Steve McKay has been named Program Director for Classic Hits Rewind 107.9 and Top 40 Hot 98.3 in Savannah, GA.
McKay recently served as a Brand Manager for Townsquare Media in New Jersey. He also held programming positions with Cumulus Media in Columbia, SC and Wilmington, NC.
Speaking of the new position, McKay said, “I’m delighted to join the team at DBC (Dick Broadcasting Co.) in Savannah. I want to thank Market Manager Aaron Wilborn, DBC VP of Programming Jason Goodman, and Nathan James for affording me this outstanding opportunity. We’ve got some great heritage brands in place, and it’s going to be exciting to elevate them further in the minds of our listeners and clients by being fun, exciting, and local. I can’t wait.”
Aaron Wilborn, Market Manager, said, “After a long interview process, it was clear that Steve was the best for the position. I couldn’t be more excited about adding Steve to our talented and local programming team. His knowledge, creativity, and passion made him the perfect choice.”
Jason Goodman added, “Steve’s dedication will drive programming to super-serve the local community with engaging content, promotions, and branding.”
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.
The 2025 NAB Show wrapped up recently, and I was curious to hear what attendees had to say. After scrolling through various posts online, I found myself going down a rabbit hole, digging for solid recaps of what actually took place.
Eventually, I just typed it into Google. The first result was a press release from the NAB titled “The 2025 NAB Show Wraps: Defines the Future of the Media and Entertainment with Groundbreaking Innovation and Global Engagement.”
Headlines are meant to grab attention, and this one definitely did. I had no idea the future of media was not only known—but apparently discussed openly. Naturally, I kept reading, eager to find out more.
The article said, in part:
“NAB Show brought together a broad spectrum of thought leaders, including representatives from major corporations like the Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal, TikTok, and YouTube. Top speakers included:
Gotham Chopra, Co-founder, Religion of Sports Jody Gerson, Chairman and CEO, Universal Music Publishing Group Nick Khan, President & CEO, WWE Paul “Triple H” Levesque, Chief Content Officer, WWE Dhar Mann and Sean Atkins, Dhar Mann Studios Stephen A. Smith, Television Host, ESPN”
That’s a pretty impressive lineup. From what I gathered, the audiences enjoyed the presentations.
Quick aside: I co-own a podcast network, and several of our shows are in the pro wrestling space. Any chance to hear Triple H and Nick Khan speak would genuinely excite me.
But in this particular context, they wouldn’t be the speakers I’d turn to for a glimpse into the future of the media industry. They’re titans in their field, sure—but they play on a level that few can even imagine. Of course, there’s value in learning from them, but if the goal was to map the future of media, having WWE executives front and center felt a bit… off.
Stephen A. Smith also spoke. He was at a recent Barrett Media event as well, and he’s always electric—full of energy, plenty of self-references, entertaining as hell. The man knows the business. But he’s also nearing 60 and into the proverbial Back 9.
One bright spot: for the first time, there was a sports summit. The description read:
“This inaugural track explored the rapid convergence of sports, media, and technology, featuring insights from leaders such as Portia Archer, CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association.”
Some of the jokes write themselves.
All in all, I’m sure the 2025 NAB Show was a great opportunity to network, learn about new products and technologies, and hear what big companies are doing to innovate. But the idea that it defined the future of media? That sounds like classic press release fluff.
Many of the photos I saw featured the same people you always see at these types of events—talking about the same topics, pointing out the same problems, and offering few real solutions. And to be fair, how could they? They’re no longer the experts—they’re just the ones still showing up.
I recently saw a LinkedIn photo of a group of broadcasters in Washington, D.C. with a caption that read something like, “Going to represent the radio industry.” And all I could think was: This is who represents radio? Maybe that’s the problem.
We’re in an era where younger people often have just as much—if not more—knowledge about the landscape and how to navigate it. We need their input. We need them involved in shaping radio’s future if we hope to survive and stay relevant. If the future of our industry is in the hands of some of the people I see in the photos representing the industry, we might be in more trouble than I thought.
It’s time for deeper conversations—and it’s time to bring more young voices into the room. If people genuinely want to help this industry, let’s make a “Solution Show” happen and focus on what really matters.
The Best/Worst Thing I’ve Heard/Watched/Read Recently
I know I have suggested Stern interviews in this space before and I am going to add to that list this week. If you enjoyed The White Lotus, you need to listen to Howard’s recent interview with show creator Mike White. I described the interview to someone as “a really different thinking kind of person – talking to a really different thinking kind of person.”
Fascinating is the word I would use to describe it. Fascinating from the standpoint of the way Howard still crushes pretty much anyone I know when it comes to interviewing. And fascinating from many of the things White said about the making of the show.
You have to be a SiriusXM subscriber to listen, which I still am mainly because of the Howard Stern interviews.
If you own a radio station or are a manager of one, please spend the 4 minutes it will take you to read Demetri Ravanos’ column from earlier this week titled, ‘Should You Be Programming for YouTube Over Radio?‘
The answer is yes if you didn’t know but read the full article and read the explanations. Demetri has a way of writing so that things make sense to even someone who may not understand all of the intricacies of YouTube or digital broadcasting.
