubilant rugby scrum huddled together celebrating the moment.

One of the last players to join the scrum was Brad Marchand, acquired from the Bruins late in the season. The 37-year-old, heretofore hated Panthers’ rival, had become one of the most popular guys in South Florida with six goals in the Finals. As a graphic showed that Florida was indeed the 2025 Stanley Cup Champions, TNT’s cameras provided a panoramic swoosh from the ice into the crowd and a wide shot of the Panther fandom almost completely decked out in red.

Albert gave the moment what it needed—nothing. He let the video speak as we got a close-up shot of Edmonton’s Connor McDavid, once again stymied in his elusive quest for a Stanley Cup. That shot of McDavid, longingly staring at the celebrating Panthers, captured the flipside of a Stanley Cup clincher—just a wonderful piece of camera work. The wide shot of the ceremonial post-series handshake has become a staple of NHL championship coverage, and TNT did not fail here either. From that wide shot, cameras cut to close-ups of opposing players meeting at center ice and Panthers’ players and coaches embracing.

Capturing the Emotions of a Championship

The postgame broadcast was elevated by the presence of Jackie Redmond, TNT’s outstanding on-ice reporter. Redmond has branched out in her career, attaining multimedia stardom with WWE, but her roots remain in hockey. She understands the game, the moment, and the emotion. Her first question to Marchand quoted him as saying that you must live in the moment. She then said that this was a pretty big moment and asked Marchand how it felt living in it—great phrasing of a question.

Redmond followed up by saying that she could feel the emotion radiating from Marchand as he spoke. She alluded to the fact that Marchand was a Panthers’ rival and now was about to “drink beer out of the Stanley Cup with them.” Redmond doesn’t ask stock questions. She delves deeper and wants the player to do the same. In a subsequent interview, she asked Bobrovsky what it feels like to have thousands of fans chanting his name—just excellent.

TNT showed Commissioner Gary Bettman presenting the Conn Smythe playoff MVP trophy to Florida’s Sam Bennett and then cut to all of the pageantry with the presentation of the Stanley Cup. Florida captain Aleksander Barkov took the Cup right to his teammates, and another rugby scrum ensued with everyone’s hands touching part of the championship chalice. TNT’s on-ice crew was right in the middle of it all.

As individual Panthers skated around the rink with the Cup, TNT wisely put studio analyst Wayne Gretzky in a double box. Who better to talk about winning consecutive Stanley Cups than Gretzky, who did it with Edmonton in 1984 and 1985, and again in 1987 and 1988? Gretzky not only reflected on what it means to be a champion but also commented on how the Panthers put this team together, and specifically, how they marched through the playoffs, played as a team, never quit, and maintained a killer instinct.

Albert never stopped working, providing background information on each player as he hoisted the Cup. As Marchand took his turn, Gretzky talked about what he brought to the team in his short tenure in Florida. Gretzky stated, “The guys you hate the most, those are the guys you love and want on your team.”

Analysis That Brings Fans Closer to the Game

TNT was right there for the traditional team picture surrounding the Stanley Cup, one of the most iconic moments in sports. From all the excitement at ice level, TNT then cut to their outstanding anchor desk crew of Gretzky, Paul Bissonnette, Liam McHugh, Anson Carter, and Henrik Lundqvist. This eclectic team provided a really nice wrap-up with a double box so viewers could continue to watch the action on the ice.

TNT’s Cup cavalcade climaxed with a visual and musical package featuring clips and comments from past Stanley Cup champions—kind of a rustic, ice-melting version of CBS’s March Madness One Shining Moment. The studio team ended the broadcast saying how much they loved each other and the experience of working together—a fittingly personal touch to a truly emotional viewing experience.

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.

Molly Davis Promoted To COO Of The Radio Research Consortium

BMM Staff
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Molly Davis Promoted To COO Of The Radio Research Consortium

Molly Davis has been promoted to COO of The Radio Research Consortium (RRC) effective July 1. She has been with the company since August 2024. She takes over the spot previously held by Joanne Church, who passed away last year.

Davis said, “I’m truly honored and humbled to step into the role of President and CEO of Radio Research Consortium. I’m deeply grateful to the RRC’s board members for their confidence in me and for the opportunity to lead an organization that I care so much about. I also want to thank the incredible RRC team for their hard work, their heart, and their unwavering commitment to our mission. Together, I believe we can chart an exciting path forward. One that deepens our impact, strengthens non-commercial radio, and champions the power of data to tell meaningful stories.”

Stephen Schram, RRC Board Chairman, said, “We are very excited to see Molly Davis’s leadership elevate the RRC’s profile and value proposition for our public media and non-commercial radio industry clients. Her strategic focus and positive energy have driven a new level of organizational success. Molly’s efforts to recruit new staff to revitalize customer-facing roles and accelerate the upgrade and modernization of operational functions are already yielding notable results and improvements.”

