African American-Focused Radio Pair Are Sold
An asset purchase agreement has been filed to transfer ownership of two AM radio stations and their associated FM translators, both serving African American audiences. The buyer has signaled that programming will remain unchanged, preserving the stations' current format. The deal now awaits regulatory clearance from the FCC before it can be finalized. If approved, the stations will continue operating under the same brand and content strategy.
Streaming’s Subscription Reset: Why Agentic AI Will Decide the Next Phase of Growth
Netflix’s recent push into live sports illustrates how event‑driven spikes can quickly attract new subscribers, but the real challenge lies in retaining them once the hype fades. Across the streaming sector, churn spikes after marquee events as engagement drops. While...
ATSC Offers ATSC 3.0 Guide to 2026 NAB Show
ATSC is showcasing its next‑generation broadcast standard, ATSC 3.0, at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas with a free guide highlighting exhibitors and sessions. The organization will host roughly 30 panels and feature more than 40 member companies, including major players...
NAB Show: CarbonBlack Technology Creates Multi-Camera Real Time Projection-Based Virtual Production Solution
CarbonBlack Technology showcased the first multi‑camera, real‑time projection‑based virtual production workflow at the NAB Show. The system combines CarbonBlack’s nanotech Hybrid RP screen, Christie Sapphire 4K40‑RGBH projectors, Vizrt Engine 5, Disguise, and WePlay Studios’ stack, plus RED, Zeiss, Evertz and...
Has The Anecdotal Lede Outlived Its Journalistic Utility?
The article argues that the once‑ubiquitous anecdotal lede—originating in the 1930s with Barney Kilgore—is losing relevance as readers skim stories and abandon them after a few paragraphs. Newsrooms are replacing narrative openings with AI‑generated bullet summaries that deliver the story’s...
Hundreds of Fake Pro-Trump Avatars Emerge on Social Media
In the run‑up to the 2026 midterm elections, hundreds of AI‑generated pro‑Trump influencer avatars flooded TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. The synthetic personas post identical, fervent captions praising God, America and Trump while commenting on hot‑button issues like the Iran...
Advertisers Are Testing ChatGPT Ads — but Uncertainty Remains High
OpenAI launched a paid advertising channel inside ChatGPT two months ago, prompting brands to run early‑stage campaigns. Advertisers report high CPMs and six‑figure minimum spends, but measurement is limited to impressions with no clear performance benchmarks. Sentiment is mixed: optimism...
Secure Content Distribution At Heart Of New ATSC 3.0 Receivers For Consumers And Broadcasters
The ATSC 3.0 Security Authority (A3SA) is unveiling a new wave of secure NextGen TV receivers at NAB 2026, highlighting how over‑the‑air (OTA) broadcasts can be protected while delivering premium picture quality. More than 18.5 million U.S. households already own A3SA‑enabled...
A Prominent PR Firm Is Running a Fake News Site That’s Plagiarizing Original Journalism at Incredible Scale
A Futurism investigation uncovered that the PR firm TOP Agency operates the website National Today, which mass‑produces AI‑generated articles that plagiarize original journalism from outlets ranging from major newspapers to local newsrooms. The site republishes content without attribution, often inserting...
Vinylthon 2026 Set to Spin Up at 230 Stations Worldwide
Vinylthon 2026 will run April 18‑19, with roughly 230 radio stations—from college FM outlets to streaming services—spinning vinyl to raise scholarship funds for aspiring broadcasters. The College Radio Foundation organizes the global fundraiser, encouraging stations to broadcast vinyl‑only programming all weekend....
NAB Show: FOR-A America Announces New AI Functionality On FOR-A IMPULSE and Immediate Delivery of MixBoard & HVS-Q12
At NAB Show 2026, FOR‑A America unveiled AI‑enhanced capabilities for its software‑defined IMPULSE live‑production platform, adding an AI‑assisted Graph Editor that auto‑creates node graphs and system diagrams. The company also announced the immediate availability of MixBoard, a GPU‑accelerated software switcher...
Google Ads API to Require Multi-Factor Authentication
Google is rolling out mandatory multi‑factor authentication (MFA) for new OAuth 2.0 refresh tokens generated through the Google Ads API, starting April 21, 2026. Existing tokens will keep working, but any new authentication will require a second verification step such as a...
