Radio & Television Business Report

The publicly traded broadcast TV ownership group co-led by Hilton Howell Jr. and Pat LaPlatney said it has reached an agreement with BCI to acquire its television stations. The deal creates a three-station group in Louisville and the need for a "Top-Four Prohibition" waiver.

In an announcement made just after 4:30pm Eastern on Thursday, Gray Media confirmed that it has reached an agreement to acquire two stations that it has been operating via shared services agreements with the licensee.

After a brutal morning that saw Paramount Global shares fall to $11.55, the company's stock recovered somewhat to dampen a dip that preceded the release of its Q2 2025 earnings report. The activity ahead of the second quarter earnings release also saw Paramount's Chief Content Licensing Officer resign.

With the majority of the broadcast media industry's Q2 earnings reports due to arrive over the next two weeks, could the widely diverse fiscal health results seen from a variety of companies today be a harbinger of what to expect? If so, beware: Sirius XM's earnings per share missed expectations by more than 26%.

The July 7 announcement that Gray Media and The E.W. Scripps Co. have entered into agreements to swap television stations across five mid-sized and small markets, resulting in the creation of new duopolies for each group, has led the FCC to establish a pleading cycle for the purpose of seeking public comment on the proposed change in control.

Streamline Publishing's Radio Ink Magazine has joined forces with the NAB to present the 2025 Radio Wayne Awards at NAB Show New York in October. Now in its 33rd year, the Radio Wayne Awards are now open for your suggestions for 2025 honorees. Nominations are due by Monday evening.

Local radio audience and revenue growth. Imagine a new technology to achieve this. It exists and the FCC now allows it. Buyer familiarity and interest has doubled in five years. Buyers’ intent to spend more on radio with this technology has tripled. The technology is called ZoneCasting.

Hartley Adkins, the iHeartMedia Markets Group President and one of the company’s key senior executives, is retiring. That news was first shared Wednesday. One day later, it became known through a second staff memo that his successor has been named, and she's taking the role as of September 1.

Delta Media Corporation, which owns radio and television stations in Lafayette and Lake Charles, La., has moved forward with the purchase of an AM radio station with an FM translator licensed to New Iberia, La. At the same time, it is donating an Opelousas, La., and its FM translator to a religious broadcast entity run by a Mouton family member.

He would become an honorary Cincinnati "Commissioner of Fun," years after his father sold WEBN to the Randy Michaels-led Jacor. Now, many across Southern Ohio are pausing to pay respects to Frank "Bo" Wood, who went from hosting "The Jelly Pudding Show" to becoming a nationally respected Rock and Roll Radio renegade. 

A temporary moratorium on filing the reports on FCC Form 323 or 323-E is now in place. Why? The Media Bureau, headed by Acting Chief Erin Boone, says, "With the next filing window approaching, we find there is good cause to waive the biennial ownership report filing requirement for a period of 18 months."

The E.W. Scripps Co. says it is "enhancing its consumer insights strategy" with the appointment of a media industry executive to the role of post of VP of Head of Enterprise Research and Consumer Insights. Its a woman who frequently lectures on the power of storytelling with data at several universities.

He's most recently served as President of MAX Returns alongside Jon Lammers, who holds the Vice President role of the MVPD-focused broadcast television station consultancy. But, from 1997 through 2008, he served as Chief Operating Officer for Nexstar Broadcasting. Now, the industry is pausing to mourn the death of Duane Lammers.

Knipp led Hispanic-focused multicultural advertising agency Dieste and its Dieste Health division "committed to Health Equity for racial and ethnic minority groups" and spent more than two decades focused on U.S. Latino consumers.

U.S.-based employers announced 62,075 job cuts in July 2025, rising 29% from June’s 47,999. Worse yet, the total is up by 140% from 25,885 announced in July 2025 and comes amid widespread industry chatter that Paramount Global's merger with Skydance Media will soon claim thousands of jobs.

The SAG-AFTRA labor union that represents more than 160,000 professionals in the media and entertainment industries has renewed its agreement with Nielsen, again selecting the firm as its third-party provider of streaming content measurement.