Radio World has been following the legal battle over radio research data between Nielsen and Cumulus Media. Here, Jerry Del Colliano summarizes the latest developments and what they mean.

The author is publisher of Inside Music Media, where this commentary first appeared. Subscription info can be found here. 

An appeals court has stayed the previous injunction, allowing Nielsen to continue enforcing its bundled ratings policies while the legal battle proceeds.

This ruling is a major strategic shift in how power is balanced between broadcasters and data providers. There are major implications for Cumulus, the radio industry and their leading ratings company.

Between the lines

Nielsen regains its “leverage” — Nielsen can resume its Network Policy. Before this stay, a judge told Nielsen they couldn’t force Cumulus to buy local ratings just to get national ones. Now that restriction is gone. Nielsen can once again tell broadcasters: “If you want our national data, you have to pay for our local data in every market you’re in.”

The “Swiss Cheese” threat is paused — Nielsen argued that without this policy, their national data would become like “Swiss cheese,” full of holes where broadcasters refused to pay for local tracking. They even threatened to retire the “Nationwide” product entirely rather than sell a version that was incomplete.

For now the “gold standard” of radio measurement is safe from being discontinued, but it remains tied to Nielsen’s pricing demands.

A blow to competitors like Eastlan — Cumulus reportedly wanted to use Eastlan Ratings for its local markets while keeping Nielsen for national reach (Westwood One). This stay effectively shuts the door on “mixing and matching” for the time being, making it much harder for smaller ratings companies to gain a foothold in markets where Nielsen-owned broadcasters are now forced back into the Nielsen ecosystem.

Status Quo is the new reality — In legal terms, a “stay pending appeal” is a way for the court to keep things exactly as they were before the lawsuit started. The court isn’t saying Nielsen is “right” yet; they are saying that changing the industry’s billing structure while the case is still being fought would cause too much “irreparable” harm to Nielsen’s business model.

High stakes for negotiations — Cumulus and Nielsen are currently in a period of intense contract negotiations for 2026. With the injunction lifted, Cumulus has lost its biggest bargaining chip. They are back at the negotiating table facing Nielsen’s full market power. They can no longer point to a court order to demand “reasonable standalone pricing.”

Meanwhile we’ve confirmed that some Cumulus markets are no longer allowed to use Nielsen ratings — they have reportedly been told not to discuss it with anyone driven by the lawsuit in progress.

What it means

No Nielsens will definitely not help Cumulus with Q1/Q2 sales.

Nielsen’s revenue has been declining, begging the question why are these two financially ailing companies even suing each other.

Cumulus is likely headed to bankruptcy again after exiting their first bankruptcy in 2022. Nielsen has been crushed by roughly $11 billion in debt, with interest payments alone costing the company over $900 million annually.

Nielsen has been aggressively raising prices and enforcing strict licensing bundles — the very tactics at the heart of the Cumulus lawsuit — as it desperately tries to stabilize its cash flow and prove to its private equity owners that its measurement monopoly is still profitable.

The bottom line: This is a high-stakes “mutually assured destruction.”

The post Who’s Winning, Nielsen or Cumulus? appeared first on Radio World.

Radio World’s “Guest Commentaries” section provides a platform for industry thought leaders and other readers to share their perspective on radio news, technological trends and more. If you’d like to contribute a commentary, or reply to an already published piece, send a submission to radioworld@futurenet.com.

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The author is student technical director for WRHU(FM) at Hofstra University. She also a recipient of the SBE’s Harold E. Ennes Scholarship. 

It’s a ubiquitous point of discussion in the radio industry: The idea that radio is doomed because there are no young people to take up the mantle — but that’s not true.

In some amount of time you’ll be retired, and when you tune in to your old station once again you may be met with a single thought: “I did it better than that.” And maybe you did. But the question you really should be asking yourself is why the quality of the station has changed. 