Zee Entertainment Announces Strategic Investment in PhantomFX
Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. announced a strategic investment of up to Rs 116 crore (about $1.4 billion) in visual‑effects studio Phantom Digital Effects Ltd. (PhantomFX) via convertible debentures, pending shareholder approval. The partnership gives Zee access to PhantomFX’s U.S. and UK studios, AI‑driven...
Hightouch Launches Ad Studio
Hightouch unveiled Ad Studio, an AI‑powered module of its Agentic Marketing Platform designed to automate the creation of on‑brand ads at scale. The tool leverages a proprietary Brand Context Layer that taps into digital asset management systems, past campaign data, and...
Macnica Expands ST 2110 Platform With New MEP25 For 25gbe Media Workflows
Macnica announced the MEP25 SmartNIC, a 25‑GbE‑optimized media I/O card that extends its ST 2110 transport platform to standard compute environments. The FPGA‑based card offloads real‑time video, audio and metadata transport, reducing CPU load while preserving deterministic, low‑latency performance. At NAB,...
Zig-Zag To 4/20 Stoners: Slow It Down
Zig‑Zag is reviving its rolling‑paper heritage with the "Life’s Fast, Burn Slow" campaign, debuting lounge‑style activations at 4/20 music festivals across six states. The brand aims to slow the pace of consumption by offering dedicated spaces for rolling, relaxing, and...
ATX TV Festival Announces Indie TV Pitch Competition Finalists
The ATX TV Festival announced the ten finalists for its 2025 Indie TV Pitch Competition, spanning comedy, drama, sci‑fi and dramedy formats. The finalists will pitch their series to a panel of seasoned showrunners, producers and executives during the May 28‑31...
If You Can’t Wait for Rivals Season 2, You Need to Watch These 5 Addictive TV Shows
Disney+ is expanding its prestige drama slate with *Rivals* season 2, a twelve‑episode continuation of the Jilly Cooper adaptation that earned a 93 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating. The first three episodes drop on May 15, 2026, after the original eight‑part series premiered in...
What’s up with Those Museum of Sex Bus Ads?
The Museum of Sex has wrapped more than 3,000 New York City MTA buses with its logo, a campaign that began in December and will run through the end of the year. Founder Daniel Gluck says the omnipresent ads have...
Sheridan Smith & Michael Socha in UK Crime Series 'The Cage' Trailer
BBC has released the trailer for "The Cage," a new British crime‑thriller set to debut on iPlayer on April 26, 2026. The plot follows Liverpool casino workers Leanne (Sheridan Smith) and Matty (Michael Socha) as they each plot to steal...
Listener Details Through Broadcast Data: A CACO-Fueled Opportunity
A Miami-based entrepreneur has launched a patent‑pending real‑time middleware platform designed specifically for the broadcast sector. The system creates a bidirectional data loop that connects listeners, a localized AI interface, and station operations, enabling instant feedback and content personalization. Marketed...
OpenAP Selected As A Weigel Partner
Weigel Broadcasting announced a partnership with advertising technology firm OpenAP. The deal will bring OpenAP's data‑driven audience measurement and targeting tools to Weigel's suite of digital multicast networks, including the popular classic‑TV channel MeTV. By integrating advanced analytics, the collaboration...
Joe Rogan Is Top Podcaster Of 2026 So Far—As He Ramps Up Criticism Of Trump
Joe Rogan’s The Joe Rogan Experience retained its position as the most‑listened‑to U.S. podcast in Q1 2026, outpacing the second‑place Crime Junkie by more than 2.5 times. The audience remains overwhelmingly male—about 78%—and the show continues to draw massive YouTube views, highlighted by...
Reed Hastings’ Netflix Exit Calls For A Warner Bros. Discovery Rethink
Reed Hastings announced his departure from Netflix, prompting a 10% slide in the streaming giant’s share price and erasing roughly $40 billion of market value. The decline highlights investors’ view of Hastings as the chief architect of Netflix’s transformation from DVD...
