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💔 Comcast away. Comcast announced on Monday that it plans to spin off NBCUniversal, its content arm, which includes the NBC broadcast network, the Peacock streaming service, the Universal movie studio, and the European media arm Sky. The move comes shortly after NBCUniversal spun off the majority of its cable assets into the company now known as Versant. Comcast expects to complete the separation in about a year.

📻 The Re-Golic-ing. Mike Golic Sr. and Mike Golic Jr. are going back to ESPN. The network announced Monday that the father-son duo will host The Golics, a new morning show on ESPN Radio airing weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET, debuting Aug. 3 as part of a new multi-year agreement.

🏈 Sorsby subject. Paramount+ announced a new docuseries chronicling the Texas Tech football team, which has been in production since January 2026, meaning it will almost certainly include all of the Brendan Sorsby drama. The series is expected to premiere ahead of this year’s college football season.

🦚 NBC U later? The regional sports network industry has seen several major operators shut down in recent years, and NBC Sports Regional Networks could be next. According to a report by Matt Gelb of The Athletic, the networks are “in peril because the network is lurching toward an uncertain financial future.”

🌭 Hot diggity dog. The Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest is right around the corner. ESPN has aired the contest on various networks since 2003, but the network announced Monday that it will feature an ABC simulcast as part of the network’s Disney Celebrates America programming on July 4.

Read more of today’s top stories at Awful Announcing.

In the early 2000s, Rich Eisen was one of the premier faces of SportsCenter, then-still ESPN’s flagship program. Skip Bayless was laying the bricks of what would become the Embrace Debate era, which would come to define the network for the decade ahead. Mike Golic was partnering with Mike Greenberg during the heyday of ESPN Radio.

In 2003, Eisen left to become the face of NFL Network. Bayless remained a mainstay through 2016 until he jumped ship to Fox Sports. Golic and ESPN parted ways in 2020, and he started a daily show with his son, Mike Golic Jr.

As each of them left, ESPN evolved. Eisen’s departure was a canary in the coal mine for SportsCenter’s golden era. Bayless’s departure meant Stephen A. Smith was free to become the face of the network. By the time Golic was gone, ESPN Radio was a shell of its former self, having given way to YouTube, podcasts, and Pat McAfee.

ESPN moved forward.

But a funny thing has been happening in recent months.

First, Eisen returned, bringing The Rich Eisen Show to ESPN Radio, and making nostalgic appearances on the Worldwide Leader by hosting SportsCenter and reminiscing about the good old days with his former co-hosts. He’s also been positioned as an emergency failsafe in case McAfee ever decides to take his ball and go home.

Then, Skip Bayless returned to First Take in a much-hyped reunion with Smith. Initially billed as a one-time only, it soon became apparent that it was destined to be the first of many appearances across the desk.

Now, just six years after it seemed as though there wasn’t a place for him anymore, Golic is back. He and his son are bringing their show, now called The Golics, to ESPN Radio on weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon ET starting in August.

All of a sudden, here in 2026, SportsCenter is back in the conversation, Skip Bayless has people talking about his ESPN hot takes, and ESPN Radio is making its case for relevancy once more.

That isn’t to say ESPN is suddenly trying to say 2003 programming is where it’s at. If anything, it’s a reminder that what goes around comes around, especially in media. You’ll never meet a trend that doesn’t reappear years later. Anyone who ever tries to tell you the modern state of things is here to stay is either a liar or a fool. Change is inevitable, and nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

If nothing else, it’s a reminder that there’s nothing like name recognition. Building new stars is an essential part of the media company's process, but it’s hard work and often a matter of dumb luck. And for every new media star that is born, there’s a graveyard full of careers that never took off. So when someone reaches the level of Eisen, Bayless, or Golic, it’s much easier to fill a void with that trusted brand than it is to roll the dice on something unproven.

It’s not likely that ESPN is about to start shuffling back every big name from the 1990s and early 200s it can find. But the Worldwide Leader has picked its spots with blasts from the past and, so far, they’ve paid off, at least in the short term. Overexposure awaits to doom us all, but for now, these familiar faces (and voices) are striking the right balance.

“He thought the business side disrespected him, so he felt he had to leave, was his version of events. I think he probably was always going to leave. He’s a super ambitious guy. Super talented guy. But that was the reason he publicly gave—that he couldn’t trust our business side anymore. Now, I don’t think our business side did anything wrong. I think he kind of blew it out of proportion, but that is the reason he gave.” - Dave Portnoy on why Pat McAfee left Barstool.

“We would never say the ‘NBA hates’ fill-in-the-blank. That’s describing every single player in the league as having that opinion and being a part of an agenda. She does that all the time with the WNBA, and it is frankly a dereliction of duties as a journalist.” - Sarah Spain on Christine Brennan’s Caitlin Clark coverage

“It was in answer to YOUR QUESTION – and my response was ‘I guess maybe bigots.’ If you had a problem with the answer, say it then. On the air. This is utterly unprofessional.” - Giants beat writer Susan Slusser reacting to KNBR’s Larry Krueger’s comments.

