NorthEast Radio Watch 5/25/2026: New Era in Radio News

In this week’s issue… CBS ends, Worldwide launches, affiliates regroup – Beasley cuts hit WROR – Remembering Batting, Lehmann – Giovanni retires (again) – CHU’s time ticks away

By SCOTT FYBUSH

Programming note: There’s a lot going on this week and next – not just the holiday weekend that just ended, but also a college graduation for our eldest and a 30th wedding anniversary, so there won’t be a regular NERW on June 1 unless there’s major breaking news. We’ll be back June 8, and in the meantime Lance has you covered with all the industry’s news over at RadioInsight.

*Has there ever been a week when more people were talking about CBS, albeit in less complimentary ways?

It was probably little more than a seasonal coincidence that two of the company’s most controversial cancellations took effect less than 24 hours apart – on Thursday night, Stephen Colbert’s final “Late Show” from the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York (and no, we don’t know the fate of that landmark facility), and then on Friday night, the last newscasts from CBS Radio News a few long blocks to the west on 57th Street.

While Colbert’s finale drew a parade of zillion-watt celebrities including Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen, the last gasps of the 99-year-old radio network were more modest, if just as heartfelt.

As the hours ticked down to the final newscasts at 11 and 11:31 PM, CBS Radio staffers past and present gathered at Studio 42 in the Broadcast Center to toast their long and proud legacy – and yes, you’d probably immediately recognize the voices of half of the people in that lovely photo by longtime CBS editor (and uber-talented photographer) Charlie Kaye.

Whatever you might think of the fate of network radio news in 2026, it’s undeniable that the end of the CBS legacy leaves dozens of incredibly talented and devoted newspeople out of work at a time when there aren’t many great jobs available in the business.

Some, like space reporter and fill-in anchor Peter King (at right, in a photo by colleague Gail Lee), were already semi-retired, but plenty others are available, and that’s working to the benefit of at least one of the upstarts entering the radio news space.

While many former CBS radio affiliates have signed on with ABC, including most notably the former CBS Radio O&Os that had become Audacy properties (think WTIC in Hartford, WPHT in Philadelphia, KDKA in Pittsburgh), John Catsimatidis’ Red Apple Media made a loud splash with its launch at midnight Saturday of its new Worldwide News service.

In addition to hiring veteran newsman Lee Harris (WINS, WGN, NewsNation) as its VP of news, Worldwide picked up at least four prominent CBS Radio names, bringing Michael Wallace, Cooper Lawrence, Matt Pieper and Bill Rehkopf on board as part of its launch crew.

So far, Worldwide has publicly announced only a handful of affiliates: in addition to flagship WABC (770) in New York, the network is being heard on WADK (1540) in Newport, Rhode Island in the region.

(We’re working to assemble a comprehensive list of what former CBS affiliates have gone where – if you can tell us what your station is doing for news now, please drop us a line!)

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*We’ve been reporting cutbacks at Beasley Media Group stations almost every week, and last week the financially struggling company’s offer of retirement buyouts to its older air talent brought on another exit in MASSACHUSETTS.

At classic hits WROR (105.7 Framingham), Bob Bronson had been in the morning chair for six years, returning to Boston in 2019 after a run at WLTW in New York, but last Monday marked his last day in that role.

“I’ve been incred­ibly for­tu­nate to spend my career doing something I truly love,” Bronson said in a statement issued by Beasley; with his exit, co-host Lauren Beckham Falcone (“LBF”) and producer Aaron Natti take the helm of the morning show.

*Two familiar voices in the Bay State have been silenced.

In Boston, Don Batting was one of the voices of news on WBZ (1030) from 1965 until his retirement in 1996, spending most of that time as the early morning street reporter bringing news from the field to listeners tuning in for Gary LaPierre’s morning newscasts. An Army Signal Corps veteran, Batting had worked in Rutland, Vermont, Putnam, CT and Providence among other stops on the way to WBZ.

A 2015 inductee to the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame, Batting was 94 when he died on Tuesday.

(On a personal note, your editor’s very first job at WBZ was as a morning tape operator, which included the duties of taking in Don’s reports from the field, which were always a model of how to tell a story with perfect accuracy, brevity and no small dose of personality. He’ll be dearly missed.)

And out in western Massachusetts, Al Lehmann was “the voice of WWLP,” serving as chief announcer for the Springfield NBC affiliate for many decades until his 2014 retirement. Lehmann, who died May 23 at age 83, started his career in 1962 at the old WREB (930) in Holyoke before moving to WWLP in 1969. In addition to his on-air career, Lehmann was also the manager of the rock band the Blue Denims.

*It’s retirement time – again – for one of RHODE ISLAND‘s most prominent air talents.

Daniel Centofani, much better known as “Giovanni,” is out of afternoon drive at WWBB (B101) in Providence and sister station WCIB (Cool 102) on Cape Cod after almost a year and a half with the iHeart stations.

Giovanni is best known, of course, for his very long run across town at WPRO-FM (92.3), where he retired in April 2024 on his 50th anniversary, the last half of that career in morning drive.