There are so many mistakes being made – from one Demetri points out about local hosts trying to do national programming, and the one I see all of the time which is ‘just throw some cameras up in the studio.’ Doing that is the equivalent of having ‘podcasts’ that are just the recordings of earlier shows. (Chandler Bing voice) Can we GET any lazier?
This is one column you should not miss. Read the full column by clicking here.
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 Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin broke the record for the most career regular-season goals scored in National Hockey League history, he plunged down the ice and was mobbed by his teammates. Amid a euphoric sea of red celebrating history live on Long Island, longtime Monumental Sports Network play-by-play announcer Joe Beninati delivered a memorable call of the moment delineating the accomplishment and underscoring Ovechkin’s legacy. Although Beninati does not usually script his calls, he had thought about this particular one extensively and pondered the subject as the game progressed before chronicling this distinctive occurrence.
“You know the rush of adrenaline is going to be enormous when he scores, and again, going back to past practices and professionalism, I want that call to be entertaining, and I want it to be something that’s just right in that instance, but I don’t want it to be too much,” Beninati said. “It’s got to be succinct, it’s got to detail him as what he is: the greatest goal scorer in NHL history.”
Ovechkin’s journey to 895 career goals was dubbed the GR8 Chase, and it captured the hearts and attention of sports fans around the world. Concurrent with the branding surrounding this inimitable expedition, he thought about the instance as a conclusion of a chase and surmised the specific diction with which he would express the sentiment.
“Day after day as he gets closer and closer to the record, my senses are heightened,” Beninati explained. “Every shift he’s on the ice, my eyes are mostly glued to the puck, but I’m trying to find where he is in anticipation of him getting it and getting a shot off. As a play-by-play man, you want to be in the front side of everything. You don’t want to be back-selling, so again, timing is so important to me. I was just laser-focused in the last couple of weeks, especially as his climb continued, to make sure that I’d be there at the right time.”
Leaning on Greats to Assist Crafting Greatness
Wayne Gretzky held the NHL goals record for the last 31 years, surpassing Gordie Howe as a member of the Los Angeles Kings in 1994. Drawing parallels between both events, Beninati reached out to retiring Kings play-by-play announcer Nick Nickson and longtime NBC Sports commentator Mike “Doc” Emrick as part of his preparation during the GR8 Chase. On top of that, Beninati leaned on his own experience having called a preponderance of Ovechkin’s career goals starting from the very beginning when the forward made his NHL debut in 2005.
As Ovechkin reached the goal-scoring apex and received plaudits from those gathered inside UBS Arena and around the world, Beninati was closely watching the video monitors to determine if the Capitals had engaged in a legal zone entry. Despite realizing that the instance nearly merited an offside call, Patrick Roy and the New York Islanders did not end up challenging the play. The league subsequently held a ceremony for Ovechkin at center ice featuring NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Gretzky himself, during which they commended this illustrious achievement and allowed Ovechkin to address the fans.
“You never know what you’re going to ultimately say because, ‘What does the goal look like? Is it a game-winning goal, is it an overtime goal? Is it a goal that there’s some doubt there?,’ so that’s why you’re hoping that everything falls properly in the way it did, but I got scared that that was awfully close to the [blue] line,” Beninati said. “That’s why I’m looking. I’m going, ‘Is somebody going to hold their hand up here?,’ but at that moment, you’ve got to commit to it.”
Two nights earlier, Ovechkin and the Capitals played a home game in front of a sold-out crowd at Capital One Arena, creating an environment that Beninati felt resembled the Stanley Cup Final sans trepidation towards victory or defeat. Entering the contest two goals behind tying the record, Ovechkin scored less than four minutes into the game, augmenting the palpable buzz inside of the venue.
Later in the game, he tied the record with goal No. 894, and the ostensible sentiment was that he would break the record with a hat-trick. Although this did not occur, the Monumental Sports Network broadcast attained three times the viewership of an average Capitals game, contributing to a 39% proliferation in the average audience of that thereof.
“It was such a happy, joyous kind of situation,” Beninati said. “People weren’t biting their fingernails. They were like, ‘Okay, this is going to happen, and this is something incredibly great for a favorite son of our franchise, and the greatest player of Capitals franchise history is about to surpass a mark held by the absolute greatest player in NHL history.’”
"THE GREAT 8 STANDS SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE GREAT ONE!" @ovi8 ties the @NHL goal scoring record and the #ALLCAPS fans in @CapitalOneArena shower the @Capitals captain with an incredible ovation.
— Monumental Sports Network (@MonSportsNet) April 5, 2025
Team Efforts Capture Memorable Moments
The production team at Monumental Sports Network sought to create a viable on-air product to document the GR8 Chase, and there were several elements on the regional sports network in recent weeks surrounding Ovechkin’s odyssey to the proverbial summit. For example, the outlet released multiplatform content related to the development and also announced a special original program reliving all of his 895 goals needed to break the record. Utilizing new studios that opened last year, the network also presented live pregame and postgame studio shows for all broadcasts, adding regional elements amid a plethora of exclusive national games.
At the same time, the company reached a cooperation agreement with the National Hockey League that permitted the creation of its own broadcasts for archival purposes amid national presentations. Four out of the final six Capitals regular-season games were scheduled to air on national platforms, which would have risked depriving fans of Beninati’s call and other elements of the local product.