'For All Mankind' Alternative Timeline vs Reality: How Apple TV's Sci-Fi Show Diverges From History
Apple TV+’s sci‑fi series *For All Mankind* reimagines the Cold‑War space race, letting a Soviet cosmonaut plant the first Moon flag in 1969 and inserting women onto the lunar surface within months. The show compresses decades of aerospace progress, showing lunar...
Coachella 2026 Weekend Two YouTube Preview
YouTube is the exclusive home for Coachella 2026 Weekend 2, kicking off today at 4 PM PT/7 PM ET. The livestream adds the Yuma Stage and features a surprise performance by Kacey Musgraves. New interactive tools include “Watch With” creator parties, cinematic 4K on three stages, vertical...
Vizrt To Feature Newly Introduced AI Keyer At 2026 NAB Show
Vizrt will debut its AI‑powered Keyer at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas, demonstrating a tool that automatically isolates human subjects and inserts AR graphics without green screens. The solution, trained on diverse real‑world footage, works in any lighting condition...
Apex-RF To Launch RAINIER Wireless Camera Transmission System At 2026 NAB Show
Apex‑RF is debuting its RAINIER wireless camera transmission system at the 2026 NAB Show in Las Vegas. The solution delivers sub‑50 ms latency, 4K 12G SDR/HDR video, and Wi‑Fi 7 mesh networking across 5‑7.3 GHz. RAINIER combines video, camera control, intercom and IP infrastructure into...
AI Drafting My Stories? Over My Dead Body
The Wired opinion piece argues that using AI tools like Claude or ChatGPT to draft news stories threatens the craft of journalism. It highlights a growing tension between newsroom efficiency and the loss of human voice, citing veteran writers who...
Yesterday's Bluesky Outage Was No Accident
Bluesky suffered a sophisticated distributed denial‑of‑service (DDoS) attack that began around 11:40 p.m. PT on April 15, causing intermittent outages throughout Thursday. The platform’s engineers worked through the night to mitigate the flood of traffic, and service was restored by early Friday...
2026 NAB Show Exhibitor Insight: LTN
LTN unveiled major upgrades to its global IP video network at the 2026 NAB Show, promising 99.9999% reliability, full‑market reach and up to 60% lower distribution costs as C‑band spectrum repurposing pressures satellite capacity. The enhancements add expanded monitoring, a...
CEO Predicts ‘Next Golden Era’ for Content Amid Legacy Media Destruction
Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince warned that AI is set to dismantle many legacy media companies, ushering what he calls a “next golden era” for content creation. He argued that hyper‑local, differentiated journalism will become increasingly valuable as AI‑driven platforms seek...
Through A.I. Glasses-Powered Translation, Korea’s Theaters Hope for a K-Pop Moment
South Korean theater producers, backed by the Korea Tourism Organization, are deploying AI‑powered translation glasses to break language barriers for domestic and touring productions. The glasses, linked to a smartphone app, display real‑time subtitles in Korean, English, Japanese or Chinese...
Reaching For More Reach
Multicultural media firms, traditionally serving niche audiences, are now bundling their first‑party data to sell audience segments across websites and CTV. This shift comes as they grapple with falling traffic, a hostile political environment, and waning brand commitments. Meanwhile, retail...
Reaching For More Reach
Multicultural media firms are repackaging their first‑party audience data to sell across platforms, a strategy born from shrinking RFP volumes and declining traffic. Publishers face political headwinds and weaker brand commitments, prompting innovative retargeting approaches. At the IAB Connected Commerce...
Roku Surpasses 100M Global Households
Roku announced it has surpassed 100 million global streaming households, with roughly 75‑80 million located in the United States. The company’s Roku OS‑powered devices now command about 55 % of the connected‑TV market, outpacing Amazon Fire TV’s 35 % share. In Q4 2025 Roku...
Iran’s AI Memes Are Reaching People Who Don’t Follow the News – and Winning the Propaganda War
Iran’s state‑linked Explosive Media has deployed AI‑generated Lego‑style videos with rap soundtracks, amassing billions of views since February. Dubbed “slopaganda,” the clips blend disinformation and antisemitic tropes with humor, targeting users who avoid traditional news. By mimicking the tone of...