Is it because the new engineers are intentionally making worse decisions, or could it be because they didn’t receive the same amount or type of training you did? And if it is because of that, how can we ensure the next generation of talented engineers are interested in radio? 

Easy, just reach out. 

That may sound overly simple, and I’ll admit to being a bit facetious, but think about it. When was the last time you, or any of your coworkers actually talked to someone looking to enter the industry? What did they say, and how did you respond?

It may sound tedious, but if you want new talent to take an interest in your work, you have to help show new talent that there is a place for them in the industry. Knowledge is something that needs to be shared, or else it gets lost forever. It can be rediscovered, sure, but what happens to the quality of work in the industry in the meantime? 

It’s difficult, the paradox of experience. You want to hire employees that have shown that they know what they’re doing, but if everyone does this, eventually it will become nearly impossible for people to enter the field. But where does that leave us if you don’t want to hire someone who has no experience for an important role that can’t easily be trained?

While you may not want to hire someone fresh out of college looking for an entry level position, if there’s nowhere in the industry to go for that experience, they will turn elsewhere. Then the industry gets nothing. 

For this reason, it’s important to start reaching out with internships and opportunities much earlier.  

Offering internships is an investment, and it’s not one you’ll always see a quick return on. When you have an intern who’s in college, or even high school, whom you want to hire for a full-time position, you may have to wait a few years while they finish school. 

While you may not see the benefit in waiting, what is often overlooked is that, in those few years between their internship and their potential employment at your station, they are still learning. They may leave your internship with just one set of skills and the knowledge of how your station operates, but, when they return, they’ll have the same knowledge and experience they left with plus a new perspective from other styles of operation.

They might find a way to streamline your system, or find uses for equipment you thought obsolete but kept around just in case. 

Learning from multiple sources only increases the depth of skill and knowledge, as it allows you to ask more questions and therefore find more answers to be used in your career. 

If you give students a chance to gain that knowledge and experience with you, they will remember that, and you will help them more than you realize. Plus, if given the opportunity, they have a better chance of returning to work for you again.

I’ve gotten lucky, personally. Back in 2023, I interned at the Newburyport Community Media (NCM) Hub, which is a community radio and cable station in Newburyport, Mass. 

At the time,I was pretty inexperienced. I only had experience in post-production, editing video and audio using free software — I didn’t even know what an XLR cable was. However, throughout the course of my internship, not only did I learn all facets of live production, I also got acquainted with troubleshooting and basic equipment repair, which shaped the trajectory of my current college education. 

But, most importantly, I was able to show my boss that I now had that desired experience that station managers look for, and she hired me as a part time employee. I’ve been working there between semesters since. 

When not working at the NCM Hub, I attend college at Hofstra University, where I major in radio and minor in IT. Hofstra has a radio station, 88.7 FM WRHU, where I am the technical director. The experience I gain there from studying with Chief Engineer Andy Gladding is immediately put to work back at the NCM hub, and vice versa. 

Just this week, at the time of writing this article, I reworked our Comrex Access rack and our Axia QOR rack to run over AES67, with skills I learned from Andy, which solved a two-year-old issue. 

People who are looking for a foothold in the industry truly want to help, so giving them the tools and knowledge they need can only come around to help you in the end.

Of course, in reaching out and garnering interest, you’ll have to abandon the rhetoric that people — especially young people — aren’t interested in radio, and that it’s going to die because of that. 

When looking for a job, and looking into the current job market, what many people are concerned about is job stability. They don’t just want a job for now, they want a job they can continue to have for a few years, at least. All this negative rhetoric does is push people who are interested in the industry away from it, because they hear the industry veterans saying it won’t survive. They abandon ship before they’ve had a chance to board.

It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts: Complaining about how a lack of young interest is an industry killer only serves to kill young interest. And, frankly, blaming any group of people for the failure of an industry is never going to get them interested in helping it, and may even cause them to resent it.

