the HOT List

Just after the Closing Bell on Wall Street, with IHRT shares sitting at $26.49, iHeartMedia released its second quarter fiscal report card. The quick takeaway: iHeart beat its own revenue guidance with terrific results.

It's a step that many have been asking Nielsen about for years. Starting next month, the nation's dominant source of audience measurement and data analytics for broadcast media stations will begin placing a limited number of Portable People Meter (PPM) "Wearables" in a subset of its roughly 60,000 active panelists.

With strong second quarter results and revenue that sailed past Zacks Equity Research estimates, Gray Television is the latest visual media company to release a bright fiscal health report. While the Q2 numbers are positive, the Q3 outlook Gray offers may be even more delectable to investors.

The parade of second quarter fiscal report cards ramped up on Wednesday, with the nation's largest owner of broadcast television stations sharing their results as the sun rose across North Texas. For Nexstar Media Group, it was a fine three-month period ending June 30, with earnings per share and revenue surpassing Street estimates.

One week ago, respected financial house Zacks Equity Research revealed that it expected Sinclair Broadcast Group to post a quarterly loss of $4.23 per share in Q2, with revenue growing to $1.6 billion. How accurate was the Zacks forecast? The EPS was slightly below expectations, while revenue was right on the money when subtracting non-media dollars.

The affiliates associations for ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX television stations have collectively filed a petition for clarification of the FCC's Report and Order on its sponsorship identification requirements for foreign government-provided programming on broadcast UHF and/or VHF facilities.

Gray Television just selected her to succeed the retiring Frank Brady, an individual at the helm of an NBC affiliate in West Virginia. She, like Brady, has been at the station for 15 years. What does the longevity of these tenures say about life at a small-market Big Four affiliate? Listen to this InFOCUS Podcast presented by dot.FM, and you'll get the answer ... and more! LISTEN HERE

How did the "digital first" owner of 322 radio stations located in markets outside the top 50 perform? Townsquare Media's adjusted EBITDA in Q2 was the highest seen in company history. That's just one of the positives that helped the company sail past its own estimates and those of Zacks Equity Research.

Allen Media Group in late April emerged as the winning bidder for 10 stations being spun off by Gray Television in order for that company to complete its $950 million merger with Quincy Media, Inc. On Monday, AMG closed on its deal.

After taking a close look at domestic digital advertising growth, noted media analyst Michael Nathanson uses the word "only" to describe the acceleration in dollars for the GAFAN group.  What does this mean for broadcast media companies set to release their Q2 earnings reports, if Facebook, Alphabet, Twitter and Snap were disappointments to Wall Street observers like him?

With little fanfare, two FM radio stations serving the Miami Valley officially ended their respective formats, with a change transpiring just past 12:01am Monday.  The stations, which had been operated by iHeartMedia as part of its Dayton cluster, are now licensed to a different operator. They weren't sold, however. The FM pair were given away as a donation.

The nation's leading multimedia company superserving African American consumers has taken an important step toward bringing the second casino gaming resort it is connected with to fruition. It involves a multimillion-dollar upfront payment to the City of Richmond.

On Feb. 11, 2018, Ray Moran, the founder of Ramar Communications, passed away. The Lubbock, Tex., TV stations it owned were sold in October 2020. Now, an Albuquerque spin has been agreed upon by the children of Mr. Moran. The broker: Kalil & Co.

In just four years, Bill Christian and Mike Reed launched, from scratch, a group of television stations serving Lafayette, Ind. They'd go on to acquire other TV stations, building up operations in Jonesboro, Ark., and the Tri-Cities of Tennessee.  Now, Christian and Reed are selling nearly all of their TV stations and all of their radio stations. Kalil & Co. is the broker.

The FCC has moved forward with a Forfeiture Order that imposes a $512,228 per-station penalty against 17 stations that enjoy shared services agreements with Sinclair Broadcast Group, while reducing a penalty assessed to one licensee but not eliminating it.