The Economics of Buffering: Why Milliseconds Decide Streaming Growth
Buffering is no longer a mere technical hiccup; it directly threatens streaming revenue. The article notes that 70% of viewers abandon a live stream after just two buffering incidents, linking playback quality to retention and margin. Four infrastructure weaknesses—encoding bottlenecks,...
ATX TV Festival Sets Lineup for Inaugural Indie TV Pilot Competition, Adds Indie-Focused Programming
The ATX Television Festival announced its inaugural Indie TV Pilot Competition and Showcase, slated for May 28‑31, 2026 in Austin. The program will screen independently produced pilots that lack worldwide distribution, with a judging panel of industry creatives selecting a...
YouTube Is Ditching ‘Clips,’ Officially Brings ‘Share at Timestamp’ to Phones
YouTube is retiring the user‑generated Clips feature, keeping existing clips viewable but ending the ability to create new ones. At the same time, the platform is rolling out a universal “share at timestamp” option on its mobile apps, allowing anyone...
“Pausing” Radio Stations
Townsquare Media has shut down 103.9 KKAM in Lubbock, Texas, joining a wave of AM and low‑performing FM stations being silenced across the industry. Recent divestitures by Townsquare, Cumulus, Audacy and iHeartMedia include license returns, nominal‑price sales and outright surrender of...
As LPTV Market Evolves, Winemiller Readies For Focused Growth
The FCC has enacted its first major low‑power television (LPTV) rule changes in over four decades, allowing broadcasters to relocate facilities, resolve interference and expand coverage. Jeff Winemiller, owner of Lowcountry 34 Media, has filed more than 250 applications and plans to...
Google Deepens AI Integration Across Ads and Search with Gemini Enforcement and AI Mode Expansion
Google’s 2025 Ads Safety Report shows Gemini‑powered AI blocked 8.3 billion ads, a jump from 5.1 billion the year before, and halted over 99% of policy‑violating ads before they reached users. The enforcement model now focuses on individual ads rather than whole...
No Pitch, No Performance: Inside the Creator Event That Outran Its Own Venue at SXSW
Manychat reimagined its SXSW 2026 activation as a six‑hour, pitch‑free experience called “Creator Hub | Club,” drawing over 850 attendees and a line of 1,200 RSVPs. The event was divided into “The Hub,” an audience‑driven AMA and round‑table discussions, and...
Townsquare and KSE Announces Digital Marketing Deal
Townsquare Media and Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE) announced a digital marketing partnership that will integrate Townsquare Ignite’s data‑driven platform into KSE’s radio assets. The collaboration allows KSE to scale its digital advertising offerings while leveraging Townsquare’s proven performance‑based solutions....
Talk Radio Mile Markers
Therapist Pamela Garber calls on talk‑radio hosts to feature mental‑health professionals more frequently, arguing that the relentless news cycle fuels widespread anxiety, fear, and confusion among listeners. She likens brief expert segments to "mile markers" in a marathon, offering timely...
Microsoft Previews 2026 NAB Show Trends, Plans
Microsoft is rebranding its media role at the 2026 NAB Show, shifting from a silent enterprise backbone to a software‑defined broadcasting leader. The company will showcase AI‑driven production tools, including Copilot’s agent‑to‑agent workflows, and emphasize its Azure‑based security stack for...
Week of April 6 Cable News Ratings: Artemis II Coverage Lifts Cable Nets
Cable‑news ratings for the week of April 6, 2026 showed a sharp lift for CNN after its live Artemis II moon‑flight coverage, making it the top network in the Adults 25‑54 demo during primetime. Fox News retained overall primetime dominance, drawing 3.05 million total viewers...
Top News/Talk Media Stories This Past Week (April 13-17)
According to TALKERS, the week of April 13‑17 saw talk‑radio listeners gravitate toward ten high‑profile stories, with the U.S.–Israel–Iran conflict and a series of Trump‑related controversies topping the chart. Other prominent topics included the looming expiration of the FISA‑702 surveillance authority,...
Asif Kapadia to Direct 70 Up, Last Chapter of Influential ITV Documentary Series
Asif Kapadia has been appointed to direct the concluding chapter of ITV's landmark documentary series *Up*, titled *70 Up*, which will air later this year. The series, launched in 1964, follows a cohort of Britons at seven‑year intervals and was voted...