Audacy is moving one of its biggest music-and-mental-health events onto New York soil, and NEW 102.7 is turning the arrival into far more than another concert promotion. Megan Moroney, Michelle Branch, Bebe Rexha and Ashe will headline the 13th annual We Can Survive on October 28 at UBS Arena in Elmont, placing a deliberately cross-format lineup inside one of the region’s premier arenas while the station wraps the entire event around a larger mission of mental-health awareness and suicide prevention. This is not simply four artists sharing a bill. It is Audacy taking a national initiative, planting it inside the New York market, and asking one of its most personality-driven local music stations to make the night feel like it belongs here.
That is the story.
Not just the concert.
THE CONNECTION.
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME THE EVENT ACTUALLY LANDS IN NEW YORK
Let’s clean up one piece of geography before somebody on Long Island starts emailing me.
😂
We Can Survive has been in the New York City area before.
Audacy moved the event to Prudential Center in Newark for its 10th anniversary in 2023, and it returned there again in 2025.
But this year?
UBS Arena.
Elmont.
Long Island.
New York.
ACTUAL NEW YORK SOIL.
That is a different thing.
And for NEW 102.7, it makes the event much more naturally theirs.
AND THE STATION IS ALREADY TREATING IT THAT WAY
This is not one of those situations where a corporate event gets dropped into a market and the local station is told:
HERE IS YOUR LOGO PLEASE POST THIS BY FRIDAY
NEW 102.7 is actively weaving the concert through its programming.
Karen Carson’s morning show is tying tickets into the station’s morning game.
Emily West and Mike Adam are being used in daytime ticket giveaways.
The station has on-air contesting running throughout the workday.
And listeners are being directed toward a station-specific presale.
That is smart radio.
Make the event feel owned.
Not rented.
THIS LINEUP IS WEIRD IN THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY
Look at it.
Megan Moroney.
Michelle Branch.
Bebe Rexha.
Ashe.
That is not four versions of the same artist.
And I love that.
Moroney brings Country.
Branch brings an entire generation of Pop Rock nostalgia and songwriting credibility.
Rexha brings huge Pop records and dance-floor energy.
Ashe lives in that emotional Alternative Pop lane where songwriting matters more than format labels.
Put them together and you have an event that reflects how listeners actually consume music now.
They do not wake up and say:
TODAY I SHALL LISTEN ONLY TO MUSIC COMPATIBLE WITH A 2003 RADIO FORMAT TREE
😂
They listen to songs.
Good songs.
Artists they care about.
That makes this lineup feel modern.
AND IT FITS NEW 102.7
Pull up NEW 102.7 right now and the station is moving from Taylor Swift to Black Eyed Peas to Ariana Grande to DJ Snake and Justin Bieber to Sombr to Sia to Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars.
That is a broad contemporary adult music universe.
Not ultra-narrow CHR.
Not sleepy AC.
Not one decade.
Not one genre.
That is why this bill makes sense.
It sounds like the station.
BUT THE MUSIC IS NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT PART
That is where this event separates itself.
We Can Survive supports Audacy’s I’m Listening initiative and benefits the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Audacy says part of the proceeds will support AFSP’s education, advocacy, research and community programs across all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
That gives the night weight.
Because music and mental health are already intertwined for a lot of people.
We just do not always say it out loud.
SONGS SHOW UP WHEN PEOPLE ARE FALLING APART
That is what radio people understand.
There are songs listeners remember because they were driving home from the best night of their lives.
There are songs tied to weddings.
Graduations.
First kisses.
Breakups.
Funerals.
Cancer diagnoses.
Divorces.
Bad mornings.
Long nights.
Grief.
Recovery.
Hope.
People attach music to survival.
That is not marketing language.
That is what music does.
So an event built around the idea that talking about mental health matters actually makes sense inside music radio.
AND RADIO HAS A UNIQUE ROLE HERE
Because radio is intimate.
I do not care how many apps exist.
A voice coming through the speakers can still feel personal.
A morning-show host talking honestly about anxiety can reach somebody sitting alone in traffic.
A song can hit somebody differently because of the story surrounding it.
A caller can say something another listener needed to hear.
That is where radio becomes more than entertainment.
THE EVENT NAME ITSELF CARRIES MORE WEIGHT NOW
We Can Survive.
Read that again without seeing it as branding.
WE CAN SURVIVE.
That means something.
Especially when the event is connected to suicide prevention.
You are not telling somebody:
Everything is fine.
You are saying:
You are still here.
Let’s keep going.
There is a huge difference.
AND AUDACY HAS BUILT THIS FOR 13 YEARS
This is not a one-off cause promotion.
The 2026 show will be the 13th edition of We Can Survive, continuing a run that has brought major artists and listeners together around mental-health awareness and related causes.
Longevity matters.
Anybody can do a cause concert once.
Thirteen years starts looking like commitment.
UBS ARENA CHANGES THE FEEL
This venue matters too.
UBS Arena is not some ballroom somebody booked because it had Wednesday available.
It is a major New York sports-and-entertainment venue, home to the Islanders and a steady calendar of arena-level concerts and events.
The arena’s current October schedule puts We Can Survive right in the middle of Islanders games, major touring acts and other high-profile events.
That makes the evening feel substantial.
If you are trying to turn a cause into a cultural event, the room matters.
AND LONG ISLAND IS A GOOD PLACE FOR THIS
This is the local angle I really like.