You’ll never be able to get more people interested in what you do by sitting around, so take the first initiative. Reach out to prospective engineers, see if you can partner with college stations in the area or find and promote organizations like the Society of Broadcast Engineers and extend a hand to people who are a bit hesitant about the industry.

You’ll thank yourself later.

Radio World welcomes letters to the editor on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

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The author is president of the National Association of Farm Broadcasting and a senior news anchor for RFD Radio Network. NAFB commentaries regularly appear on Radio World. 

I was at a farm show recently talking to a farmer who regularly listens to our programs on the RFD Radio Network in Illinois. He was telling me he receives many emails, mostly solicitations for subscriptions or services.

He was lamenting all the noise on social media, and he was certainly concerned about artificial intelligence. What’s real, and what’s not? Who is trustworthy, and who’s not?

The farmer’s concerns were the same ones that inspired me to seek office in the National Association of Farm Broadcasting. There is a tremendous need for trusted resources in our industry. NAFB members are proud to be those trusted voices and we’re determined to serve our great industry.

Farm broadcasters cover a broad range of topics: markets and weather; property rights and related threats; agronomy and animal health … and on and on. In addition to the hard news that may make the front page, we also cover a breadth of topics related to rural life and human interest.

All in a Day’s Work

This is the normal course of business every day for the hundreds of farm broadcasters across the country who deliver ag news, weather and information to rural audiences. The importance of the work they do every day was confirmed again in a 2025 Kynetec Research Farm Radio Listenership Study. The survey of 1,001 respondents showed us that, even with the abundance of information sources at their fingertips, farmers rank radio as their #1 choice for daily ag news and information.

Farm radio is local, relevant and in the moment. Furthermore, it has the credibility and trust of the farm broadcaster, delivering critical news and information that drive business decisions on the farm.

The reach and trust of the farm broadcaster is duplicated by no other medium in agriculture.

[Related: “Tops in the Field: Farm Radio Is the Most Trusted Ag News Source“]

Beginnings on the Farm

Farm broadcasters understand and have a deep connection to their audiences. Most grew up in rural America and have a story similar to mine. For my part, I was raised on a diversified family farm. I’m proud of the experiences I had on the farm, especially those valuable teenage jobs of stacking hay bales, fence work and even running the manure spreader. But I have no mechanical skills, and I certainly don’t have a green thumb. And the economics at the time were going to make it awfully difficult to bring the next generation to the farm.

While my production skills were lacking, I always had an interest in broadcasting. It quickly became apparent that, while there were many people interested in general news and sports, there wasn’t a very long line of aspiring farm broadcasters, even at my land grant university.

I was able to get a lot of early experience, where I learned the ins and outs of on-air work. I also quickly understood the connection between the broadcaster and the loyal listener.

We are so blessed to have loyal listeners. There is nothing like being told that someone listens every day!

We’re part of households and small businesses. We’re with people in their homes, in their vehicles and implements, in their workshops and sometimes we’re even in the diners and cafes.

Whether it’s on their phones, tablets or other devices, people still have a need to get information from a trusted resource — the farm broadcaster. In an era crowded with noise and uncertainty, trust is our most valuable commodity. As the 2026 NAFB president, I look forward to protecting that trust and leading the continued growth and relevance of farm broadcasting.

Interested in writing a guest commentary? Email radioworld@futurenet.com with your ideas. 

The post From Farm Kid to NAFB President: Serving Agriculture Through Broadcasting appeared first on Radio World.

Radio World’s “Guest Commentaries” section provides a platform for industry thought leaders and other readers to share their perspective on radio news, technological trends and more. If you’d like to contribute a commentary, or reply to an already published piece, send a submission to radioworld@futurenet.com.

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The author is owner/president of Sound Advantage Media. 

There are many radio options to try in the New Year to help you improve your revenue and ratings in 2026. Radio’s most competitive edge is understanding why someone is listening — not when. The audience hasn’t abandoned radio; they’ve abandoned homogenization, clutter and sameness. In my view, radio’s growth in 2026 won’t come from doing more, but from doing less while doing it better.

