Radio Hall of Fame 2026 inductees: the full list of eight honorees

Eight new names enter the Radio Hall of Fame

The Radio Hall of Fame 2026 inductees have been announced, and the class of eight covers a wide range of radio careers, from sports talk to Top 40 to urban morning shows. According to Billboard, the Museum of Broadcast Communications will honor all eight at an in-person ceremony on Thursday, October 8, at the Fairmont Hotel in Chicago.

The full 2026 class

Six of the eight inductees were chosen from a pool of 24 nominees by a voting panel of more than 950 industry professionals. The other two were selected by the Radio Hall of Fame nominating committee. Here is the complete list:

• Boomer Esiason (WFAN-AM/FM, New York City)
• Dennis Green (COO, Sun & Fun Media/Key Networks, and co-chairman of the Radio Hall of Fame)
• Shotgun Tom Kelly (60's on 6, Sirius XM)
• Helen Little (WLTW-FM, New York City)
• Bob Pittman (former CEO of MTV Networks, current chairman and CEO of iHeartMedia)
• Rickey Smiley (Urban One/Reach Media)
• Charlie Van Dyke (former DJ at major-market Top 40 stations)
• Fred Winston (major figure in Chicago Top 40 radio, including "The Big 89" WLS)

Esiason, Kelly, Little, Smiley, Van Dyke, and Winston came through the open voting process. Green and Pittman were voted in by the nominating committee.

Context and background

The Radio Hall of Fame was founded by the Emerson Radio Corporation in 1988. The Museum of Broadcast Communications took over operations in 1991. The confidential ballot for this cycle was conducted by Votem.com and overseen by Miller Kaplan's Andrew Rosen.

Co-chair Kraig Kitchin, himself a 2024 inductee, called the class "well-deserved recognition" for people who have "performed at the highest levels for a sustained period of time."

For fans of the medium and those following iHeartMedia's influence on contemporary radio, Pittman's induction is the headline name here. His career arc, from MTV Networks to building iHeartMedia into the largest radio operator in the United States, is one of the more consequential stories in broadcast history.

Tickets for the October ceremony are on sale now at the Radio Hall of Fame's official site. A portion of each ticket purchase is a tax-deductible donation to the Museum of Broadcast Communications. For anyone curious about where radio programming intersects with music culture, the inductee list offers a useful cross-section of the industry's last several decades.