the HOT List

Sumner Redstone, a towering figure in the media industry who served as Chairman/CEO of National Amusements, Inc., and was the controlling shareholder of what is now ViacomCBS, has died. He was 97 years old.

On January 31, two Indianapolis TV stations fell dark on DirecTV, as a retrans consent deal agreed to by the stations' prior ownership lapsed. Six months later, a new deal remains absent. Now, the stations' owner has taken DirecTV parent AT&T to court. He's says it is now a matter of racial discrimination. AT&T responded with a statement to RBR+TVBR.

From Jerry Springer to the syndicated game show Family Feud in prime-time, a full-power TV station licensed to Sterling, Colo., that uses a Class A low-power facility in Denver as a rebroadcast partner has made a name for itself as "K3." Now, "K3" is a step closer to getting Dish Network from adding its main feed and digital multicast channels to the local lineup.

The long-awaited closing of the former tower site of WMAL-AM in Washington, D.C., brought in millions of dollars. Now, a big tower portfolio deal with a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company is in the works. The deal couldn't come soon enough: The company's Q2 results were greatly hampered by COVID-19, and negative adjusted EBITDA was seen.

Fact: The E.W. Scripps Co. enjoyed a Q2 revenue gain, thanks largely to more TV stations in its stable. Fact: Scripps' operating expenses surged as the COVID-19 pandemic impacted ad revenue. As such, the media company that has agreed to sell its podcasting business to Sirius XM for $325 million saw a much wider net loss, as local media profit declined by 41%.

As RBR+TVBR reported late Wednesday, NAB President/CEO Gordon Smith on August 4 was believed to have suffered a stroke. On Thursday evening, Smith was strong enough to a pen a letter to his "friends," in which he confirmed it was prevented.

In 1964, the FCC first adopted rules to restrict the duplication of programming on commonly-owned broadcast radio stations operating in the same geographic area. The current version of the rule was adopted in 1992. As of today, the rule's end is on the way. And Democratic Commissioner Geoffrey Starks isn't wholly pleased.

What is perhaps the biggest topic of interest in D.C. for radio and TV broadcasters right now? We get the latest on Lowest Unit Rate regulatory policy, the FCC's station license renewal period now underway and the political file rule, among other things, from Brad Deutsch at Foster Garvey in this fresh RBR+TVBR InFOCUS Podcast. LISTEN HERE

"Business fell off a cliff," Gray Television head Hilton Howell Jr. said at the start of the company's Q2 2020 earnings call. "It was deep, and unknown." Yet, Howell continued, as the quarter deteriorated, each month got better. "In every cloud there is a silver lining," he said, with an air of optimism. "Our business slowed less than we feared."

On Sept. 19, 2019, the former Tribune Media properties, including WGN America, officially joined the Nexstar Media Group family. As such, it's only natural that Nexstar's second quarter earnings showed year-over-year growth, even during a crippling pandemic. So ... how did Nexstar perform on a same-station basis?

"While conditions remain quite challenging, they have improved significantly since April when the economy bottomed out," Entercom leader David Field said in an internal memo distributed to staff early Wednesday. As the audio media industry seeks to recover from COVID-19 related ad dollar nosedives, Field's words are perhaps the industry pep talk that's been needed.

As Washington tries to understand the why behind the withdrawal of Republican Mike O'Rielly's renomination as a FCC Commissioner by President Trump, media industry executives are asking what happens next for O'Rielly. There's no easy answer, but at least one communications attorney has illustrated what could transpire in the next six months.

We knew it wouldn't be pretty. But, just how downbeat would Beasley Media Group's second quarter results be? Analysts and investors got the answer Tuesday morning. Year-over-year net revenue tumbled by 54%.

After reaching its COVID-19 fueled depths in April, the ad marketplace is slowly returning to the pre-pandemic levels in June. That's according to the latest data from Standard Media Index, which shows that in June, the national ad marketplace dipped by "only" 9%.

In mid-June, it became known that the owner of nine Mid-Missouri radio stations — in addition to a publishing arm, a digital media services division, and a branding and voiceover segment — was highly interested in entering Southwestern Missouri. Don Zimmer was doing due diligence on an opportunity. Now, he's formally moving ahead with market entry into Springfield.