the HOT List

The FCC's lone Democratic Commissioner derided the "misleading announcement" distributed by the Media Bureau of guidance "on the application of the statutory equal opportunities requirement and the bona fide news exemptions to broadcast television stations, including their airing of late-night and daytime talk shows."

In April 2023, Audacy Inc. announced that would be closing its Warwick, R.I., office and consolidating its operations with its larger Boston hub, ceasing a 19-year term of sales and marketing independence for a simulcast partner of WEEI-FM. Audacy is now moving forward with the sale of that Rhode Island FM.

It's a Class A digital over-the-air television station serving a portion of the Orlando DMA. And, in just a few weeks, it will become a MediaCo-operated home to its Estrella TV network, shifting from a digital multicast signal tied to a Hearst Television station serving Central Florida.

In a further rebuke of overtures from a spurned Paramount Skydance that it wants its own deal to get a relook and serious consideration, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday revealed that they've tweaked their merger agreement. 

Seven radio broadcasting companies have united to express their quest for FCC rule modernization — or, as they put it, the removal of "archaic regulatory burdens that restrict radio's ability to compete in the modern marketplace." In a separate filing, the National Association of Broadcasters offered a similar argument.

What do Black consumers have in common with fellow multicultural cohorts Hispanics and Asians? They cannot be lumped into a single group when it comes to media behavior preferences, states a new "Diverse Intelligence Series" report released on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day by Nielsen.

The E.W. Scripps Co. has said no. Sinclair Inc. appears it will not easily take no for an answer, as the broadcast TV station ownership group and parent of broadcast tower manufacturer Dielectric has provided investors with an update on its one-sided merger proposal discussions with the company led by Adam Symson.

Urban One's Board of Directors has moved forward with a reverse stock split of all its classes of its common stock — including its publicly traded Class A and Class D common stock. What does this mean for Urban One shareholders?

The FCC "has outlived the economic and technological conditions that justified its creation." That's the view of American Enterprise Institute nonresident senior fellow Mark Jamison. In a "working paper," Jamison explains how the Commission is presently in a "mission vacuum," and should disappear.

The NAB has distributed a communiqué touting how "free, local broadcast television and radio stations are more than trusted sources of news, emergency updates and community connection." For the association, radio and TV stations "are a vital infrastructure supporting every corner of American life."

Acrimony was met with cordiality as the House Energy & Commerce Committee conducted a lengthy oversight hearing of the FCC. It was expected, with friendly GOP leaders effusive as Democrats largely blasted the Trump Administration for what it views as meritless meddling. 

The FCC adopted and released a Protective Order that codifies procedures that limits access to proprietary or confidential information in its consideration of Nexstar Media Group's proposed acquisition of TEGNA — a deal that cannot be done without Commission rule "modernization" or waivers.

Thanks to a bipartisan appropriations bill, Congress has approved the dollars the FCC has asked for in its FY 2026 budget request — locking in a move under Chairman Brendan Carr to make the Commission a leaner, technology-driven compliance model.

A strong fiscal Q1 2026 for Radio and another troubling quarter for TV were expected by Corus Entertainment executives. For CEO John Gossling, his focus is on the company's "significant progress" in closing Corus' proposed recapitalization plan reducing its $500 million CDN-plus in debt and liabilities.

It is an Audacy-owned FM serving the Bay Area for nearly 15 years with sports-focused programming. To help boost its audience and signal penetration to the south, this Class B facility licensed to San Francisco and using a San Bruno tower has signed a deal with GeoBroadcast Solutions.