This Friday we’ll acknowledge that day when 25 years ago more than 3,000 people died in what was the first ever attack on American mainland. Pearl Harbor was the greatest loss of lives on American soil before 9-11. There will be tributes in New York, Washington, DC, and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. There will be remembrances across the nation. Stories will be told. Sadness revisited.

The audience who loved Dolly, which is larger than any one format, yearned for information about the icon. They wanted to be closer to her, feel a part of her family, and to grieve. My ire, raised to the point of authoring that article, was because of what the majority of the industry seems to have lost; the understanding that one of radio’s greatest benefits is that of immediacy. Immediacy means NOW. Immediate.

You would be hard pressed to find someone who has a bad word about Miss Parton, or someone whose met her that wasn’t impressed. Dolly Parton was special. She not only attracted an audience to the Country music format, she introduced it well beyond radio with her many skills as a performer, writer, lyricist, and ability to make news with her mere presence. She’s the one artist who is in both The Country Music Hall of Fame and The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Repeating; Dolly Par

It’s clear to me that many of us who are in or around radio Love Radio. You can see it in comments on social media when jobs are eliminated, as has been happening for many months and recent years. People who’ve spent decades in a business they’ve been fully committed to are being faced with leaving that which they love for that which enables them to provide for their families. That should sadden all of us. It does me.

Given that the discussions swirling in the conference rooms of North American broadcasters sometimes includes looking to Europe for alternative ideas in revenue generation, we take a closer look at My 105FM.

The hardest thing for me to fathom is the elimination of talent and programmers who were, by what had been the standard of judgment, performing exceptionally well. They are simply losing their jobs because of the weight of how much they earn.

There are many reasons to be proud of radio’s rich history, but we shouldn’t be cherry-picking the moments from the past that reinforce our strength versus other media platforms. Instead, we should be conscious of and embracing the opportunity to be seen and heard everywhere.

Content creation should not only be thought of in regard to where people consume radio (audio) today, but also how they use the same content differently across many locations.

Today, all media is portable, forcing legacy media to make uncomfortable adjustments. Content creation should not only be thought of in regard to where people consume radio (or audio) today, but also how they use the same content differently across many locations.

Because of the strength of successful talent, those who are dominant and well known, bad behavior can lead to the loss of support from ownership and the audience, and no one wins. Situations like this have the potential to derail a career, cost a company advertisers and an audience, all while destroying a culture.

It’s not about poor performance; it’s about eliminating cost. Legacy talent are retiring rather than taking a pay cut. Positions are eliminated, and technology is activated to share talent across multiple markets. The fear of AI is real, and there will be human carnage. It seems as if it’s not a good time to be a talent.

Media will be in the thick of the celebration. A 24-hour special titled “Disney Celebrates America” will be broadcast across many of the Disney-owned and affiliated channels, including ABC. Country Radio and News/Talk are expected to be the biggest among the formats that will embrace this special occasion, although you will be hard-pressed to find any station that completely ignores the holiday and this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Because of the nearly even competition among broadcasters, competing today is often dependent on habitual listening developed in previous years, the longevity of your air talent, and the audience’s affinity for that talent. If your station has talent that serve as a cornerstone of the station, and the station is successful, then hang onto that talent.

The Alliance for Women in Media’s 2026 Gracie Awards Luncheon is today in Manhattan. For more than a decade, I’ve served as one of three Co-Chairs for The Gracie Awards. The Gracie Awards acknowledge creators, producers, and talent who develop content For Women, By Women, or About Women. In addition, I am honored to be a Special Advisor and a former Board Member of the Alliance for Women in Media Foundation.

The strength of audio has never been greater and utilized more to build brands, create images, attract an audience, and sell advertisers’ wares, products, and services. Creating content, as radio does, should universally evolve with multiplatform distribution in mind. Radio as an origination point magnifies audiences by being everywhere. It seems obvious that the way to compete with digital and one-point platforms is to be multiplatform.

Why do some storytellers create the urge to listen to their show every day, binge every episode of their podcast, search out short bytes on YouTube and follow them on social media? It starts with the way you tell a story, your delivery, and most importantly, that you know where you’re going when you start your story. It’s about using imaginative words, the pace with which you tell the story, and it’s about you as the storyteller understanding the message at its core.

There are a lot of opportunities for radio to take advantage of this summer. A record number of Americans traveled over this past weekend, with most choosing family road trips despite sharply higher gasoline prices. We’ll likely see similar travel and celebrations for the Fourth of July, as this Independence Day is America’s 250th Anniversary, and for the FIFA World Cup.

Jane Fonda called her ex-husband “ a gloriously handsome, deeply romantic, swashbuckling pirate.” Longtime CNN anchor Anderson Cooper described Turner as a “bold visionary with an unrivaled work ethic.” Warner Bros Discovery CEO David Zaslav noted that “Turner changed the industry with his vision of creative risk, cultural impact, and global reach.”

There are those stations who have little knowledge of how to maximize the interest advertisers have in buying digital, and there are those that insist that digital be a part of every ad buy that is closed. I’ve sat with sales leaders who aren’t sure of how much digital they have to sell, what it’s worth, or even how to traffic it when they do get a digital ad buy.

Radio has much to feel good about. Time Spent Listening is showing slight growth. A third of all audio consumption is owned by Radio (OTA and Streaming). That’s greater than all other audio sources. However, that 33% was 53% in 2014. Where and how the audience listens is also changing. Listening to radio via streaming was only 5% in 2014. That’s grown to 14% in Q1 2026.

Radio is present on demand via podcasts or on digital devices that store content. SiriusXM Satellite has been around for several decades now. There are many music channels on television and via cable distribution. Despite the acknowledged erosion of time spent listening, radio’s reach remains dominant among modern media.

The first: I spoke to state broadcast groups from Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky at the Tri-State Radio Show in Covington, KY, on “The Advantages of Locally Owned Radio Stations.” The second: a response to a Radio Ink column I authored about format changes and unrealistic expectations of broadcasters. Together, they fed the creation of this week’s column.

The biggest obstacle to success is that the level of noise from all forms of media is loud and getting louder. Whether radio, television, podcasting, social media, or live and on-demand streaming, the delivery method for content is vast and omnipresent. We have traditional receivers, wired and unwired, satellite, smart speakers, tablets, computers, apps, and mobile phones. Devices. Lots of devices on which to receive content. The choices for content are many. Free and subscri

What separates a business that merely survives from one that achieves legendary status?