“Chris Johnson is dying and he showed up on Good Morning America to tell his story, and Michael Strahan, one of the great cowards on TV in my opinion, sits there and pretends, oh, this is heartbreaking, it’s so sad, I can’t believe this is happening to you, and doesn’t have the courage and the decency and the wherewithal to mention the ties between football and ALS,” said Pearlman. “And that’s because he’s getting paid a sh*tload of money not to. It’s f*cking disgusting.” - Jeff Pearlman on how NFL media ignores the connection between football and ALS.

“It really is a gift, I think if we look at it that way. How many things inspire wonder in us as adults these days? How many things make us stop and say, ‘Wow’?” - Joe Davis on Shohei Ohtani

“The W, at this junction in time, would be better without Caitlin Clark, because she is a bigger distraction than she is an additive,” he said. “Caitlin Clark has gotten the WNBA over the necessary threshold they needed. Now people are watching. Now we realize, oh, there’s talent in the W — talent that’s actually even greater than Caitlin Clark… Caitlin got the necessary eyes there. But now that the eyes are there, we don’t necessarily need her anymore.” - Emmanuel Acho with the blistering WNBA hot take.

“People like to say that it’s performative to meet on the pitch, and frankly, I don’t give a sh*t what people have to say. All I care about is our own team and what we do together. And in these moments, it’s hard, because after the game, everybody gets pulled in a million directions by media, and you don’t really have a chance to be with your team unless you take that moment right there.” - Canada manager Jesse Marsch on his World Cup speeches.

Since their inaugural season in 1996, there have been only a few radio play-by-play broadcasters for the Baltimore Ravens. This fall, fans will hear the franchise’s third voice.

Last week, the Ravens officially announced that Kyle Youmans will be on the broadcast. He replaces Gerry Sandusky, who announced his retirement in April. Youmans comes over from the Dallas Cowboys, where he spent seven seasons with the team’s media team.

Unlike Sandusky, Youmans has no direct ties to the region. The 30-year-old is a Waco native and a graduate of the University of North Texas. However, like Sandusky, he hopes to have a long and impactful career for one of the NFL’s model franchises. We recently caught up with Youmans to discuss his new gig.

“I was at home with my family and my triplets. I went into our guest bedroom and flipped on the video. The first thing they said was, ‘How does the family feel about moving to Baltimore? We’d love for you to be the next voice of the Ravens.’ That was an emotional moment,” he said. “It was surreal to hear, because going into the video call, you never know whether it’s going to be a good or bad call. I know some of the other announcers who were part of the process and then got deep into it, and they had a bad call. So it was humbling to be chosen as the next voice.”

Read the full interview with Youmans here.

Several people at the Des Moines sports radio station KXNO were laid off last Tuesday as part of iHeartRadio’s nationwide layoffs.

Ken Miller, who planned to celebrate the 30th anniversary of sports talk radio in Des Moines and was set to retire on Wednesday, did not appear on the final episode of his show in protest.

That day, Trent Condon, who hosts a midday show as an independent contractor and is not an iHeartMedia employee, used the station's platform to lament what had happened to his co-workers and friends and to discuss the many ways these layoffs hurt local fans across the country.

“My heart aches for the people, my friends, and for my colleagues,” he said. “For the people that made the station what it is. The people that lost their jobs yesterday as corporate came down with a mandate of the layoffs. People that worked incredibly hard to give you listeners a product. To localize what we’re doing, and give you a voice. Regardless if you’re a Hawkeyes, Cyclones, Bulldog, or a Panther fan. Your voice to keep things local, and that was taken away.

“They all deserve better. This was a station that was bringing in revenue. This is not a station that is hemorrhaging money. I know the financials, because I work in the financials. From the corporate, it’s not about Des Moines or Sioux City. It’s not about the little places. As acquisitions, changes, and mergers happen, all the big things. All the things that all of us, regardless of your line of work. It doesn’t matter where you work, or what you do for a living. We know what happens in these kind of spots. That’s where we are.”

On Monday, Condon announced on X that his time with KXNO was also done.

“My days at KXNO are over,” he wrote on X. “My comments were considered ‘controversial’ from corporate about my colleagues that were let go. I stand by what I said.”

iHeartMedia and KXNO have not commented on Condon’s departure or clarified whether it was their decision or his.

The move was, in many ways, not surprising. Corporations like iHeartMedia don’t seem very moved by compassion these days, even if their stated goals don’t seem to align with their actions. Whatever it is they want stations like KXNO to be, it doesn’t seem to be what audiences actually want.

If there’s a sliver of hope, it’s that KXNO has been in a similar situation before. In 2020, they parted ways with six employees as part of iHeartMedia layoffs. Those cuts led to intense local backlash and to some hosts refusing to air their shows in protest. KXNO eventually reversed course and rehired everyone who had been laid off.

However, there doesn’t seem to be much hope that a similar outcome will occur this time around, and another media company will keep doing what it says is best for business, even if no one else seems to like what it’s doing.