In Providence, WWBB PD (and proud new papa!) Adam Rivers takes over afternoon on-air duties, while Jeffrey T Mason is now being heard in the afternoon on WCIB.

*Congratulations to this year’s inductees into the Radio Hall of Fame, a class that includes two prominent NEW YORK personalities, WFAN (101.9/660) morning host Boomer Esiason and WLTW (Lite 106.7) midday host Helen Little.

This year’s class also includes other names and voices that should be well known to NERW-land listeners, including Charlie Van Dyke, whose top-40 career included WRKO and CKLW stops before becoming a major voice talent; Fred Winston of Chicago’s WLS; syndicated morning man Rickey Smiley and “Shotgun” Tom Kelly, whose West Coast career led him to SiriusXM’s 60s Gold, where he’s heard in afternoons.

*There’s a big finale in the works in Buffalo later this week: on Friday, Janet Snyder will do her last morning show on Audacy’s WKSE (Kiss 98.5), wrapping up a career that started at the station in 1987. After a few years in New York as “Janet Dean” on WHTZ (Z100), Snyder came back to Buffalo in 1992 and has been on mornings since 1994, most of that time alongside Nicholas Picholas.

For now, it appears Picholas will be doing mornings solo while Audacy looks for a replacement for Snyder, who’s been mostly working remotely in recent years from her home outside Boston.

*In the Albany market, iHeart has replaced its local morning show at WRVE (99.5 the River) with a simulcast of “Andi and Bob” from sister station WRFY (Y102.5) in Reading, Pennsylvania. The shuffle includes the exit of Kevin Rush, who had been co-hosting the morning show from Sarasota since moving south in 2019. Rush, who’d been on WRVE in various roles since 2001, had also been doing afternoons and serving as APD on WSRZ in Sarasota, as well as tracking other iHeart stations around the country.

Rush’s co-host, Traci Villaume, moves to afternoons in a new part-time role, now that she’s also been hired as executive producer of the new “Upstate Living” show that will debut soon on ABC affiliate WTEN (Channel 10). And that’s where “Andi and Bob” comes in from Reading – co-host Bob Hauer was already familiar to Albany listeners because he’d been heard in afternoons on WRVE until last week.

*Chuck Damico is adding more duties at Beasley’s Philadelphia cluster, where he’s now also PD for WXTU (92.5), replacing Mark “Razz” Radziewicz. Damico also programs sister stations WMMR (93.3) and WMGK (102.9).

*Sinclair is once again a two-station owner in the Harrisburg TV market, now that the FCC has approved its $200,000 purchase of the license assets of WXBU (Channel 15), the Lebanon-licensed Univision affiliate that had been held by Howard Stirk Holdings for the last decade.

The deal once again makes channel 15 a sister station to CBS affiliate WHP-TV (Channel 21), resuming a partnership that dates back to 1995, when WHP began operating channel 15 (then WLYH-TV) under an LMA. (Going way back in history, of course, channels 15 and 21 had both been part of a three-station alliance of separately-owned CBS affiliates that also included WSBA-TV 43 in York.)

WXBU already operates as a channel-share partner on WHP’s transmitter, so there’s not much in the way of physical assets changing hands in this deal.

*One of the oldest radio stations in CANADA is signing off, though it’s not exactly going to leave a format void for anyone else to fill.

CHU is more of a utility than a radio station, broadcasting time signals and a constant frequency reference on three shortwave frequencies from a site on the outskirts of Ottawa that’s been in use since 1947. Under various callsigns, the time signals have been transmitted from Ottawa since 1923, but the government announced last week that it will pull the plug on the CHU signals on June 22, citing more modern ways to get accurate time signals.

It’s the second time in recent months that Canadian officials have abruptly announced the discontinuation of a radio service, following the decision earlier this year to turn off the VHF 162 MHz radio network that carried weather and emergency information from Environment Canada. As with the weather radio decision, there are complaints about the lack of a public comment period or a full analysis of whether the CHU signals were still being actively used.

In most parts of Canada, the stronger signal of the US equivalent, WWV, remains readily available – but we’ll be interested to see if there’s any blowback from this decision.

*In Toronto, Chris Glover started on Thursday as the new host of “Metro Morning” on CBC Radio One (CBLA 99.1), filling a prominent position that’s been vacant since David Common’s exit in January. Glover, a Whitby native, has worked for the Corporation for 17 years, including stints in Halifax, Manitoba and Washington, as well as hosting “Marketplace” on CBC TV.

Down the road in Hamilton, CKLH (Legend 102.9) has lit up its new HD Radio transmitter and antenna, which sets up the Whiteoaks Communications Group station to begin adding HD subchannels. The HD3 on CKLH will replace one of the company’s now-defunct AM signals in the region, the former Christian contemporary CJYE (Joy 1250), which has been living as a streaming-only service since Whiteoaks lost the AM transmitter site it shared with ethnic CJMR (1320) in Mississauga a few months ago. Once Joy lights up in HD, Whiteoaks will also add an HD2, carrying the news-talk programming of its CKTB (610 St. Catharines) to extend that station’s reach into Hamilton, which has had no local news-talk station since Corus pulled the plug on CHML (900).

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