Carol Jacobs, CFO and interim President, added, “Molly has been an invaluable member of the RRC team since becoming COO last year. We’re thrilled to have her take on the role of President. Her passion, commitment, and strategic vision have already had a profound impact on our organization. We are excited about the future and look forward to the continued positive effect she will have on the RRC and the non-commercial radio community.”

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Sean Pendergast: Kevin Durant Sweepstakes ‘Getting Way More Attention’ Than the NBA Finals

BSM Staff
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Sean Pendergast: Kevin Durant Sweepstakes ‘Getting Way More Attention’ Than the NBA Finals

As the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers continue to battle in the NBA Finals to capture their first league championship in franchise history, the matchup has been part of the discussion across sports media outlets. Yet Sean Pendergast of SportsRadio 610 feels that the sweepstakes Phoenix Suns superstar forward Kevin Durant are “getting way more attention” than the best-of-seven series. The 17-year NBA veteran is reported as being on the trading block following a year in which the Suns failed to qualify for the postseason and fired head coach Mike Budenholzer.

During the Wednesday edition of the show, Pendergast offered an analogy delineating the conversation around Durant as being similar to if quarterback Aaron Rodgers asked out from the New York Jets during Super Bowl week. While ratings for the NBA Finals are down 19% compared to last year heading into Game 6 of the series, Pendergast conveyed that the league has an issue relating to the overarching topic of conversation.

“This is going to go on at least until the Draft a little later on this month,” Pendergast said of the Durant sweepstakes. “Some of this admittedly is probably a function of who’s in the Finals. It’s been a good Finals, very watchable basketball, but it’s Oklahoma City and Indiana, and America, by and large, is not tingled by those two teams. So it’s an extreme situation here where you’ve got one of the greatest players of all time clearly on a trade block and you’ve got two very small markets in the NBA Finals.”

The issue Pendergast illustrated comes down to an ostensible perception of there being more interest in the offseason than the regular season of the NBA, occasionally stretching into the playoffs. Seth Payne, co-host of the Payne and Pendergast show, averred how people have discussed how the NBA has been discussed as more of a social media-type of league than a television product. Payne separated NBA fans into one of two competing factions – those who follow players and those who follow teams – something that creates distinctive and sometimes divergent points of interest.

“They may not see it as a problem, I don’t know,” Pendergast replied. “Maybe they just want attention for whatever — attention for attention’s sake. If it’s Kevin Durant and the Knicks’ coaching search that’s bringing people into the store talking about the NBA and generating TV interest in the NBA — I know the ratings are what the ratings are — then maybe that’s it. I just feel like when you have a sport, the most important thing should be who the champion is.”

Payne acknowledged that the situation with Durant is evidence about how important the individual players are, and he reflected on previous iterations of the Houston Rockets featuring guard James Harden. Although he was an all-star talent who spent nine seasons with the organization, the rest of the roster had frequent turnover and made it difficult to form an attachment with the players.

Pendergast admitted that he could be feeling the effects of the conversations about Durant in a more acute manner since the Rockets are reported as being involved and his proximity to the team. Yet he concluded a general consensus that more people are interested in the outcome of these reported negotiations than who will hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

“ESPN, for all the things you can criticize it for, is they know what they’re doing when it comes to topic selection, and if you’re sick of ESPN talking about something, it’s because they’ve done the research and they know that that’s what people are actually watching, and they’re talking a whole lot about Kevin Durant,” Payne said. “If you sat down — Sean, this afternoon, this is your project — you’re going to go down and you’re going to watch all the debate shows and you’re going to give me what percentage of the time were they talking about NBA Finals versus what percentage of the time were they talking about Kevin Durant.”

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Laura Okmin Turns Down Offer To Return To FOX Sports NFL Coverage

BSM Staff
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Laura Okmin Turns Down Offer To Return To FOX Sports NFL Coverage

FOX Sports will no longer have the services of NFL sideline reporter Laura Okmin. According to Front Office Sports, Okmin has decided to walk away from her role covering the NFL for FOX after being offered a new contract to continue with the network.

Okmin told Front Office Sports that the decision was entirely hers, which ultimately came as a surprise to her management team at FOX when she informed them.

“They sent me the contract. I printed it out. I sat there. It was just my voice saying, ‘It’s time, this is it,’” said Okmin. “I called my boss and my friend Jacob Ullman, who I’ve known as long as I’ve been at Fox Sports. I’m happy to say he was very surprised. I would have been very disappointed if there was any other reaction.”

For nearly a quarter of a century, Okmin has been a fixture in FOX Sports’ coverage of the National Football League. Although she is stepping away from FOX Sports, her plan is to continue working in football, specifically by contributing to NFL postseason and Super Bowl coverage for Westwood One’s radio broadcasts.

