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Radio is seeing red

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Radio is seeing red

This is Hot PodThe Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.

Hello! It’s been a bit since we checked in on the news. Today, I’ve got a look at the ongoing financial troubles at NPR member stations, the shutdown of Rooster Teeth, and the new season of Serial.

Woes mounting at NPR member stations: “Sponsorship dollars won’t return to previous levels.”

Two more public radio stations are discussing how they plan to get out of the red: Colorado Public Radio, which is adopting the “broadcast-to-podcast” strategy, and WBUR in Boston, which is appealing to listeners for donations before taking any next steps.

Colorado Public Radio laid off 15 members of its staff last week and closed its podcast-focused Audio Innovations Studio. Like at WNYC and NPR, CPR is focusing on news content that can easily adapt to broadcast and digital distribution.

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Citing the same donor and sponsorship woes faced by the rest of the industry, CPR CEO Stewart Vanderwilt said that the cuts were necessary to put the station on better financial footing. In another move that sounds like WNYC deja vu, he said that what remains of the podcasting operation will focus on local news. Skye Pillsbury also reports that two producers will come on to support the newsroom.

“We are shifting our focus to news-based podcast products — and I would say at the intersection of news and long-form storytelling,” he said in an interview with Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner. “There’s a couple of reasons for that. One, it’s where we have a very specific strength. Two, we have a lot of the base material in original news that we’ve produced, which can then be used in a podcast or on-demand type project.”

WBUR in Boston may be on a similar path, but not before CEO Margaret Low appealed to listeners to help the station avoid cuts. “In the last five years, our annual on-air sponsorship income (underwriting) has dropped by more than 40 percent,” Low wrote in an open letter. “Sponsorship dollars won’t return to previous levels. These are not temporary ups and downs. They’re long-term shifts.” The next step, she said, could be pay freezes and layoffs.

It’s a stark message that (hopefully) drums up some dollars from dedicated listeners. But such contributions won’t address the main point she makes: the challenges faced by the audio industry are not all that distinct from what is happening to media on a broader scale. Instead of pointing to a skittish ad industry, she sees the problem as more systemic.

“The old economics of our business can no longer sustain us,” she wrote. “In the digital age, almost all that money now goes to the big platforms — like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Spotify. This is bad news for the news business and has created big gaps that can’t easily be filled.”

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For-profit media companies have struggled to adapt to the new landscape, and public outlets are even more limited in how they can make up that revenue. I don’t have answers, but if you have thoughts on this, feel free to reach out. 

And, as ever, support your local public radio station! You could be as cool as me with my Brian Lehrer hat.

Rooster Teeth shuts down, podcast network up for sale

It’s another digital media shutdown, this time at the hands of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. In addition to shelving movies to save on marketing costs, the company under his leadership has been selling off assets at a pace. Rooster Teeth is next on the list of properties to shut down, with the only component left standing (for now) being the podcast network.

Last week, Rooster Teeth general manager Jordan Levin emailed staff notifying them of the closure. “It’s with a heavy heart I announce that Rooster Teeth is shutting down due to challenges facing digital media resulting from fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patronage,” he said, according to a memo obtained by Variety. “The Roost Podcast Network will continue operating and fulfilling its obligations while WBD evaluates outside interest in acquiring this growing asset.” About 150 employees were laid off.

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Rooster Teeth first made a name for itself in the early aughts as a pre-YouTube hub for web series like Red vs. Blue. But its podcasts, including H3 Podcast and Rooster Teeth Podcast, have proven to be a bigger draw in recent years. There is no news yet regarding a possible acquisition of the podcast network.

A new season of Serial is coming this month

Some news out of On Air Fest last week: Serial is returning on March 28th. Ten years after the hit podcast debuted, Serial will tackle the history of Guantanamo.

Serial host Sarah Koenig said at an OAF panel that she and her fellow producers have been working on how to tell this story for a decade. “Dana [Chivvis] and I tried for years to figure out how to make a story that captures what it’s really like there for the people caught inside this massive, flawed experiment — not just the prisoners, but also the staff who built it and ran it. For so long, all the best stories we heard were off the record. But now people are ready to talk,” she said.

Serial, which was developed as a spinoff of This American Life, was sold to The New York Times in 2020. Since its blockbuster debut, the show has published seasons telling the stories of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, a soldier who was held captive by the Taliban and then charged with desertion, and of the ordinary events at a courthouse in Cleveland.