“It’s never been about me – it’s not about me,” Beninati said. “It’s about Alex, it’s about the sport, it’s about the fans and the historical reference points that he’s been surpassing from Day 1 through all of the hundreds of goals that we’ve been lucky enough to call.”
While Beninati admits that he has called most of his goals outside of No. 800, he understands the business having called NHL on Versus matchups for six years in addition to Capitals games. Nonetheless, he was appreciative of the network being granted the chance to record the action and provide their outlooks for the audience.
“The hockey gods looked down and let Alex do this during live games that were on Monumental Sports Network where the national broadcast could fill in around us, which is exactly what happened on Sunday afternoon,” Beninati said. “I thought it was the right thing to do, and thankfully, a lot of people took a lot of steps to making that accommodation. As it turned out, we didn’t need it, but I was very grateful for the thought and for the opportunity should it have arisen like that.”
— Monumental Sports Network (@MonSportsNet) April 6, 2025
Under the direction of producer Ryan Billie and director Kevin Santos, the regional telecast composed a sequence that lended to storytelling pertaining to the magnitude of this accomplishment. There was a gap before the on-ice ceremony commenced, granting Beninati time to parse through the reactions, replays and residual action to adequately portray the tableau. Furthermore, he and his colleagues were able to reflect on how Ovechkin had added to his remit and cemented himself nonpareil among goal scorers in the NHL regular season.
“Yeah, we’re the ones whose faces you see, we’re the ones whose voices you hear, but it’s a team,” Beninati emphasized. “These people are not only my teammates [and] colleagues, many of them are my best friends, and this is what we wanted desperately to be a part of, and we got it, and I hope and pray, I think by the reception of others and by the commentary that I’ve been hearing, we nailed it.”
Over the years, Beninati has had conversations with NHL goaltenders who have faced Ovechkin, several of whom avowed that his shot emits a ripple effect where the puck changes direction in its flight path to the net. Ovechkin uses a hockey stick containing a unique curve and displays explosive velocity and pinpoint accuracy on his shots, thus rendering the puck deceptive for net-minders to curtail.
“It’s just overwhelming to NHL goalies, and goalies nowadays are better than they’ve ever been,” Beninati said. “They’re better athletes, they’re bigger, they’re better trained, their system, their schematics to playing the goal position are so much better than what they were 20 and 30 years ago. It’s harder to score goals now than ever, and this guy’s breaking all-time records. That tells you just how good he is.”
The Journey Ahead Past the GR8 Chase
The Capitals organization is looking to attain its second Stanley Cup championship in seven seasons, something Beninati believes may be even more important to Ovechkin than the record-breaking goal. Ovechkin led the franchise to a championship victory in the 2017-18 season, but the team has yet to win a Stanley Cup Final series since that time. The Capitals are heading into the playoffs with momentum and a chance to win the President’s Trophy, but much of the conversation around the team in recent weeks has been related to the GR8 Chase.
“It was everywhere the team went and anybody from the media, whether it be print, radio, TV, it was always a line of questioning about Alex,” Beninati said. “It was, ‘Beat the drum for that Gr8 Chase,’ and I’m sure now that he’s achieved it and reached that pinnacle that the guys are going to settle down and refocus on what matters the most as a team, and that’s winning it all, and I think they should be a favorite coming out of the East.”
— Monumental Sports Network (@MonSportsNet) April 7, 2025
Aside from the stellar on-ice performance of the Capitals and the potential to hoist the Stanley Cup victorious in June, the team has also been celebrating its 50th anniversary season over the last seven months. Beninati does not know how much he believes in good karma, but he does acknowledge how remarkable it is that these pillars have simultaneously coalesced.
With this fortuitous unfolding of seminal moments in franchise history, Beninati does not take his role for granted and aspires to continue broadcasting games when Ovechkin’s sons are playing. For now though, Beninati will keep enjoying the ride with the Capitals team as the playoffs near and Ovechkin looks to become the first NHL player in history to score 900 regular-season goals.
“I know these calls and this video is going to be looked upon and savored and put in halls of fame and it’s going to play back, hopefully forever, at least I know for my lifetime, sure,” Beninati said. “I am pleased with the way it turned out, but more than anything, I’m pleased by the way we got to – we, underline ‘we,’ Monumental Sports Network, all of us – got a chance to do what we do best around this player. That’s what it was all about.”
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.
As radio continues to navigate the waters of an ever-changing media landscape, one question keeps coming up in various conversations in my world: How valuable are callers in 2025?
While talk radio has see-sawed over the years around opinions of caller usage, I believe we’re in an era where the caller can be a useful tool within a show. However, if misused, they have pitfalls as well.
One of radio’s competitive advantages over a podcast is its ability to be live and react in real time. The medium needs to use that to its advantage whenever possible by following and opining on breaking news in real-time.
This can also lead to valuable feedback and reactions from callers, who are not typically heard in podcasts.
Callers can be useful for a talk radio show in several ways. It’s another voice to break up the monotony of a solo host (which is also why audio usage is so imperative for any talk show). It creates an opportunity for a host to show another side of themselves as they interact with a caller.
Can they cleverly turn phrases when interacting with a caller that stands out to the audience? Does the caller challenge the host on a topic or issue that sparks an interesting conversation? Can the caller provide some humor to a topic or show? Or is the caller an expert in a field on the topic being discussed? All these options and more are on the table when considering a caller and how they can benefit the audience.