Today’s audience won’t “listen” for blocks of time. They move fluidly across all platforms, tuning in and out based on content, mood and need.

2026’s best performing stations will understand:

• Jettison ambiguity! Make it clear to your targeted audience who you are and what you stand for. What do you offer that other stations do not in your market? Why should the audience give you more listening time over anyone else?
• Radio’s most significant self-inflicted wound is creating noise.

Trying too hard to compete for attention in a very crowded media landscape causes mental fatigue, which actually exists. When the listener has too many choices, friction can be fatal.

Several ways to help accomplish improvements come from:

• Simplifying music clocks;
• Less commercial messages per break; and
• Tightening up your execution.

It’s critical to come across as having a human behind the mic, as this is now radio’s most valuable asset. AI-generated voices are becoming more common. Having a genuine, audience- and community-relating personality is crucial to station growth in 2026.

The industry has to stop laying off personnel NOW! You’re hurting yourself more than you realize. When you let go of air talent from the station and replace it with a jukebox, there’s no difference between you and the streaming services. What’s the reason for your audience to listen to you? You have no differentiator — nothing separating you from the noise. Good luck with that!

Successful growth in 2026 will allow:

• Air talent to have a warm and conversational style;
• The promotion of opinion and lived experiences (needed in storytelling); and
• The release of over-produced delivery.

BTW: Listeners don’t connect with formats. They connect with people.

Use Research Sparingly

Research is most often used to mitigate risk. The more astute approach is to use the data to address weaknesses while protecting strengths.

The goal is not to please everyone. Those days are long gone. The goal in 2026 is to be persuasive and unforgettable to a smaller, targeted audience rather than a sea of noise to a larger audience.

Transform From Reach to Relationship

Reach is significant, but relationships matter more. Radio’s primary advantage over other media is the ability to be local, live and personable.

Strong audience growth in 2026 will be from stations that:

• Know audiences need to be treated as a community, not statistics.
• Ensure listeners feel included, valued and recognized.
• Understand high-cuming stations with low TSL are plentiful but lack engagement.

Another vital statistic: Attention is rented.

Loyalty Is Earned!

The average listener’s attention span is seven seconds! Your station must be part of that equation, or you’re out completely. It’s become an audio-jungle. Can you make sure you’re part of that combination, or are you just an afterthought?

Other important aspects to improve your station in 2026:

• Create Clarity and Energy: Ensure clear communication and a powerful energy to attract and retain listeners.
• Become Local and Personable: Radio’s best competing edge is its ability to be live and local. If you’re a small- or medium-market station, you need to be everywhere! Make sure your morning show broadcasts from different locations during the week. I’d be at the opening of an envelope. You need a local presence. Listeners must make your station top of mind and their first choice for listening enjoyment.
• Make Sure You’re Data-Driven: Sharp use of data will address weaknesses while protecting strengths.
• Engage With Your Community: Constructing relationships with your audience is much more important than reaching them.
• Groundbreaking Content: Consider original ideas that boost your online presence and participation.

Subscribe to Gary Begin’s biweekly newsletter here. 

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The post What Can Radio Fix in 2026? appeared first on Radio World.

The author is vice president, advanced engineering, for the National Association of Broadcasters.

Broadcast radio technology is evolving rapidly in response to listener preferences and increasingly capable digital infrastructures. If you are involved in the design and operation of broadcast facilities or radio receivers, or simply interested in the future of radio, you should consider becoming a member of the National Radio Systems Committee.

It’s an opportunity to enhance your level of understanding of modern radio systems while collaborating with industry experts to develop technical standards, guidelines and reports that benefit the industry as a whole.

What is the NRSC?

The NRSC is co-sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters and Consumer Technology Association and was formed in the late 1970s to address technical issues with AM radio existing at that time.

Standards, guidelines and reports developed by the NRSC are available for free at nrscstandards.org. Participation in the NRSC is free for NAB broadcaster members and for members of CTA, while others pay a $25 fee per subcommittee per year.

