Weekly Roundup – March 31st, 2026
Roundup Links
Jury finds Meta and Google negligent in social media harms trial
"A California jury on Wednesday found that Meta and Google were to blame for the depression and anxiety of a woman who compulsively used social media as a small child, awarding her $6 million in a rare verdict holding Silicon Valley accountable for its role in fueling a youth mental health crisis.
The jurors concluded that Meta and Google should pay the woman $3 million in compensatory damages and an additional $3 million in punitive damages, with Meta on the hook for 70% of that amount."
Our Take: This case isn't about Section 230 or content moderation, it's about engineered addiction. The jury found that Meta and Google designed their platforms to be deliberately habit-forming, particularly for children, and that the design itself caused harm. What's striking is the regulatory double standard: radio and television have been heavily regulated by the FCC for nearly a century, with content rules, ownership caps, and public interest obligations. Meanwhile, social media platforms have operated in a regulation-free zone. The FCC's framework is based on 1934 "spectrum scarcity" logic that doesn't hold up in the streaming era, but somehow we're still applying those rules to broadcasters while letting Big Tech run wild. If a radio station aired content that a jury found caused $6 million in damages to children, the FCC would be all over it. Social media? Crickets.
Get free MLB.TV when you switch to T-Mobile
"[AD] T-Mobile members can get perks like MLB.TV with an eligible plan. Score a FREE MLB.TV subscription for the 2026 season, a $149.99 value."
Our Take: We're Premier League soccer fans in our house and thought our four subscriptions were a lot (cable & Peacock for PL games, ESPN+ for FA Cup, Paramount+ for Carabao Cup and Champions League/Europa League). But wow, baseball fans have it even worse. There's nothing wrong with T-Mobile's MLB.TV deal, it's a great perk. But if you actually dig into what MLB.TV includes, it highlights the absurdity. MLB.TV only gives you out-of-market games. Want your local team? Regional Sports Network subscription. Want national broadcasts? FOX, TBS, Apple TV+, NBC/Peacock, Netflix, and ESPN. That's six platforms for full national coverage, plus your local RSN, plus MLB.TV. You're looking at $100+ per month before playoffs even start. Being a sports fan used to be simple: turn on the TV, find the game. Now it's a part-time job managing subscriptions and navigating blackout restrictions. The industry knows this is broken ("subscription fatigue" is official jargon now) but the near-term solution isn't fewer platforms, it's more bundling. MLB's 2029 rights reset could be a watershed moment when Commissioner Manfred consolidates everything under one streaming umbrella. Until then? Keep juggling those logins.
Is Your Wi-Fi Router Safe From the FCC Ban? Nearly Every Major Brand Is Impacted
"In a bombshell announcement, the Federal Communications Commission will be banning all foreign-made Wi-Fi routers, saying they pose "unacceptable risks" to national security.
The ban doesn't apply to any existing routers that the FCC has already authorized, but will impact any new models “produced in foreign countries.” Router manufacturers can apply for an exemption, but so far, none have been granted "Conditional Approval" on the FCC’s website.
Our Take: The FCC's ban on new foreign-made consumer routers sounds serious until you look at what actually made the Salt Typhoon, Volt Typhoon, and Flax Typhoon attacks so devastating. Yes, Chinese hackers exploited foreign-made routers, but they also exploited U.S.-made Cisco routers at major telecoms. The common thread? Unpatched vulnerabilities and terrible security hygiene. In one case, attackers gained access to thousands of routers through a single privileged account that didn't even have multi-factor authentication enabled. This matters for radio and TV stations because your infrastructure depends on routers - for remote broadcasts, cloud-based systems, streaming, studio-to-transmitter links. The FCC's ban addresses new equipment going forward, but it doesn't remove existing compromised devices, and it doesn't fix the core problem: organizations not patching known vulnerabilities or implementing basic security controls. If your station runs on network infrastructure (and it does), the real takeaway isn't "buy American routers." It's "patch your equipment, enable MFA on every admin account, replace end-of-life devices, and audit your network." The attacks that prompted this ban succeeded because of neglect, not just hardware origin.