But that’s the key question for every producer and host before putting a caller on the air: What are they providing to the audience? If you’re a solo host just looking to interact with another person or you’re looking to burn a few minutes in a segment, that’s not good enough.
Consider how high the standards are for your station to hire a host who they put on the air. You’re giving up valuable minutes of your radio station’s airwaves to a caller. That caller better have something damn good to say.
And just as important, if you swing a miss, the key is to get them off the air as quickly as possible. A producer and host won’t bat 1.000 with quality callers. It’s part of unedited, live talk radio. But acknowledging the mistake (internally, not on the air) and moving on quickly is how you can limit the damage and move on.
It’s also critical to have a producer direct the callers to get right to their point and avoid the small talk (“How are you?”) as a great way to direct them and keep the show moving. Remember, they’re not professionals. They don’t understand PPM principles. They’re just happy to be on the air with a host they enjoy listening to. It’s like parenting: You can’t be upset with a child for screwing something up if you’ve never taught them the right way to do it. That’s your job.
Lastly, what sound are you going for with the caller? Every caller brings with them a visual for the listener. Does this caller — based on their sound — deliver the visual you want your audience to have of the radio station?
Let’s be honest: Too many perceive talk radio as being their grandpa’s radio station. There are plenty of stations having great success in the 25-54 demographic, but as the saying goes, perception is reality.
Every major corporation in America can succeed or fail based on their potential customer’s perception. A radio show and station is no different.
Younger callers (or younger-sounding callers) are an important part of creating a new perception of talk radio. Plus, these listeners then hear their peers, which will ideally encourage others in the demographic to pick up the phone and make that call to their favorite show.
This isn’t to say someone with an excellent point of view and insight who may sound older isn’t worth putting on the air. They absolutely are worth it! However, multiple callers in a row who sound out of the desirable demographic and aren’t lighting it up on the air do nothing but confirm the perceptions that have persisted for too long in the format.
Every voice on the air is a branding image of the radio station.
None of this is an exact science, but as you navigate the ebbs and flows of a talk show, at least being aware of how callers reflect your show and your station will help in deciding who is worth putting on the air.
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.
The Greg Beharrell Show is an internationally syndicated program heard on several radio genres across 85 stations in North America. He’s based out of 95.5 KLOS in Los Angeles, and he’s been there for almost ten years.
Just a heads up, I myself am a little confused by this interview, but I’ll do my best to avoid making you jump through hoops the way I had to when trying to make some sense of it.
I started with a little bit of background on Beharrell’s career and how he ended up on KLOS.
“Beharrell pondered the question in his brain, his youthful charm clashing with the wisdom of a much older man.”(Editor’s note: These descriptors are in quotes because Beharrell said them out loud before continuing with his answer).
“I began my career in Canada, working in cities like Toronto and Vancouver, then San Francisco came knocking – metaphorically, of course, the advent of phones made an in-person visit unnecessary – I landed in Los Angeles at KLOS in 2016, syndicated myself to five cities, then partnered with Yea Media Group in 2020, and I’m now in 85 cities across North America, and rural Belgium.”
What role does your show play in the listener community?
“I like to think of my show as a bridge to the audience, and I’m underneath the bridge waiting to charge a riddle’s toll for passage.”
Um, okay…What makes your show unique? How do you separate yourself from the competition?
“My show is all about creativity. If I could describe it in one word, it would be…(Editor’s note: Beharrell paused here for well over five minutes)…creativity,” said Beharrell, finally. “Everything on my show is done with a rye smile, and – just like the bread – there is a hint of sweetness.”(Editor’s note: It seems Beharrell has confused the adjective wry with the grain rye).
How do you prepare for a show that airs in many different markets?
“I’m constantly generating content, morning to evening, but it’s like the old saying goes, ‘you can’t have prep without pep.’”(Editor’s note: There does not seem to be any historical documentation of this saying).
What are some of the regular things your show is known for?
“When it comes to what regular things my show is known for, I’d say it’s known for being irregular,” he answered. (Clearly proud of his play on words, Beharrell attempted to lean back in his chair before realizing it was bolted to the ground.)
What are your passion projects? Big events?
“I work with several pet rescues across the country through my affiliates, including SPCALA.com, strayrescue.org, and PawsChicago.org. I love animals; they are pure magic and make me feel confident about random fur placement.”
Has anything ever happened on your show that completely turned things upside down?
“Yes.”(Editor’s note: Strangely, the – until now – jovial Beharrell became very quiet and somber, his attention now directed at the floor, we did not push for elaboration).
What are the show’s biggest accomplishments?
“I’m most proud of our ratings accomplishments. In many PPM markets, The Greg Beharrell Show is the #1 adults 18-49, 25-54, and 108-139 for #9 ranked shows within the #10 to #25 ranked human-hosted, English-speaking (cockney), desperation-driven radio programs.”
What’s missing in the industry right now? How do we fix it?
“We need to allow jocks to throw more ideas against the wall and see if they stick, ideally metaphorically, but I am open to literally if we’re in fall book.”
What’s ahead for the show? Is anything big coming up?