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Discord accidentally banned over 8,000 people for posting grids and other ‘benign’ images

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Discord accidentally banned over 8,000 people for posting grids and other ‘benign’ images

Stanislav Vishnevskiy, Discord co-founder and chief technology officer, writes that the bug impacted around 200 users who posted “grid-like” pictures, in addition to about 8,000 people who posted “other benign images” since May 2026. “Everyone affected has now been unbanned,” Vishnevskiy says.

In a thread on X, Discord writes that its safety system is designed to flag content by “matching it against known harmful material.” This system can produce “false positives,” Discord explains, which is when an employee would step in to review the flagged content. But instead of just temporarily preventing the account from uploading content during the review, a glitch led its system to ban users entirely.

“When our staff reviewed and cleared those accounts, the same bug prevented the ban from being lifted automatically, so it just stayed in place,” Discord says.

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Hoto’s PixelDrive screwdriver is down to $60, matching its best price

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Hoto’s PixelDrive screwdriver is down to , matching its best price

If your Prime Day purchases included a new desk, TV stand, bookshelf, or other furniture you still haven’t assembled, Hoto’s PixelDrive cordless screwdriver can help speed up the process. It’s currently on sale for $59.99 ($20 off) at Amazon, matching its best price to date.

From tightening loose screws on furniture to repairing electronics, the PixelDrive is designed to handle a wide range of household projects. Hoto includes 30 screwdriver bits that cover many of the most common screw types, all neatly organized in a small cylindrical case. It also offers six adjustable torque settings, allowing you to use less power when working with fragile electronics or increase it when putting together a desk, bookshelf, TV stand, or other furniture. You can also switch between a slower 80RPM mode for more precise work and a faster 200RPM mode with the press of a button.

Hoto also added several features that make assembling projects a little easier. A built-in display lets you quickly check your current torque setting and remaining battery life, while an integrated LED light helps illuminate dim spaces, whether you’re working under a desk or inside a cabinet. The rechargeable 2,000mAh battery also charges over USB-C, so you won’t need to keep buying disposable batteries.

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Starship delivery robots leave campuses for cities

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Starship delivery robots leave campuses for cities

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

Those little white robots that once rolled across college sidewalks with lattes, fries and late-night snacks are getting a new assignment. Starship Technologies recently announced that it will wind down its U.S. university campus operations and redeploy more than 1,200 robots toward grocery chains and hot food delivery in cities across the United States and Europe.

If you have ever watched one of these robots patiently wait at a crosswalk like a polite cooler on wheels, you know why students got attached. They became part campus convenience, part mascot. Now, the company is moving from a controlled campus setting into a much tougher public test.

CHINAS ROBOT-RUN HOTEL OPENS TO PUBLIC IN 2027

That raises the bigger question: will these cute campus robots be just as welcome when they start sharing crowded city sidewalks with you?

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Starship is winding down U.S. campus robot operations as it expands grocery delivery in the U.S. and Europe. (Starship)

 

Why Starship is pulling robots from college campuses

Starship says the decision comes down to focus. The company says its grocery delivery operations are on a 10x growth trajectory over the next two years, driven by demand from major retailers in the United States and Europe.

In Finland, Starship says its robots already complete roughly one in five grocery deliveries. That gives the company a real-world model it wants to repeat elsewhere. To support that expansion, more than 1,200 robots from U.S. campus fleets will be moved into grocery delivery. For Starship, that is a major pivot. Campuses helped the company build its brand in the U.S. They also gave the robots a place to learn.

 

Why college campuses were the perfect robot testing ground

Starship made a big U.S. splash at George Mason University in 2019, when the school became the first U.S. university to offer autonomous robot deliveries from Starship. From there, the robots spread to dozens of campuses. That made sense. College students are often hungry at odd hours. Many live without a full kitchen. They also tend to be open to new tech, especially when it brings food to the dorm without small talk.

During the pandemic, contactless delivery became even more appealing. A robot that could roll up with lunch while limiting person-to-person contact suddenly felt useful in a very different way.

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The campus pullback will not happen overnight

Starship says it has worked with its university campuses and industry partners to keep service running through the 2026–2027 back-to-school season, with transition plans in place to reduce disruption. So, this does not appear to be an instant shutdown where every campus robot disappears at once. Instead, the company is moving away from the university model while preparing its fleet for a bigger push into grocery and restaurant delivery.