She originally joined FOX Sports in 2002, serving as both a host and reporter for the network. In addition, she was a host for the company’s digital coverage of the 2012 and 2014 Olympic Games.

Looking ahead, Okmin acknowledged that while she will miss certain aspects of the role at FOX, there are other parts she will not—particularly the persistent criticism that comes with being a female sideline reporter.

“It’s a tough job having to justify your job for 20 years,” said Okmin to Front Office Sports. “Having to fight for your job and having to justify it. It feels like there’s a bit of dog years with that job.”

Now, Okmin will be able to devote more of her energy to her company GALvanize, a mentoring program designed for aspiring women broadcasters. According to the company’s website, GALvanize provides media training for NFL rookies, pro coaches, the gold medal-winning USA Women’s Hockey Team, WNBA squads, and others seeking to develop the skills and confidence to deliver impactful messages.

Currently, the company is conducting a summer boot camp tour in partnership with several high-profile organizations, including the Jacksonville Jaguars, Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Atlanta Falcons, Los Angeles Chargers, and Texas Tech football.

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Kat Timpf Returns to Fox News and Gutfeld! After Beating Breast Cancer Amid Maternity Leave

BNM Staff
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Kat Timpf Returns to Fox News and Gutfeld! After Beating Breast Cancer Amid Maternity Leave

Earlier this year, Fox News contributor Kat Timpf announced she would be away from Gutfeld! due to her first pregnancy. That maternity leave was adjusted when she was diagnosed with cancer, but she returned this week and was excited to be back.

In February, Greg Gutfeld revealed that Timpf had given birth to a healthy baby boy. However, hours before delivery, she was diagnosed with breast cancer during a routine checkup.

She later underwent a double mastectomy in March, but had been relatively mum on what her future looked like before this week.

In her return to the Fox News late-night program, Kat Timpf shared that she is officially cancer-free.

“I’m very excited about it. It was a hard thing to go through, and it still is,” she shared.

“I still have reconstruction surgeries. I still have reconstruction surgeries,” she continued.”

She added that she still isn’t 100% sure how her cancer developed, with one theory being that her pregnancy with her first child could have been the cause. Timpf said, though, that if that is what happened, being a mother was worth it.

“I love being a mom. The way that it happened, it really was truly insane. I really had a day between the cancer diagnosis and the labor. We don’t know for sure what happened. I could have gotten cancer because I was pregnant, and even if I did, he’s still so worth it, because I love him so much.”

Timpf has been at Fox News for several years in a variety of roles. After hosting shows on FOX Nation and a Fox News Radio podcasts, she makes regular appearances on the network’s late-night show Gutfeld!.

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Neal Mohan Shares Three Keys to Why Podcasts Are Successful on YouTube

BSM Staff
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Neal Mohan Shares Three Keys to Why Podcasts Are Successful on YouTube

YouTube has become a go-to destination for podcasts in recent years, as the platform continues to grow in usage across the world. According to Edison Research released last month, podcasts on YouTube have more than 1 billion monthly active viewers and it is the most frequently used service for listening to podcasts in the U.S.

This week, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan was at the 2025 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and appeared as a guest on The Ankler Podcast, hosted by CEO and Editor in Chief Janice Min.

Min asked Mohan about the rising popularity of podcasts on YouTube, which Mohan referred to as an “overnight success” that the company had actually predicted in three key ways even before COVID in 2020.

“One was, and COVID accelerated this, was that people actually don’t want to just listen to podcasts. They wanna watch podcasts, they wanna watch this conversation happening,” explained Mohan. “You want to keep growing that audience every single day. And so having those podcasts hosted on YouTube and having the algorithm find new audiences for you every single day. Turns out to be really, really powerful no matter how big of a podcaster you are. The third piece is, just like we were talking about earlier, is really around monetization.”

Furthermore, Mohan went on to explain that, regarding the monetization model, YouTube allows creators to move beyond a “generic table read” to a more dynamic presentation. This, he said, works better for brands and brings out the creativity in the creator. He noted that the combination of monetization, discoverability, and the visual experience has contributed significantly to the success of podcasts on the platform.

In addition, YouTube recently launched a weekly podcast shows chart, which tracks and celebrates top podcasters. These creators are redefining the next era of entertainment with engaging, influential, and culture-defining shows across a wide range of genres, including News, Sports, Comedy, and True Crime. Min referenced several podcasts that she noticed ranking highly in various categories—some of which she wouldn’t have expected.

In response, Mohan emphasized that everyone is welcome on the platform, regardless of the podcast’s type or format.