“We have a lot of things on the horizon, a lot of irons in the fire, multiple opportunities brewing, several projects in flight, a real portfolio of initiatives(…).”(Editor’s note: We have used an ellipsis in place of several more corporate isms).
What socials would you like listed?
“Find me on social media!”(Editor’s note: We asked Beharrell for more specifics, but he declined, explaining that the search would “add some whimsy”).
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.
Impact week. Conversion week. Maximum Spins and the dreaded push week. Let’s start with this premise. Country record labels have a very different agenda than Country radio.
Having been on both sides of the equation, I can say this with 100 percent certainty: Both have a job to do and when partnerships are formed, they can be great relationships.
Adding new music has typically meant playing it for a few spins overnight and late evenings to “help get it started.”
Looking at Mediabase station reports for a large market station in a strong Country market, I found an add last week for the new Jordan Davis song, “Bar None.” Davis is a proven hitmaker. Remember “Buy Dirt?”
The station has to date, given the new Davis song one spin overnight. For the record, another add shows one spin in midday and one in the evening.
What has this accomplished? It helped the record label. They can put that station “on the board.” It helped create one of those “early on” graphics used for marketing.
If this is part of the partnership and everyone knows that, then it’s fine. But I believe it is time to rethink that model.
There is a huge appetite for music discovery. With DSPs and pure plays, TikTok and YouTube fans of an artist already know everything that’s out there almost as soon as an artist’s music drops.
Take Morgan Wallen; you can’t tell me that when he dropped “One Thing At A Time,” a 36-track project in 2023, his fans waited for radio before seeking out every note of it.
Sure, Wallen is an A-list artist who sells out stadiums, but fans are craving the discovery of new artists and songs, which is never in short supply on Music Row.
SiriusXM’s “The Highway” breaks the next generation of Country superstars. The channel’s “Highway Finds” selects a Country artist that “they believe has the talent to make it big.” Their website lists past “Highway Finds” Parker McCollum, Luke Combs, Gabby Barrett, Maren Morris, Dan + Shay, and Florida Georgia Line.
Making new music discoveries should be an essential part of your music strategy. Adding and playing a song seven times a week overnight isn’t music discovery.
Music Choice Director of Programming and Country Programmer Jim Murphy uses this strategy to introduce new music.
“When I programmed for terrestrial radio, I never was a fan of dayparting songs and new songs in particular. My feeling was, and still is, if you’re going to commit to a song or an artist you should be willing to play it enough times throughout the day that listeners stand a chance of hearing it.”
“I understand why some people think any airplay, even overnights only, is better than none. But it always begs the old “If a tree falls in the forest…” question for me. I mean, is there any actual benefit to the audience or the artist if only Mediabase hears it?”
“Our philosophy at Music Choice is different from most radio stations in that we are proud of our ability to drive music and artist discovery on multiple levels. When a song is selected for an add on ‘Today’s Country,’ we’ll most often put it in a Brand New “highlight” rotation to make sure it gets an enhanced level of exposure for the first week or two of airplay.”
“From there, it can move either up or down, but only after it’s been featured enough to hopefully catch the audience’s ear. And even when a song moves down after that initial blast, it’s still playing in all dayparts in every time zone across the country.”
Will playing new music in all dayparts mean adding fewer records? Most likely, if you commit to an all-daypart add. But what good does it do to add three records in a week that maybe only one will ever see the light of day?
Add the song, play it in all day parts, and expose the artist loudly and proudly—one word of caution. When you present the song or the artist, you might want to resist the temptation to use the word “new” because, in all likelihood, it’s already a few weeks old to your savvy social media users.
I use the hub-and-spoke analogy to describe how listeners consume radio. Radio, of course, is the hub, and the spokes are the consumers. In the old days, the spokes relied on the hub to tell them when there was new music or a concert was coming to town.
Now, the spokes have a quick and easy way, in their pockets, to communicate directly with each other, eliminating the hub.
Get into the new music discovery discussion with your spokes.
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.
If you look around the news/talk radio genre today, you’ll see plenty of former sports radio hosts and talent littered throughout the format.
The largest show in the news/talk radio format from a national standpoint — The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show — features a former sports talk radio host in Travis. At 77 WABC in New York, the morning show is helmed by Sid Rosenberg, a former sports talk radio host. Similarly, 1210 WPHT in Philadelphia’s morning show is helmed by Nick Kayal, who worked in sports radio in Atlanta and Nashville in addition to his time in the City of Brotherly Love.
700 WLW in Cincinnati just added former FOX Sports and Major League Baseball broadcaster Thom Brennaman as its new morning host. Elsewhere, KDKA Radio afternoon drive host Colin Dunlap moved from sister station 93.7 The Fan to take over the news/talk afternoon show. Gee Scott Sr. at KIRO Newsradio in Seattle previously hosted on sister station Seattle Sports 710. KCMO Talk Radio Program Director and morning host Pete Mundo — who was recently elevated to Vice President of News/Talk at Cumulus Media — is a former sports talk radio host.
Even in the digital space, hosts like Jason Whitlock — who worked at ESPN, FS1, and OutKick after a stellar career as a sports newspaper columnist before joining Glenn Beck’s The Blaze — helm politically-focused programming.
And that’s just the surface of those now finding themselves in the news/talk radio format.