Duke radio announcer pleads for technical foul on UConn after game-winner
"The radio calls for Connecticut and Duke perfectly encapsulated the elation and deflation of a shocking March Madness ending.
UConn overcame a 19-point deficit to stun top overall seed Duke in the Elite Eight, thanks to a deep 3-pointer from Braylon Mullins in the final second. It was an instant classic, and the radio announcers properly responded to the wild ending."
Our Take: This is sports radio at its absolute best. UConn's Mike Crispino screaming "absolute bedlam!" while Duke's David Shumate desperately pleads for a technical foul that doesn't exist — it's raw, unfiltered emotion that perfectly captures March Madness. The side-by-side comparison of winning and losing radio calls is maybe the best thing in sports media. You get pure elation on one side, heartbreak on the other, and occasionally an announcer so devastated he sees phantom bench violations in the chaos. Radio doesn't get enough credit for these moments. Over 4 million people have listened to this clip because it's the unscripted reaction, the humanity of calling your team's season ending in real time. This is the content that goes viral and becomes tournament lore. P.S. Don't hate us, Duke fans. We're based in Durham. We feel your pain.
MeTV is Expanding Its MeTV Music Radio Station
"MeTV is preparing to broaden the reach of its MeTV Music radio format, a distinctive offering that pairs perfectly with the network’s signature classic television lineup. The station, which delivers a carefully curated selection of timeless and memorable songs drawn from decades of popular music, has already established a presence in a select group of markets and is now signaling strong interest in growing its footprint nationwide by asking viewers if they would want MeTV Music by them."
Our Take: I used to love watching The Rockford Files on MeTV back in my 20s (so don't say the kids aren't alright!), and apparently the network has decided their classic TV audience also wants classic radio. MeTV Music is expanding nationwide with a soft oldies format spanning the '50s through the '80s - but the hook is deep cuts over the same songs some oldies station plays on repeat. We're talking B-sides, forgotten gems, and album tracks from a 3,500-song library. It's the kind of format radio owners always dream about trying. The fact that they're expanding means it must be working. They're already live in Chicago, Lafayette, and scattered Midwest markets, and now asking listeners to submit ZIP codes to gauge interest elsewhere. A retro TV brand launching a retro radio format with actual depth feels like the kind of nostalgic pastiche that could genuinely work in 2026. This one's going to be fun to track.
Religious Radio Across America
"Faith-based radio has a long history in America, dating back to the earliest broadcasts of Sunday services at the beginning of the 1920s. Today, there are more than 4,000 terrestrial religious radio stations in the United States, according to a Pew Research Center analysis from the Pew-Knight Initiative. That’s about a quarter of the roughly 17,000 AM and FM stations in the U.S. that are licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. Almost all U.S. adults – 98% – live within the local coverage range of at least one religious radio station."
Our Take: Religious radio is everywhere — 98% of Americans live within range of at least one station — but it rarely gets the attention it deserves in media industry conversations. This Pew study is a fascinating deep dive: 25% of all U.S. radio stations are religious (over 4,000 stations), and 45% of U.S. adults say they listen to religious audio programming at some point. That's a massive audience that often flies under the radar. Here's what's interesting from an ownership perspective: 28% of religious stations are independently owned, compared to 72% that belong to multistation groups. That actually makes religious radio less consolidated than the broader radio industry, where post-1996 deregulation led to massive consolidation - nearly half of all stations in major markets are now owned by companies with three or more stations in the same market. Religious radio's relatively higher independent ownership is notable in an era of industry-wide consolidation.
Screwed by AI [PODCAST]
"At one of the stands displaying AI-powered sex dolls at the Adult Video Network expo, there is a robot holding a handwritten sign saying, “You can do anything to me.”"
Our Take: This is David Foster Wallace's AVN article for our times. Which means instead of being in a magazine, it's a podcast and it's about AI. Doesn't get more 2026 than that (unless they'd streamed it on Twitch).
