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NBC News Radio is still alive…and becoming more aggressive to get more stations.

O

oldvnewschool

NBC News Radio 24/7

So about over two years ago I noticed iHeart removed the NBC News Radio rebranding on certain features and even the Top of The Hour Newscasts. However, with the end of CBS News Radio in May 22nd, 2026 after 98 years of service, clearly iHeart is wanting to get a foothold in some of those stations with an aggressive ad campaign and now a running website that plays the audio top of the hour newscasts. This is clever for sure. I wish them luck. They are also playing on the 100 year anniversary of NBC as well with it’s ties to radio.

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oldvnewschool said:
So about over two years ago I noticed iHeart removed the NBC News Radio rebranding on certain features and even the Top of The Hour Newscasts.
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Me too. I figured they were going to let the branding lapse and just focus on the unbranded news. We discussed this a bit in the CBS News Radio thread, and I said I couldn't find an offering for the NBC Radio service. I guess last week's announcement revived their interest in offering the branded news. As we've previously discussed, iHeart basically picked up the NBC Radio brand from the NBC Services division of NBC Universal. This is what Westwood One had a few years back after their 25 year deal with NBC ended. At the bottom of the offering linked above is this copyright info:

© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc. All rights reserved. NBC News Radio is a division of NBC News Group.
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So that explains the relationship. iHeart has use of the name, the 'N-B-C jingle," and access to certain TV audio that it's offering to stations as part of its Total Traffic & Weather networks. Could someone do that with CBS News? It's up to them.
 
Of the available replacement networks for CBS, I think that IHeart/NBC may have a very strong hand here. As long as IHeart doesn't push the conservative ideology for NBC, the rebranded network from my perspective has a better than even chance of picking up a lot of affiliates from the CBS mess.
 
TheBigA said:
Why would they do that?
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Because IHeart pushes conservative talk shows on its platform, and, probably more importantly, it and its competitors are facing pressure by President Trump and his supporters to tow the line, so to speak. (Of course, "towing the line" why CBS is in the mess it's in now.)
 
ted chittenden said:
Because IHeart pushes conservative talk shows on its platform, and, probably more importantly, it and its competitors are facing pressure by President Trump and his supporters to tow the line, so to speak. (Of course, "towing the line" why CBS is in the mess it's in now.)
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All commercial radio syndicators push conservative talk shows. Cumulus does too. That's what most of the commercial talk stations carry.

I haven't seen that the president or the FCC have singled out iHeart or NBC News Radio in any way.

CBS is in a "mess" because it's in billions of dollars of debt.
 
TheBigA said:
CBS is in a "mess" because it's in billions of dollars of debt.
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On top of the merger with Warner Bros. Discovery that will carry 50 years of debt going back to Turner Broadcasting, Time Warner, the botched AOL Merger, and AT&T. If the deal goes through they will be swimming in $6 billion in debt. Yet they won’t shut down their cable channels that are useless (VH1), nor reign in first-run syndication as their doubling down with a new show with Judge Judy’s son hosting. But let’s take it out of broadcasting (CBS Radio and CBS Late Night TV) instead because poor David Ellison can’t make money on ads alone.
 
TheBigA said:
© 2026 iHeartMedia, Inc. All rights reserved. NBC News Radio is a division of NBC News Group.

So that explains the relationship. iHeart has use of the name, the 'N-B-C jingle," and access to certain TV audio that it's offering to stations as part of its Total Traffic & Weather networks. Could someone do that with CBS News? It's up to them.
Click to expand...
It's kind of strange that the copyright notice is in dark gray text over a black background, making it very difficult to read. The newscast outcues were a little awkward, coming in a beat or two too fast. But, otherwise, it was definitely a calmer approach than the Fox Walter-Winchellish method of delivery, where the anchor gasps for air between stories.

With this service available to iHeart stations, it's interesting that some of them use ABC or Fox instead.

I think CBS could do something similar, but would have to be prepared for the lamentations that would result. NBC (and ABC) have been much less subject to that kind of reaction.

A related question is what CBS will do with audio feeds "Face the Nation" and "60 Minutes". Would those be retailed through someone else after May 22?
 
TheBigA said:
CBS is in a "mess" because it's in billions of dollars of debt.

L
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Paramount was bought by the Ellisons (Larry the founder of Oracle is worth more than $200 BILLION and his son) Debt with the funds to back it up is just a tool. They just outbid Netflix for Warner.

When your the 6th richest man in the World, debt is not an issue. BTW He also owns about 98% of the sixth biggest Hawaiian Island.

It's not the money, it's the POWER. Controlling CNN & CBS News they have a platform probably more powerful than Fox News.
 
secondchoice said:
Paramount was bought by the Ellisons (Larry the founder of Oracle is worth more than $200 BILLION and his son) Debt with the funds to back it up is just a tool. They just outbid Netflix for Warner.
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But if you dig a little deeper, they're not just using daddy's cash. They've borrowed money from the Saudis and maybe even the Chinese.

 
Daddy can afford to bail them out. But like a lot of really smart folks do: use other people's money. I wonder if this goes south, how much is Ellison on the hook for?

What a lot lot of folks might be overlooking is the value of the content from the studios?
IMHO content is king. Who ever creates the best or most wins. It doesn't matter if people pay to see the movie in a theater, pay a streaming service or watch it on TV with ads. The content creator gets paid if folks want to watch it.
 
secondchoice said:
Daddy can afford to bail them out. But like a lot of really smart folks do: use other people's money. I wonder if this goes south, how much is Ellison on the hook for?

What a lot lot of folks might be overlooking is the value of the content from the studios?
IMHO content is king. Who ever creates the best or most wins. It doesn't matter if people pay to see the movie in a theater, pay a streaming service or watch it on TV with ads. The content creator gets paid if folks want to watch it.
Click to expand...
But listeners don't have a choice of what TOH news they hear. They pick the program they want to listen to and the newscast comes along with it.
 
oldvnewschool said:
NBC News Radio 24/7

So about over two years ago I noticed iHeart removed the NBC News Radio rebranding on certain features and even the Top of The Hour Newscasts. However, with the end of CBS News Radio in May 22nd, 2026 after 98 years of service, clearly iHeart is wanting to get a foothold in some of those stations with an aggressive ad campaign and now a running website that plays the audio top of the hour newscasts. This is clever for sure. I wish them luck. They are also playing on the 100 year anniversary of NBC as well with it’s ties to radio.

View attachment 11667
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That is really interesting. For the last few years, iHeart didn't seem to want its 24/7 News associated with NBC News anymore. I even thought the licensing of the NBC News Radio name either lapsed or was about to. The company launched the service in 2016, very proud it could take audio clips from NBC and use well-known NBC correspondents, while anchored by iHeart employees. But the NBC connection later seemed to go by the wayside. However, things changed earlier this month with CBS's decision to end its radio network.

With no more CBS News Radio in a few weeks, iHeart is promoting its NBC brand again. The ad says you can have national newscasts on your station with either the NBC news sounder or with the cold opening and "white label" format. The anchors only tells us their names. They never say NBC or iHeart or 24/7.

The large majority of iHeart talk stations are Fox News Radio affliliates. But for some reason, the 24/7 white label newscasts are heard on a handful of iHeart talk stations:

KNRS-AM-FM Salt Lake City
WLAC Nashville
WKRC Cincinnati
KFBX Fairbanks

But I don't know any station, whether owned by iHeart or not, that takes the NBC News sounder to start the newscast. These are all white label affiliates.


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