In recent years, many news/talk radio program directors and brand managers have lamented the lack of proving grounds for new hosts, as many of the top talents in the format hit or inch closer to retirement ages.
But, clearly, the sports media industry has proven to be a place where those leaders can mine for the next talk radio stars.
Mundo told Barrett Media that he believes sports media has “absolutely” been an underutilized lane for talent development and scouting in the news/talk radio medium.
“Sports talk is basically a breeding ground for news/talk because I think there’s a lot of folks like myself that are waking up to the fact that there is not a bench in news/talk and there’s an oversaturation in sports talk,” Mundo stated. “So as long as you’re not forcing it — you have to do what you’re passionate about — but if your passion is at all leaning towards news or equal between news and sports, I would be leaning heavily into the news/talk side because it’s an aging format that desperately needs you.
“It did not do a good job over the last 20 years developing any kind of a bench and there’s so many guys trying to break through in sports and there’s not enough jobs for them. That’s just a fact. So I’m always looking at the sports side. And let’s be honest: the sports talk sound is a younger sound because there are a lot more younger people doing it. If you can take that sound and transition it into news/talk, that’s your next generation right there.”
The move is a logical one. Many aspects of sports talk radio translate naturally to other spoken word formats. Despite the changes in topics and subjects, the formatics are largely the same, leading to those shifting from one genre to the other to do so relatively seamlessly.
Sid Rosenberg noted that he wasn’t the first to go from sports to news, pointing to people like former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann — who had previously worked for sports outlets like ESPN before shifting his focus to politics — as someone who accomplished the feat first. He felt it was a natural shift for him.
“It was simple,” Rosenberg said of the move. “It’s easy because it’s the same thing. We replace the team that we love with the politician that we love or replace a team that we hate. I’m a Mets fan, and hate the Yankees. So now, you hate President Trump with the same fervor, the same passion that you hate the Islanders or the Yankees or the Jets. It’s the same thing. You go out of your way to protect your teams and your politicians, and at the same, you’ll find every excuse to bash them.
“So even though the stakes are much bigger than what I’m doing now, the truth is that, in terms of approach, whether it’s a team, a player or a politician, they’re eerily similar.”
Nick Kayal agreed with Rosenberg, sharing that he thinks the formats are so similar it made for a smooth transition for him when he joined 1210 WPHT in 2022.
“If those talents have the passion to do it — if they have the beliefs, values, ideologies, whatever you wanna call it — if you’re anywhere right of center on the political spectrum and you have a passion for it and you think you have something to say, and you can’t say it in sports or you can’t share it on social media because of cancel culture, (then news/talk radio is for you),” said Kayal.
“Because if you can do radio, I think you can do radio in any format. It’s interesting. I’ve seen how many guys over the years when I was a sports guy think they can do talk radio. Then they do it. In four hours a day, there is a lot of content to fill. But if you can fill content and you can fill up a daypart, I don’t think the subject matter really matters as long as you’re somewhat knowledgeable, you’re passionate, you’er opinionated, and you can be a bit entertaining.”
Rosenberg added that there was a bit of a stigma that accompanied his move from sports talk to news/talk. But he wasn’t afraid of the potential reputation hit that others believed might come with such a move.
“I say this not to come off as a jerk — and certainly not to not to criticize my sports talk colleagues, because a lot of those guys are tremendously talented — but I feel like when people ask me what happened, I say I grew up,” he said with a chuckle. “Or I graduated. Because I still love sports, and I still include sports. Every one of my morning shows at WABC has sports. Every one. and I’ve got guests three or four times a week. So I still love sports.”
He noted that the terrorist attacks in Paris in November 2015 were the tipping point for him, saying that his boss at his sports talk station in South Florida expected him to simply talk about the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and NBA’s Miami Heat rather than talk about the attack.
“I said, ‘I can’t do it, man, I can’t do it,’ because at this point in my life, I’m in my 40s. I’ve got two kids. I’m every bit as worried, if not more worried about the future of this country or the world than about the Dolphins,” he admitted. “I just couldn’t do it. My priorities changed and sports became less important.”
When Colin Dunlap moved from 93.7 The Fan to KDKA in Pittsburgh, he admitted he was worried about how he would be viewed by the audience by coming over from sports to the polarized world of news/talk radio.
“I think that the discerning listener can understand — if they take enough of a sample size and give you enough of a chance of a listen — that, potentially, your opinion hits both sides of the mark if they give you enough time, and then they can’t pigeon hole you in,” he said. “I think that news, current events, and political callers are much more nasty because everybody in Pittsburgh roots for the Steelers. Not everybody in Pittsburgh roots for the governor. Half the people do and half the people don’t.”
He added that he went into the news/talk world by knowing that there would be some apprehension from his audience about whether or not he should be viewed as an authority on the subjects.
“To this day, you’ll still get somebody who says, ‘Stick to sports’ or ‘Go back to sports.’ You’ll never earn, in some people’s eyes, an opinion in a second field,” said Dunlap. “If the inverse would have happened, and I would have started in current events and then gone to sports, they’d say, ‘What does this political hack know about (Pittsburgh Steelers head coach) Mike Tomlin?
“I do think I’ve been welcomed in by the audience, and I think the numbers bear that out,” he concluded.