Currently, the NRSC has three subcommittees and three working groups pursuing technical work. Each group is chaired by an NRSC member representative or representatives as shown in the accompanying graphic.

These groups cover the full range of technologies used by broadcasters today, addressing both analog and digital signal generation. The NRSC develops three kinds of documents:

• NRSC Standards — Documents that establish engineering and technical requirements for processes, procedures, practices or methods that have been adopted by consensus. An NRSC standard is normative in nature, however usage of NRSC standards is voluntary. There are four active NRSC standards, shown in the first table.
• NRSC Guidelines — Documents that state specifications or criteria within terrestrial radio broadcast systems that are not strictly necessary for effective implementation and interoperability, but that the NRSC has determined to be advisable and may improve the efficiency of implementation or reduce the probability of implementation errors. An NRSC Guideline is informative, not normative, in nature. There are 10 active NRSC Guidelines, shown in the second table.

• NRSC Reports — A document that describes the results of technical work, including technology surveys and evaluations, which are of benefit to the radio broadcast industry. Many NRSC reports are not authored by the NRSC but rather serve to archive important technical works on radio broadcast technology. NRSC reports may be either strictly informational or may include recommendations for further action, including development of NRSC standards or guidelines. There are currently 39 NRSC reports, including nine on AM radio, 10 on FM radio and 19 dealing with digital radio.

Why join the NRSC?

Whether you’re designing broadcast facilities, involved in receiver design, managing technical operations or simply passionate about radio technology, NRSC membership offers tangible benefits:

• Direct Industry Impact: Help shape the technical standards that define how radio broadcasting operates. Your expertise contributes to documents that broadcasters nationwide rely on.
• Expert Collaboration: Work alongside leading engineers, equipment manufacturers and technical experts. NRSC working groups provide a forum for solving complex technical challenges through collective knowledge.
• Professional Development: Stay at the forefront of broadcast technology. Members gain deep understanding of emerging systems and technologies before they become mainstream.
• Early Access: Participate in developing standards and guidelines while they’re being formulated, giving you advance insight into future technical requirements and best practices.

Current projects making an impact

Here are some key projects being pursued by the NRSC. Most of this activity takes place within the working groups, which hold monthly or semi-monthly meetings via Zoom, while the subcommittees typically hold face-to-face meetings at NAB and CTA trade show events.

• “Next-gen” digital transport — An open standard for transport of audio and data over IP networks is being considered by the ISDWG. This would involve defining profiles for sending an analog multiplex (MPX) signal (also referred to as the “FM baseband”) over DCP (a forward error correction-protected, transport layer digital communications protocol) so that it can align with and be linked to the digital audio simulcast delivered via another DCP stream, eliminating timing issues associated with the HD Radio “blend to analog” feature.
• Digital transmitter power displays — A new NRSC guideline, NRSC-G204, “IBOC Digital Radio Transmitter Power Display Guideline,” is being developed to provide guidance to FM-band transmitter manufacturers on the preferred methods of calculating digital transmitter power (particularly when using asymmetric sidebands) and displaying upper and lower sideband power within the transmitter user interface. Currently, manufacturers utilize a number of different approaches, which causes confusion (and the potential for FCC rule violations) among broadcasters.
• AM boosters — The AIWG has initiated an AM booster project to study coverage and interference issues and to design and test a prototype low-cost AM booster facility. These boosters offer AM broadcasters an opportunity to improve service to listeners, especially in today’s urban environments, which are subject to high levels of RF interference in the AM band.
• AM noise and noise mitigation — Earlier this year, a new report on RF noise and reception in the AM radio band was adopted by the AFAB Subcommittee. NRSC-R102, “Measurement of AM Band RF Noise Levels and Station Signal Attenuation,” documents measurements of RF noise and AM signal levels on various roadway types from open interstate highways to city streets, establishing how the noise affects AM broadcast reception. Audio recordings collected during this effort are now available for review as well. A related effort to develop practical AM receiver improvements using tools available in software-defined radios (SDRs) is also underway.
• RDS usage guideline — The MSWG is preparing an update to NRSC-G300, “RDS Usage Guideline,” last updated in 2018. This is one of the NRSC’s most comprehensive guideline documents and provides valuable, practical information to broadcast engineers about how the Radio Data System (RDS) digital FM subcarrier works and how to make the best use of this technology.

