Pictured above: Walter Sterling, host of WABC, New York’s and Red Apple Audio Network’s nightly program, “The Other Side of Midnight,” addressing the topic, “Talk Radio: Past, Present, and Future,” at TALKERS 2026.

The 28th annual edition of the talk media industry’s longest running and most important national gathering – TALKERS 2026: Radio’s Next Chapter – took place at the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication on the Long Island, NY campus of Hofstra University this past Friday (6/5). It was produced in conjunction with Hofstra’s multi-Marconi Award winning campus radio station, WRHU-FM. The vibrant, sold-out gathering presented 65 speakers and 338 registered attendees engaged in the sharing of perspectives, advice, and ideas within the fertile environment of dynamic collegial networking.

Pictured above: Lee Habeeb, CEO, host, and producer of the wildly successful syndicated program, “Our American Stories,” addressing the crowd about “The Art of Story Telling” at TALKERS 2026: Radio’s Next Chapter.

The main themes of the conference included an intense focus on the future of radio and talk media in the multi-platform digital world of the second quarter of the 21st century.  These included exploration of such existential questions as how to gain profile traction in a noisy world; how to regain the public’s trust in the media; how to meet the challenge of generating revenue in a fractured and challenging economy; what entrepreneurial opportunities exist for individuals and independent companies in this new environment; how to expand programming options; how to recruit new talent; how to attract younger demos; how to deal with the enormous unforgiving power of algorithms in scoring the game; how to effectively control and exploit AI; how to make a living in this business; and so much more.

Speakers and attendees included a cross section of talk media professionals from the words of talent, management, ownership, syndication, journalism, engineering, politics, sports, the law, academia, and music – even pro-wrestling!

Beginning next week, TALKERS will provide in-depth photo and video coverage of the historic event.  Stand by!