New 700 WLW host Thom Brennaman believes those moving from sports to news/talk have a natural advantage because of one aspect.
“I think from just a pure being on the air standpoint, if you’re are a sports guy — let’s say you’re a play-by-play guy — you are having to talk without any script, without any teleprompter, without anything, for hours at a time,” he said. “So I think you start off with a slight advantage in that regard.”
Brennaman did add that his shift from sports to news/talk was “forced” on him after his high-profile exit from FOX Sports in 2020 after hot mic incident that involved him being heard using an anti-gay slur.
Despite the shift from sports to news, both hosts we spoke with shared they still enjoy sports. Brennaman will continue his work as a play-by-play broadcaster for The CW after taking over the morning show on 700 WLW.
Rosenberg said there are definitely days he wishes he was only in the sports world, too. He pointed to events like the Super Bowl ass times he wishes he was still in the space.
“I just love the whole week,” he said. “Every time a Super Bowl comes along, I’m like, ‘I kind of wish I was in New Orleans.’ I kind of wish I was in the sports world. If it’s a big World Series game or when the Mets were playing the Dodgers in the NLCS last year, there were mornings I woke up and said, ‘Hey, I kind of wish I was talking more about the Mets.’ So 100% that is the case. But is it often? Absolutely not.”
Other hosts, however, shared that they don’t miss their time in the sports genre due to the ever-evolving news/talk genre.
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Last week, President Donald Trump announced a new tariff plan that ended up wreaking havoc on the financial markets. While CNBC and Fox Business Network each saw an increase in viewership, so did MSNBC, as the network earned its top ratings of the year thus far.
For the week of March 31st, MSNBC averaged 1.237 million viewers in the primetime window. That’s a marked improvement over the first quarter average for the network, which finished the first three months of 2025 at just over 1 million viewers.
The previous primetime high for MSNBC was the final week of February. The network earned 1.220 million viewers that week.
To begin 2025, MSNBC was mired in a ratings slump following the election of Donald Trump in early November last year. In the first two weeks of January, the network failed to eclipse 800,000 total viewers in primetime. It averaged just under 740,000 total primetime viewers during the first two weeks of the calendar year.
The network also saw its highest total day ratings of 2025 during the week of March 31st. For the week, MSNBC averaged 701,000 total viewers, besting its previous high of 690,000 viewers the week following the inauguration of Donald Trump. The results mark three consecutive weeks of total growth for the network, as it featured 609,000 viewers the week of March 17th and 628,000 viewers in the total day ratings the preceding weeks.
CNN Sees Best Primetime Audience Since Trump’s Congressional Speech
Elsewhere, CNN had its best week since President Donald Trump addressed a joint session of Congress — which was technically not a State of the Union speech — during the first week of March.
The network averaged 572,000 total viewers in the primetime window for the week of March 31st. The week of Trump’s speech to Congress, CNN averaged 716,000 total viewers in the daypart. Since then, it had featured 571,000 (week of March 10th); 523,000 (week of March 17th); and 553,000 (week of March 24th).
Additionally, the week of March 31st saw CNN earn another primetime win in the key Adults 25-54 demographic over MSNBC. During the first three months of 2025, CNN has topped MSNBC in the pivotal demographic nine of the 13 weeks.
During the week of March 31st, Fox News stayed relatively steady in the primetime figures. The network averaged 2.802 million total viewers for the week. That was up slightly from the 2.792 million it featured in the previous window. In the key demo, Fox News also saw slight week-over-week growth, up to 334,000 from the 323,000 viewers it featured during the week of March 24th.
This Week with George Stephanopoulos Earns Top Spot in Key Demo for 1st Time in 2025
The race in the Sunday political affairs show space continues to be a tight one. But ABC News has reason to celebrate as This Week with George Stephanopoulos earned the top spot in the key Adults 25-54 demographic this past Sunday for the first time in 2025.
On Sunday, April 6th, the Stephanopoulos-led show earned 457,000 viewers from the key demographic. That bested CBS News’ Face the Nation (415,000 viewers), NBC News’ Meet the Press (414,000 viewers) and FOX News Sunday (236,000 viewers).
Despite it being the first key demographic win of the year for ABC News, it wasn’t the highest audience from the sector thus far. During the week of February 9th, 282,000 viewers from the demo watched the program. Additionally, the final week of January — January 26th — saw 472,000 viewers from the coveted demographic tune into the ABC News program.
While This Week with George Stephanopoulos won the key demographic, CBS News’ Face the Nation — helmed by Margaret Brennan — earned the most overall viewers. That show featured just under 2.9 million viewers for the week, besting This Week (2.7 million), and Meet the Press (2.3 million).
FOX News Sunday was well behind its competitors, featuring an average audience of 1.2 million viewers for the week.
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The Florida Gators recently won the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship for the third time in school history, attaining a 65-63 victory over the Houston Cougars. CBS Sports averaged 18.1 million viewers across the United States for this contest, which was up 22% year-over-year and is representative of the most-watched iteration of the event since 2019. Sean Pendergast and Seth Payne discussed the topic on the Thursday edition of their morning show on SportsRadio 610 in Houston through the context of comments made two weeks ago by ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith.