UBS Arena sits in a space that pulls from Queens, Nassau, Brooklyn and the wider metro.
That gives NEW 102.7 access to an audience broader than simply Manhattan.
And that is important because New York radio is not just Manhattan.
It never has been.
The audience lives everywhere.
Long Island.
Queens.
Brooklyn.
The Bronx.
Staten Island.
North Jersey.
Westchester.
The whole messy, beautiful, enormous thing.
So bringing the event to Elmont makes it feel less like a corporate New York show and more like something the metro can actually reach.
AND THE NEW 102.7 PERSONALITIES NEED TO BE ALL OVER THIS
Karen Carson.
Johnny Mingione.
Anthony Malerba.
Emily West.
Mike Adam.
Bru.
Those are the personalities tied into this year’s event coverage.
Good.
Use them.
Do not let the artists be the only human beings telling stories that night.
Let the station talent talk about why the cause matters.
Let listeners talk.
Let survivors talk.
Let families talk.
That is where a station earns the word community.
MEGAN MORONEY IS A GREAT CHOICE
She gives the show a current Country superstar connection without turning the event into a Country concert.
And Country listeners are increasingly crossing over into Hot AC and Pop spaces anyway.
That wall is nowhere near as rigid as programmers sometimes pretend.
A strong song travels.
Moroney helps widen the room.
MICHELLE BRANCH IS THE PERFECT GENERATIONAL BRIDGE
This is the one radio programmers should appreciate.
There are listeners who grew up with Michelle Branch records on Pop and Hot AC radio.
Now those listeners are adults with kids, jobs, bills and probably back pain.
😂
They still know every word.
That is emotional memory.
And emotional memory is radio gold.
BEBE REXHA BRINGS PURE POP POWER
Rexha has existed across Pop, dance, Country collaboration and rhythmic spaces.
That flexibility fits this bill perfectly.
She represents what modern music consumption actually looks like.
People do not need artists to live inside one neat programming box anymore.
AND ASHE BRINGS THE SONGWRITER SIDE
That gives the evening texture.
Not every moment needs to be:
EVERYBODY SCREAM
Sometimes the power is the song.
The lyric.
The story.
The thing somebody hears at exactly the right moment.
That matters on a night centered around mental health.
THIS IS WHERE RADIO CAN DO WHAT STREAMING CANNOT
Spotify can give you all four artists.
YouTube can give you every video.
TikTok can give you clips.
But radio can bring the audience together around a reason.
That is different.
A station can say:
Come with us.
Here is why we are doing this.
Here is the organization we are supporting.
Here are the people in our market who care.
Here is the phone number.
Here is the conversation.
That is community radio at scale.
AND I WANT NEW 102.7 TO GO BIGGER
Do not make October 28 the beginning of the conversation.
Make it the culmination.
Spend October talking about mental health.
Not constantly.
Not preachily.
Naturally.
Bring in experts.
Bring in artists.
Let personalities tell real stories.
Let listeners participate.
Highlight AFSP resources.
Make the concert the exclamation point.
Then the event actually means something.
THE WORST THING RADIO CAN DO IS TURN MENTAL HEALTH INTO A PROMO CATEGORY
That is my concern anytime the industry touches something serious.
Do not make this:
TEXT SURVIVE TO 72881 FOR YOUR CHANCE TO WIN TWO TICKETS
and then move directly into a mattress commercial.
😂
The cause deserves more care than that.
If the event is built around mental health, the station needs to show some emotional intelligence around it.
AUDACY’S NATIONAL REACH CAN MAKE THIS BIGGER
The company is not keeping this strictly local either.
Audacy stations outside New York are already running flyaway promotions tied to the event, giving listeners around the country a chance to come to New York.
That turns UBS Arena into the physical center of a broader company-wide moment.
That is powerful when executed well.
ON THE DIAL PERSPECTIVE
I like this event.
Not because celebrity concerts are rare.
They are not.
Not because New York needs another concert.
Good Lord.
😂
New York could have three concerts occurring simultaneously inside a laundromat and somehow sell all of them out.
I like this because there is an actual idea underneath it.
Music.
Mental health.
Conversation.
Community.
Radio.
Those things belong together.
AND THIS YEAR IT FINALLY FEELS LIKE NEW YORK’S
That is the difference.
Prudential Center was metro New York.
Absolutely.
But UBS Arena makes this the event’s first actual New York State stop.
NEW 102.7 gets to plant its flag at home.
The morning show gets involved.
The personalities get involved.
The audience gets involved.
Long Island gets the building.
The artists bring the music.
AFSP gets the support.
And for one night, radio gets to prove it can still assemble people around something bigger than the next quarter-hour.
THAT IS WHAT WE CAN SURVIVE SHOULD BE
Not a slogan.
Not a logo.
Not four artists standing in front of sponsor signage.
A reminder.
That somebody listening may be having the worst week of their life.
Somebody may be pretending they are fine.
Somebody may need to hear that asking for help is not weakness.
Somebody may need music.
Somebody may need another person.
That is why this night matters.
October 28.
UBS Arena.
Megan Moroney.
Michelle Branch.
Bebe Rexha.
Ashe.
NEW 102.7.
Audacy.
AFSP.
A room full of people.
One message.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE
And if radio can help deliver that message loudly enough for one person to hear it when they need it?
That is bigger than ratings.
That is bigger than streaming.
That is bigger than radio.
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