the HOT List

Three months ago, DISH Network removed all Univision Communications networks, O&O TV stations and affiliate stations owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group and Entravision from its satellite and Sling TV services. Today, one of the most bitter retrans fee battles continues, with no end in sight. Yet DISH says it cares about Spanish-speaking customers ... and wants them to learn English.

Many small towns and cities have seen major changes over the last 30 years. This includes, in some cases, a seismic shift in the number of multicultural consumers that now reside in the community. Some 90 miles north of New York City, a municipality that lost its major employer some 25 years has been reborn. Millennials are partly to thank. As we learn in this podcast, Latinos are the real growth driver.

One of the most prolific buyers of broadcast television stations in recent months has undoubtedly been HC2, the entity that now owns the Azteca América network and a big mix of fully licensed facilities and LPTVs in key markets. HC2 has just added another Class A station to its stable -- this time in the Golden State.

In February 1996, Royce International agreed to sell a Class B 50kw New Rock station serving Sacramento for $25 million. The seller is still trying to reverse the deal. Guess what? He has failed yet again—this time at the Supreme Court of the United States. 

For months, TagStation LLC and the team behind its NextRadio app worked hard with Apple to get its smartphones to include an enabled FM chip, which would allow users to access local radio stations. Apple has been a stubborn player. Now, a Southern California-based tech company has brought FM radio, data-free, to an iPhone.

Telecom policy has dominated the efforts being championed by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai in recent months. But, he says, he hasn't forgotten the media side of the ledger. Continuing his Modernization of Media Regulation Initiative push, with the support of fellow Republicans Brendan Carr and Mike O'Rielly, Pai revealed on Monday two proposals to update the Commission media rules "to reflect today’s marketplace."

With the recent approval by Congress of a new spending bill, it expressed a preference for the FCC to ensure that MVPDs, including cable operators, will continue to receive priority access to funds that reimburse MVPD costs incurred by the relocation of TV stations that have been assigned new channels. That's how the ACA sees it, and it stressed this point in a filing.

In Washington, D.C., on Thursday afternoon, change was the key focus of testimony delivered by one of Wall Street's top media industry analysts during a "State of the Media Marketplace" hearing convened by the House Energy & Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology. His comments put vMVPDs on notice, and could impact broadcast TV stations.

"I hate change," notes Rishad Tobbacowala, one of the world's leading advertising industry voices. That said, change is necessary -- especially for those who fear it the most. This was the central theme of a keynote address offered to 2018 Radio Show attendees early Thursday.

In a lower-level conference room beneath the cacophony of consultants, vendors, air talent and radio industry C-Suiters parading around the 2018 Radio Show at the Bonnet Creek Resort, top-level executives at Hubbard Radio held court early Wednesday morning with CEO Ginny Morris and President/COO Drew Horowitz. Who knew that a deal was in the works?

With slides that show increased pressure on the radio industry shown by a top Wall Street investment analyst and three industry group heads expressing their thoughts on how radio can continue to thrive -- and, perhaps, stay alive -- in the coming years, one clear message was shared at the Radio Show's Broadcast Finance 2018 breakfast conference.

The House of Representatives late Tuesday passed the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (MMA), sending the first reform of music copyright law in decades to the White House for President Trump's expected signature.

Nine months after Cumulus Media silenced an 11,700-watt FM station in rural Stockton, Mo., the No. 2 commercial radio broadcasting company by number of stations has decided to part ways with the facility. The new owner just picked up "La Campesina" in the Phoenix market, making it a busy week already for this Wisconsin-based non-profit buyer.

On Friday, Sept. 22, 2017, Sirius XM formally grabbed a piece of Pandora Media. It set the stage for a possible all-out acquisition by the satellite radio operation of a pioneering streaming audio entity that had somewhat lost its luster. Just after sunrise on Monday, one year later, the two companies formally ended their year-long flirtation with a marriage announcement.

Don't think for a minute that Entercom Communications lacks the scalability of a Hispanic media giant such as Univision. The same can be said for Comcast's NBCUniversal Hispanic Enterprises and its Telemundo broadcast television network.