the HOT List

In this special RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast, Scott Herman, Chair of the Broadcasters Foundation and CEO of SHH Media Management, shares with Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson the Broadcasters Foundation's call on #GivingTuesday to help people in dire need, and how the Foundation has continued to meet its mission in a most challenging year. LISTEN HERE

It's been a much-discussed topic since it became clear that Joe Biden would be the next President of the United States: Would there be two openings at the FCC, as Republican Commissioner Mike O'Rielly's exit was all but sealed by the Trump Administration prior to his defeat in the 2020 elections? The answer is now a confirmed affirmative.

From 1964 until early 2013, Family Radio served the New York Tri-State Area through the use of an FM radio station now home to country music and owned by Entercom. On February 27, 2015, Family Radio's service to the Big Apple returned by way of a heritage AM. Now, the future of that facility is in question, thanks to a big land sale in Queens.

On eleven occasions roughly two years ago, a 30-second commercial aired during a program broadcast during "KidVid" hours on a MyTVNetwork station operated by Sinclair Broadcast Group via a shared services agreement. That's a no-no, and the licensee — but not Sinclair — now faces a sizable FCC fine.

With the help of a former Republican FCC Commissioner appointed to the agency by President George W. Bush, Gray Television has filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Commission and the NAB that supports their belief that the Third Circuit is unfairly throwing a monkey wrench into needed "modernization" of TV station ownership rules.

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.