“All of those podcasts, all of those podcast genres should have a home on YouTube. My job is to make it so that they’re all successful. There’s enough of an audience there that all of those podcasters can ultimately be successful,” said Mohan. “I think the main differentiator is we’re a video-first platform. So, podcasters that really sort of lean into that. What I mean by that is not high production but recognizing that having a familiar look and feel for your audience, finding a way to act. So much of communication is nonverbal, really capturing that. Those are the podcasts that tend to be successful in our platform.”

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Fox News Leads Coverage of U.S. Army Anniversary Parade

BNM Staff
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A parade was held on Saturday to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army. Fox News saw the highest ratings of the event throughout all of television.

In the 6-10 PM ET window during the military parade, Fox News averaged 4.9 million viewers. The network’s coverage peaked with 5.5 million viewers during the 8 PM ET hour.

Additionally, it was the highest-rated primetime Saturday for the network since its breaking news coverage in July 2024 after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

While Fox News provided extensive coverage of the event, networks like ABC, CBS, and NBC did not air coverage of the event. NBC featured a broadcast of the U.S. Open golf tournament in a portion of the parade’s window. However, that broadcast only averaged 3.4 million viewers, below the average that Fox News saw during its coverage of the parade.

Other cable networks broadcasting the parade were Newsmax, C-SPAN, and NewsNation. On the network side, ABC News, CBS News, and NBC News relegated coverage of the U.S. Army parade to their streaming networks.

Elsewhere, NewsNation saw a nearly 300% increase in total viewership compared to the same timeframe in previous weeks as it covered the U.S. Army parade. The network averaged just under 200,000 total viewers in the 6-10 PM ET timeslot.

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Nick Wright: ‘People Like Media Feuds’

BSM Staff
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Nick Wright: ‘People Like Media Feuds’

Following the Florida Panthers winning a second consecutive Stanley Cup championship on Tuesday night, The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz spoke about the accomplishment with several media personalities and contributors both remotely and in studio. Amid the third hour of the program though, some of the discussion deviated towards the ongoing media feud between FS1 host Nick Wright and Meadowlark Media sports journalist and podcast host Pablo Torre.

The origin of this media beef came from when Wright divulged that he considers himself to have rivals in the business who are around his age on the national level. Wright appeared on Torre’s podcast, Pablo Torre Finds Out, but he was invited back and subsequently did not reply, and upon making remarks about such, was banned from the program.

Wright conveyed that he was reading another profile of Torre in New York Magazine and intimated a sense of fatigue, asking why Meadowlark Media and DraftKings extending their partnership had not warranted a story. In reviewing the article, he stated that it took 13 words before the Peabody Awards were mentioned, a prestigious journalism honor for which an episode of Torre’s show was nominated. Wright proceeded to play a supercut of Torre’s conversation with Bill Simmons after their apparent feud over reporting surrounding Bill Belichick.

“This is really just a defense of the Le Batard Show,” Wright said. “If you weren’t watching your guys’ show the day you announced your latest partnership with your friends and my friends at DraftKings, I don’t know if anyone knows about it. Meanwhile, you could have been on an around the world, 180-day cruise, and you are still — you’re inundated with updates on the world according to Garp via Pablo Torre. It’s just a weird media diet as far as what people think is relevant and what’s not, and I just thought you guys, going out on your own doing a thing, where’s that profile?”

Wright was asking for distribution of glowing pieces, something he admitted could be a sense of jealousy from him. Shortly thereafter, he discovered that former ESPN Around the Horn host Tony Reali was in studio with Le Batard and asked to take back everything he had just said. Torre appeared on the sports debate program over the years where he accrued 138.75 victories, and Wright feared that Reali would now think that he was “an ass” having never spoken to him before outside of DMs.

“I think you are who you are, but I would say it’s possible you’re online a little too much, and this is advice I would impart,” Reali explained. “It’s just a little bit too much – that’s all, that’s all. I mean, you’re keeping up with the amount of mentions of people in certain publications.”

As the segment continued, Wright explained that he did log off the internet and proceeded to pick up a copy of New York Magazine with the article about Torre. Le Batard later acknowledged that Reali conveying he thinks Wright is who he is was the most unkind thing he had heard him say. This resulted in Reali clarifying that it was meant as a compliment and that knowing who you are equates to 95% of life, but contributor Jonathan Zaslow added that it came right after Wright said he feared he would come off in the wrong way. Reali then said that he needs “some street cred” and could start a public feud, something Wright sees that people like in the media space.

“It’s a first cousin of the amount of people who don’t really watch regular-season NBA but consume a ton of NBA gossip, content, podcasts,” Wright said. “There are a lot of people who don’t necessarily watch the sports talk shows but really like when people involved in those shows appear to be feuding. Again, I didn’t have enough time to really put a fine point on it, but that is an odd thing that definitely exists.”

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.

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