Getting involved

The NRSC Subcommittees will meet on Jan. 6, 2026, in Room W222 of the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, in conjunction with the 2026 CES.

These meetings provide excellent opportunities for new members to observe working group dynamics and meet fellow technical professionals. For more information about NRSC membership and upcoming meetings, or to access the complete library of standards, guidelines and reports, visit nrscstandards.org/.

Radio broadcasting’s technical landscape is evolving rapidly. Whether you’re addressing AM interference challenges, implementing digital broadcasting systems or exploring next-generation transport technologies, the NRSC provides the collaborative framework and technical expertise to move the industry forward. Your participation matters. Join us in shaping radio’s future.

[Do you receive the Radio World SmartBrief newsletter each weekday morning? We invite you to sign up here.]

The post Shape the Future of Radio — Join the NRSC appeared first on Radio World.

The author of this commentary is the publisher of Inside Music Media, where this commentary first appeared. Subscription info can be found here. 

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Inception Point AI’s Quiet Please Podcast Network shows how podcasting growth is shifting from audience demand to AI-driven volume.

By mass-producing thousands of ultra-niche podcasts at negligible cost, Quiet Please turns audio into cheap inventory sold through programmatic ads — not loyalty or brand.

For radio, the concern isn’t losing listeners to a few hit podcasts, but competing in an audio market where scale, not quality, sets the price of attention.

Between the lines

• Industrial Scale: The startup is currently generating roughly 3,000 podcast episodes per week using AI, with a goal of reaching 150,000 total episodes by the end of 2025.
• Micro-Niche Targeting: Instead of aiming for one massive hit, they create thousands of hyper-specific shows on topics ranging from “Lawn” and localized weather reports to specific celebrity biographies and bizarre news events.
• AI-Driven Execution: The entire process — scripting, hosting and audio production—is handled by AI.  The network reportedly employs over 50 “AI personalities” to host the shows.
• Ultra-Low Cost: It costs approximately $1 to produce an episode. Consequently, a show needs only about 20 listeners to be profitable via programmatic advertising.
• Quantity Over Quality: The content is often criticized as “AI slop” — monotonous, glitchy or hallucinated — but the sheer volume allows it to capture search traffic and ad revenue regardless of critical acclaim.

What it means

• The “Long Tail” weaponized: This represents a shift from the “hit-driven” media model — finding one show millions love — to a “search-driven” model — creating millions of shows that one person might stumble upon.
• Commoditization of Content: It suggests that “good enough” audio content is becoming a commodity. If AI can create a passable podcast about a niche topic for $1, human creators cannot compete on volume or price in those specific verticals.
• Ad Arbitrage: The business is essentially an arbitrage machine; it exploits the gap between the negligible cost of AI generation and the existing rates advertisers pay for podcast slots.

Inception Point AI is proving that spamming the market is a potential viable business strategy in the age of generative AI. While critics view it as “polluting” the podcast ecosystem with low-effort noise, the model works because it relies on programmatic ads and SEO rather than human loyalty or artistic merit.

It is the audio equivalent of a “content farm.”

This isn’t the future of podcasting — it is programmatic ad arbitrage dressed up as scale.

Radio owners pushing podcasting as a pivot from declining spot revenue have every reason to be concerned.

The bottom line

AI podcasts don’t steal radio listeners — they flood the market with content that makes listening cheaper and attention thinner.

Radio World welcomes letters to the editor on this or any story. Email radioworld@futurenet.com.

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