the HOT List

With 77,000 watts of power from a facility east of the metropolitan area, EMF offers Atlanta radio listeners its noncommercial Christian Contemporary Music network, KLOVE. Now, it is grabbing a pair of FM translators in a move that could bring Air1 to the South's biggest market.

Nexstar Media Group and Tribune Media are officially one. The companies completed their merger on Thursday, with closing announced following market close. Concurrently, TEGNA and The E.W. Scripps Co. each closed on their acquisitions of Nexstar spinoffs resulting from the deal.

OK, that annoying commercial is on again and you're changing the station to something else. But, what if the spot you're hearing is entertaining and informative? A New York-based "crowd-sourced writing solutions company" born out of Comedywire might be to thank. Companies including iHeartMedia and Nexstar Media Group are already believers.

Author and veteran political consultant and commentator Dick Morris is joining the lineup at Forecast 2020 — Radio's Financial Summit. He'll deliver a special address focused on the 2020 presidential election, and if reelection of the president is a lock or a Democrat can take the White House.

With the new fall season about to start and excitement about ATSC 3.0’s future possibilities – including addressable advertising – there are many who believe broadcast television stands on the precipice of a grand transition. It’s a shift that begins, as Steve Lanzano sees it, with a wholesale shift in how TV is measured.

Less than two weeks ago, a daily newspaper serving the "duck and rice capital of the world" lost its daily newspaper ... or so it thought. Right up to what was to be the final edition, suitors lined up with bids to buy the publication. One radio broadcasting company was successful.

In 1978, a veteran journalist known for her coverage of Washington politics joined what was then known as National Public Radio. In 1988, she would join ABC News. Now, journalists and everyday listeners are paying tribute to Cokie Roberts, who has died of complications from breast cancer.

The FCC on Monday voted in favor of a deal allowing Nexstar to merge with Tribune Media. But, the Commission's approval was far from unanimous. A party-line 3-2 vote is to thank, and Mike O'Rielly's view couldn't be more divergent than that of the two Democratic Commissioners.

Thirteen months ago, the discussion among media executives and around the FCC was whether Tribune Media would be successfully merged with Sinclair Broadcast Group. What a difference a year makes. Nexstar has just won FCC approval of its planned acquisition of Tribune.

Thirty-one Nexstar Media Group-owned television stations have no fear of participating in a "great affiliation swap" anytime soon. A new multi-year agreement has been signed by the broadcast TV company and FOX that will also include all now-former Tribune FOX affiliates.

Wayne Dowdy, through his North Shore Broadcasting, operates two FM stations and an AM on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, to the north of New Orleans. Since 2011, he's also been the debtor-in-possession of nine properties. Now, the stations are being transferred — to North Shore.

With Entercom Communications reeling from what has yet to be officially confirmed as a major ransomware attack, a "network penetration" tester shares how media companies can best avoid the level of problems faced by the radio broadcasting company in an exclusive interview with RBR+TVBR.

On July 16, local TV stations owned by Meredith Corp. in 12 DMAs including Phoenix, Nashville and Atlanta were blocked by DISH due to a retransmission consent impasse. Nearly two months later, a new agreeent has finally been signed by the media company and the DBS provider.

Four low-power FM radio stations serving a big college town in Virginia, along with a fifth operating in a small town just north of this municipality, are being fingered by Saga Communications for acting too much like commercially licensed FMs. It wants their license renewals nixed by the FCC.

RBR+TVBR has confirmed that the entity that owns and operates both NBC and Telemundo broadcast TV stations has shifted away from traditional ratings points to gauge an advertising campaign's effectiveness. Instead, it will use impressions.