the HOT List

It's not another retransmission fee dispute ... sort of. Rather, Comcast says its Xfinity cable TV service is eliminating a little bit of duplication in a cost-savings move that trims its retrans fee payments while eliminating dual choices. The changes are coming December 22, and it only involves one local TV station owner: Hearst Television.

Non-profit, non-partisan technology policy think tank TechFreedom on Monday filed an amicus brief that largely mirrors the viewpoint of the NAB with respect to how it should rule in the FCC/NAB joint appeal of the Third Circuit Federal Appeals Court's remand of the Commission's cross-ownership rule revisions.

What's powering Super Hi-Fi's product promise for a host of clients in the digital audio arena and, now, in the radio broadcasting space? In the words of CEO Zack Zalon, "We're looking to kill certain aspects of radio." That doesn't mean jobs, but clunky sonic transitions.

Add the cities of Norfolk, Newport News, Portsmouth and Virginia Beach to the list of locales where NEXTGEN TV programming is now available for those with a ATSC 3.0-enabled television set. Four TV signals are involved, three of which are owned by Nexstar Media Group. The fourth is a MyNetwork TV affiliate owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group.

How has launching a brand-new TV station in Central California, during a pandemic, gone for a MyNetworkTV affiliate overseen by Josh Castro? He has answers to this question and much more in a lively RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast, presented by Dot.FM and hosted by Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson. LISTEN HERE

A Class B 50kw AM with a tower array adjacent to Dodgers Stadium is being sold by Arthur Liu's Multicultural Radio Broadcasting. The buyer is a talk host who in August was ordered to pay PBS $2.6 million for violating a morals clause in multiple sexual harassment cases. Earlier in his career, he was fired by BET, where he became a household name.

Introducing the Multicultural News Network (MNN), designed to be “a non-partisan, national news network that will bring an unbiased national forum for the voices of America’s underserved multicultural communities.” MNN will launch in the second half of 2021. And, it doesn’t only have Black consumers in mind.

With little fanfare in what by some accounts was the swiftest FCC open meeting held in a long time, the Commission on Wednesday moved forward with a revision of its rules pertaining to program carriage complaint resolutions.

Bill Adee is the Principal and COO of VSiN. It's grown quickly since the spring of 2017, when Adee joined the Musbergers to launch VSiN. He shares the latest on how things continue to roll -- even through the COVID-19 pandemic -- in this freshly produced InFOCUS Podcast, presented by DOT.FM. LISTEN HERE

A 70-year old owner of a radio station serving a rural portion of Western Pennsylvania to the southeast of Pittsburgh on Monday was placed on a three-year "restricted probation" for a series of criminal sexual acts at a sentencing hearing that could save him from a FCC license revocation hearing.

The FCC is planning to increase application fees and add new fee categories for broadcasters. And, the NAB says, that's not cool. That's why it has filed comments with the Commission arguing that broadcasters already fork over to Washington a disproportionately large share of the agency’s costs, relative to the benefits received.

The NAB brief, filed with the Supreme Court on Monday night, largely sides with the Republican majority of the Commission in its view that the Third Circuit Federal Court of Appeals "overstepped authority" in striking FCC’s "modernization" of its local ownership rules.

Forecast takes it a step beyond numbers and inside sources, including insights and analyses from outside experts to deliver a broader, more objective big picture view. Here's what we'll be talking about and whose sharing their perspectives this year at Forecast LIVE!

Serving Western Kentucky's Purchase region, along with a portion of Southern Illinois and Southeastern Missouri, are a pair of UHF digital stations providing MyNetworkTV and FOX programming to the market, respectively. Until today, they've been licensed to Sinclair. With regulatory approval, that will soon change -- to Soo Kim's gain.

If you’ve always wanted to attend the 18th annual Forecast conference, presented virtually this year as Forecast LIVE, but were unable due to the travel or expense, this is your opportunity. The event will play out over two sessions, Tuesday, December 8, and Wednesday, December 9. It may never happen again – don’t be sorry and miss it!