For students who loved the bots, it may still feel like the end of an era. For Starship, though, it is a move toward the market where the company believes the economics are stronger. Starship CEO and co-founder Ahti Heinla says the company’s robots can deliver groceries at a cost $3-$4 lower per delivery than traditional courier fulfillment. That is the kind of claim that gets the attention of retailers trying to make last-mile delivery less expensive.

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Why city sidewalks could be a tougher test

The next phase could get messy. Delivery robots have to share sidewalks with people who are walking, pushing strollers, using wheelchairs, carrying groceries or trying to catch a bus. That means every design choice matters. A robot that blocks a curb ramp can create a real problem. A robot that pauses in the wrong spot can turn from cute to irritating fast. If one reverses unexpectedly or gets stuck near a crosswalk, the novelty wears off even faster.

There have already been warning signs. Reports have described delivery robots bumping into people, getting stuck in odd places and raising accessibility concerns. Chicago has also seen local pushback and safety concerns around sidewalk delivery robots, which shows Starship still has work to do if it wants city residents to embrace them. That is the challenge Starship now faces. The same robot that felt charming on a campus may feel like clutter on a narrow sidewalk.

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Starship Technologies is shifting more than 1,200 campus delivery robots to grocery and restaurant deliveries in cities. (Starship)

 

What grocery delivery changes

Grocery delivery is a different business from campus food delivery. A college order might be a sandwich, a soda or a late-night snack. A grocery run can involve heavier items, more frequent routes and customers who expect reliability every time. If Starship can make that work, the payoff could be huge. Grocery stores want cheaper local delivery. Customers want speed without sky-high fees. Cities want fewer cars clogging short delivery routes.

Starship says the global food delivery market is now worth $650 billion and needs delivery systems with higher autonomy levels. The company also says it has completed more than 10 million deliveries, which gives it a sizable head start in the sidewalk robot category.

However, the public will need convincing. People may welcome a robot bringing milk and eggs on a rainy night. They may also get annoyed if that same robot blocks a sidewalk during the morning rush. That will all decide whether sidewalk robots become normal or face more local limits.

 

Why Estonia still matters to Starship

Starship was founded in Tallinn, Estonia, in 2014 by Ahti Heinla and Janus Friis. Estonia remains home to the company’s core engineering and AI development team. That is important because this shift is not only about where the robots operate.

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The big question for robot delivery

Starship’s move shows where the delivery robot business is headed. College campuses helped make the robots likable. Grocery delivery may determine whether they become profitable. Still, the sidewalks belong to the public. That means companies need more than clever machines. They need trust, clear rules and designs that respect people who move through cities in different ways.

A delivery robot should never make a sidewalk harder to use for someone with a cane, stroller or wheelchair. It should not turn public space into an obstacle course. If companies want these robots to feel normal, they need to prove they can operate without making daily life more frustrating.

ARE HUMANOID ROBOTS NOW COMING FOR RETAIL JOBS?

Starship says grocery delivery demand is pushing its robot fleet from college campuses into urban neighborhoods. (Starship)

 

What this means to you

You may start seeing more delivery robots near grocery stores, restaurants and apartment-heavy neighborhoods. If that happens, pay attention to how they behave in your area. Look for whether they yield to pedestrians, avoid curb ramps and handle crowded sidewalks well. Also, check whether your city has rules for personal delivery devices. Some places allow pilot programs, while others limit where these robots can operate.

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If a robot causes a problem, document it safely. Take a photo or video, note the location and report it to your city or the delivery company. That is important because local officials need real examples, not vague frustration, when they decide what rules should apply. There is also a privacy angle. These robots use sensors and cameras to navigate. Companies may say the data supports safe operation, but you still deserve clear answers about what gets collected, how long it is kept and whether law enforcement can request it.

 

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Kurt’s key takeaways

Starship’s campus exit feels like the end of a quirky era, especially for students who got used to seeing the little robots rolling around campus. But this shift also tells us something bigger about where autonomous delivery is going. The next battle will happen on city sidewalks, not college campuses. If these robots save money and reduce short car trips, they could become very useful. But if they crowd walkways or create safety headaches, people will push back hard. To me, the real test is pretty clear. Robot delivery needs to work for everyone on the sidewalk, including people who never ordered anything.

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Would you be ok with a delivery robot on your block, or would you rather keep your sidewalks robot-free? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.

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