the HOT List

With CBS preparing for the May 2026 end of The Late Show and host Stephen Colbert's final program, a FOX O&O that found itself at the center of a license renewal battle with Preston Padden believes it has its own solution to a forthcoming late-night void. And, it just may be taking a page from "Gutfeld!"

Soo Kim in April 2024 sued the FCC and its then-Chairwoman and Media Bureau Chief for a decision to put his proposed TEGNA deal in front of an Administrative Law Judge. Race discrimination on the part of the Commission was at the crux of his legal battle. A D.C. federal appeals court just dismissed his case.

A $2.5 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has put the wheels in motion on a three-year NAB-led initiative that will develop ATSC 3.0-powered newsroom services for broadcast television stations across the U.S.

He's been at the held of WPVI "6abc" in Philadelphia since 2007 and before that led WTVD "abc11" in Raleigh-Durham as President/General Manager. Now, his successor is being sought, as this local leader has just confirmed he is retirement.

If the FCC retains a national audience reach cap for television station ownership groups, should common ownership of stations that are not affiliated with the "Big Four" networks be excluded from the cap? The SVP of Regulatory Affairs at NBCUniversal Media has given the Commission its answer to this question, just in the nick of time.

It's a transaction that could have many people talking. Milwaukee Radio Alliance, presently led by Acting CEO Diane Sutter, has agreed to sell two FM radio stations in Wisconsin's largest city. Who the buyer is will be one topic of chatter. The other will be the price tag on this deal involving Kalil & Co.

Should the man who successfully engineered the combination of his radio broadcasting company with the much-larger Alpha Media been given the role that today is held by Kelli Turner? A state-level judicial body in the Constitution State won't be asked to offer its answer to the question for what is likely two years.

The company could be under new ownership in a year, but that's not stopping a 12-year CNN veteran from joining TEGNA as its new VP of Content, overseeing its television stations in the northeast and leading morning news strategy across the company’s 64 stations.

The National Association of Broadcasters, joined by "a broad coalition of broadcast companies," has submitted reply comments in the FCC's review of its 39% national TV ownership reach cap by standing by its calls for its repeal. 

The Acting Chief of the FCC's Media Bureau on Friday signed off on a Protective Order that establishes two procedures linked to its review of the national television multiple ownership rule, a matter that sees the end of reply comment submissions at the close of Friday's business day.

Add a civil rights organization founded by Rev. Al Sharpton to the growing number of dissenters who believe the national television ownership cap should not be modified — something that is highly integral to Nexstar Media Group's proposed merger with TEGNA, creating the broadcast industry's first supergroup.

A collection of Democrats who sit on both the House Judiciary Committee and House Energy & Commerce Committee, which maintains oversight of the FCC, have launched an inquiry into whether David Ellison agreed to payoff and to "provide free services" to President Trump prior to Skydance’s merger with Paramount.

August 20 is "National Radio Day," and companies including iHeartMedia and Audacy have acknowledged it. For the latter company, its Research & Insights team took a close look at how AM/FM radio has evolved into "something bigger, better and more connected than ever."

Nexstar Media Group has reached a formal agreement to acquire TEGNA. And, in terms of EBITDA, it puts Nexstar in the same league as FOX and Paramount Skydance, something Nexstar founder and Chairman/CEO Perry Sook believes will put his company in broader media industry conversations in a bigger and meaningful way.

Nexstar, the nation's single-biggest licensee of broadcast TV stations, is purchasing all of the stations under the TEGNA banner. It's a proposed transaction that could only have come together thanks to an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling just weeks ago and the FCC Chairman's pledge to "Delete, Delete, Delete."