Beasley Media Group is entering the second half of 2026 with a leaner cost structure and substantially reduced debt, but CEO Caroline Beasley says the company still has work to do to rebuild revenue. Speaking Wednesday (Aug. 12) during the company’s second-quarter earnings call, Beasley said the quarter advanced two of the company’s three turnaround priorities: improving the cost structure and strengthening the balance sheet. The third — stabilizing and rebuilding core revenu

Political advertising is on pace for a record-setting 2026, with PQ Media raising its estimate for total political media buying to $15.3 billion, a 46.3% increase over the 2022 midterm election and 1.8% higher than spending during the 2024 presidential cycle. More than 60% of that spending, or $9.38 billion, is expected to hit media markets after Labor Day. The projections come from a two-part guest blog post on the Radio Advertising Bureau’s Radio Matters blog by Dr. Leo Kiv

The growing popularity of women’s sports — reflected by increased fan interest, cultural influence and broadcast hours spent — suggests that brands should be following the money. In a recent interview with “NYSE Live,” iHeartMedia Executive Advisor and Bubbler Media founder Gayle Troberman doubles down on how important women’s sports programming, across all platforms, should be for marketers. “There is a massive undervalued opportunity in women’s sports,” Troberman, who helpe

Salem Media appears to be entering its final weeks as a publicly traded company, reaffirming that it expects its sale to WaterStone to close this month as the broadcaster reports a return to positive Adjusted EBITDA despite another double-digit revenue decline. Salem entered a definitive agreement May 12 to be acquired by The Christian Community Foundation, which does business as WaterStone. The deal calls for WaterStone to acquire all outstanding Salem shares for $1 per shar

The latest courtroom fight between Cumulus Media and Nielsen has hit a procedural roadblock, with the federal judge overseeing their antitrust case declining to decide whether Nielsen is complying with her preliminary injunction until the Second Circuit clarifies whether the order is currently in effect. U.S. District Judge Jeannette Vargas said that her court “appears to lack jurisdiction” to act on Cumulus’ pending motion seeking to enforce the injunction. The uncertainty s

Podcasting continues to emerge as one of iHeartMedia’s most powerful growth engines, and CEO Bob Pittman says the company now sees video as opening an additional marketplace rather than simply shifting listeners and advertisers away from audio. iHeart’s podcast revenue climbed 20.7% year-over-year during the second quarter to $162 million, up from $134 million a year ago. That puts the company’s podcast revenue at $309 million through the first half of 2026, up 23.5% from $25

Spanish Broadcasting System is asking the Federal Communications Commission to clear the way for a sweeping ownership change that would accompany its emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy — one that would end CEO Raúl Alarcón’s longtime voting control of the company and potentially put nearly two-thirds of SBS in the hands of foreign investors. SBS is asking the FCC to allow as much as 100% aggregate foreign ownership of both the equity and voting interests of the reorganized

In the 20 non-embedded PPM markets reporting on Days 1 and 2 in Nielsen’s July survey (covering June 25-July 22), adult contemporary is the clear winner, with seven stations in the format leading their markets, and four more ranking second or third. Taking into account all “AC” formats, and total market leaders go from seven to 11, with two hot ACs, one soft AC and one urban AC also on top. It’s also the best survey this year for news/talk stations, with five ranked number on

Podcast advertising picked up steam during the second quarter, with spending climbing 9% from Q1 and finishing 23% above year-ago levels, according to Magellan AI’s Q2 Podcast Advertising Benchmark Report. Unlike the uneven start to the year, when spending weakened in January and February before rebounding in March, each month of Q2 topped the first quarter’s average monthly spending level. April spending ran 8% above the Q1 monthly average, followed by a more modest 2% incre

Montreal-based Stingray Group says its acquisition of TuneIn is continuing to reshape the company’s advertising business, helping drive significant revenue growth while creating new opportunities to sell audio inventory across platforms. For the first quarter of fiscal 2027, Stingray reported revenue of CAD 158 million, up 65.2% year-over-year. Organic revenue growth was 27.5%, with the company attributing much of the increase to the TuneIn acquisition and growth in its FAST