the HOT List

In a busy Monday for Cincinnati-based media entity The E.W. Scripps Company, the official end of ownership of a former Tribune Media property serving the Big Apple has been acquired by a favored shared services partner of Nexstar Media Group.

America’s Public Television Stations (APTS) and the NAB on Monday filed comments in response to the Commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on potential changes to its rules governing Distributed Transmission Systems (DTS). The filing urges the Commission to move forward quickly with an order amending the existing DTS rules. Here's why.

The E.W. Scripps Company has entered into an agreement with SiriusXM to sell its podcast business Stitcher for $325 million, a deal first hinted at last week by The Wall Street Journal.

The Video Advertising Bureau (VAB on Monday responded to the surprising reversal on Friday of Nielsen's decision to postpone the integration of out-of-home viewing into national TV measurement. "It was crystal clear that a quick reversal was Nielsen’s only viable option,” said VAB President/CEO Sean Cunningham.

Cumulus Media stock recovered from a week's worth of downward movement, as investors reacted positively to two key announcements made internally at the audio media company led by CEO Mary Berner. First, Westwood One News is closing. Second, 3% of Cumulus' company-wide employee roster will be told they no longer have jobs.

As part of its Hawaiian operation acquired in the Raycom merger, Gray Television owns several neighbor-island broadcast facilities relaying programming from Oah'u. Now, it is adding to that collection with a Hawai'i-based facility formerly known as KLEI-TV. It puts into question the future of "Telemundo Honolulu."

Failing to conduct a radio contest substantially as announced or advertised is a violation of explicit FCC rules. Two radio stations were found to have apparently broken these rules. One is a Gow Media FM in Texas. The other is a Townsquare Media FM serving El Paso.

He's seeking to be the next U.S. Senator from Tennessee. And, he's serious about his campaign as a Republican Party candidate, and his quest to join party-mate Marsha Blackburn in the upper body of Congress come January. As such, George Flinn Jr. is selling media assets, and the latest deal involves nine properties -- all of which are going to Educational Media Foundation.

Are FM translators no different than FM boosters? If they are equal, in the eyes of the FCC, shouldn't both be considered as GeoBroadcast Solutions seeks Commission approval on a proposal to bring unique programming to an FM booster? It's a hot topic, and the focus of this fresh RBR+TVBR InFOCUS podcast. LISTEN HERE

The nation's dominant audience measurement and consumer data analysis company calls it "a broad-based optimization plan to drive permanent cost savings and operational efficiencies," a move that is designed to position it for greater profitability and growth. Others may simply call it Downsizing Day. Nielsen is shedding some 3,500 jobs globally.

It appears the COVID-19 novel coronavirus did more than quarantine humans. It killed, or put on ice, the consummation of many radio and TV station transactions. How bad was the second quarter of 2020 for brokers? It was the lowest in terms of quarterly deal volume since Kagan first started tracking broadcast station mergers and acquisitions in 1983.

A Northern Virginia-based business and network engineering consulting services firm that works closely with the broadcasting industry has just launched a new practice division. As Widelity Corporation describes it, the division is "one that could save radio and television stations thousands of dollars in FCC fines." Really? Doubters should listen to this podcast. LISTEN HERE

The latest U.S. broadcast station totals from the FCC show a significant drop in the number of licensed radio stations during the quarter. Meanwhile, the post-spectrum auction repack process has continued to reduce the number of commercially licensed UHF properties. Then, there is the number of FM translators licensed for broadcast: It continues to surge, in a big way.

With America heading in to the Independence Day weekend, the organization dedicated to promoting local media marketing solutions to the advertising community — via broadcast TV — lit a sparkler of its own Thursday. It issued a statement on "trust and ad-supported media" that addresses the #StopHateForProfit movement squelching ad dollars to social media.

The FCC in December issued a $151,005 fine against one Boston-based pirate radio operator targeting the Haitian community. Another pirate doing the same thing across three different signals was handed a record-setting $453,015 fine for his actions. On Wednesday, the Enforcement Bureau signed off on Consent Decrees with each of the admitted radio pirates.