During an episode of First Take, Smith spoke about how the NCAA Tournament could “cease to exist” because of a dearth of upsets within the action. This past tournament ended up marking the first year in which four No. 1 seeds made the Final Four since 2008 and only the second time since the seeding began in 1979. While Smith feels that this could lead to the downfall of the annual event, Pendergast cited the viewership numbers as the basis for his dissent.
“Hey, down the road, who knows?,” Pendergast said. “Maybe he’s right, maybe there’s a shift in viewership habits or whatnot, but what I can gather from this particular tournament, the very tournament that led Stephen A. Smith and many others to say, ‘Aah, no Cinderellas. This is no longer interesting and thus it is going to die.’ The final game between the University of Houston and the University of Florida averaged 18.1 million viewers, peaked at over 21 million, and for some context, that is up 22% year-over-year.”
In response to this claim, Payne discussed how college basketball as it was when they grew up is different from the current product. Within the current marketplace, college athletes can enter the transfer portal and profit from their name, image and likeness, fundamentally changing the recruiting landscape and disrupting team continuity. Payne believes that Smith is wrong in that it will end up causing the cessation of the tournament itself.
“Basketball as we knew it was dead, but the tournament, so far at least based on this one year, might be the thing that actually salvages whatever remains of it and how we consume it and everything, and I try not to get too wrapped up in comparing different eras of basketball and everything.”
Even though the landscape is different, Payne still observes how there are memorable moments that viewers received from the proceedings in the past. Pendergast followed up by explaining how while it was exciting to see the Valparaiso Beacons advance to the Elite Eight, he does not need to watch the team get beat by 30 in the round. In fact, he underscored this premise as being one of the disconnects surrounding the situation with teams considered to go on ‘Cinderella’ voyages in the tournament.
“I think people want to see heavyweights like this – four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four,” Pendergast said. “If anything, that is the ultimate counterpoint to what Stephen A. is saying is like look, ‘This was the complete opposite of Cinderellas that we had in this particular Final Four, the exact opposite of what you could possibly have, the four best teams,’ and people were eating it up, 22% year-over-year. You want Cinderellas until you don’t want Cinderellas anymore.”
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Legendary broadcaster Brent Musburger, known for his iconic voice and decades-long career spanning multiple sports, has been named the recipient of the 2025 Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announced Thursday.
The award, which recognizes exceptional contributions to professional football broadcasting, will be presented during the 2025 Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Week. Musburger will be honored at the Enshrinees’ Gold Jacket Dinner in downtown Canton on Friday, Aug. 1, and again at the Class of 2025 Enshrinement on Saturday, Aug. 2, at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. Reflecting on his career and those who helped shape it, Musburger acknowledged his former “NFL Today” colleagues.
“I just wish Irv Cross, Phyllis George and (Jimmy) ‘The Greek’ (Snyder) were here,” he said. Musburger credited the show’s cast, which later included Jayne Kennedy, as “the big reason I would be considered for the Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award.”
Jim Porter, president and CEO of the Hall of Fame, along with Hall of Fame coach Dick Vermeil — a longtime friend and broadcasting colleague — personally called Musburger to deliver the news. The announcement left the veteran broadcaster stunned.
“I’m kind of thunderstruck,” Musburger told Vermeil, who worked alongside him on dozens of college football games for ABC Sports in the 1990s. “I never expected this.”
Musburger’s broadcasting journey began in Chicago, where he joined the Chicago American newspaper as a sportswriter while still a student at Northwestern University. After transitioning into radio as sports director at WBBM, he later took on the same role at WBBM-TV, before moving to Los Angeles to co-anchor the nightly news for KNXT-TV.
In 1973, CBS Sports hired Musburger as a play-by-play announcer. Two years later, he took over as host of “The NFL Today,” which became the highest-rated program in its time slot for nearly two decades. He remained with the show until 1990, working alongside notable personalities including Irv Cross, a 2009 Pete Rozelle Award recipient.
After leaving CBS, Musburger joined ABC Sports, later part of the ESPN family, where he continued to call college football and basketball, World Cup soccer, and served as a halftime reporter for “Monday Night Football.” He remained with the network for 27 years.
Following a brief break from broadcasting, Musburger returned as the radio play-by-play voice of the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders from 2019 to 2021. During that time, he also launched the Vegas Stats & Information Network (VSiN), a multichannel sports gaming network where he remains actively involved.
Over the course of his five-decade career, Musburger has called some of the biggest events in sports. His resume includes NCAA men’s basketball tournaments — he’s credited with popularizing the phrase “March Madness” — along with Indianapolis 500 races, U.S. Open and British Open golf tournaments, the Little League World Series, Triple Crown horse races and NASCAR events.
“The Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award recognizes broadcast excellence in pro football, and Brent Musburger certainly measures up to that standard,” said Porter. “Brent has entertained and informed generations of fans — across not only pro football but college football, basketball, Little League baseball, golf, tennis and other sports — with insights and some signature phrases that became a trademarked style.”
The Pro Football Hall of Fame is proud to announce that Brent Musburger has been chosen to receive the 2025 Pete Rozelle Radio-Television Award! 🎙️
Hall of Famer Dick Vermeil, a close friend and longtime broadcast partner, called Musburger to deliver the news.
— Pro Football Hall of Fame (@ProFootballHOF) April 10, 2025
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