the HOT List

MGTF Radio Company — the entity created by the sons of veteran Pittsburgh radio station owner Saul Frischling — on Tuesday (3/20) morning filed a bankruptcy petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. RBR+TVBR reviewed the filings, assigned to Judge Charles E. Rendlen III, and a list of creditors had already been furnished. By day's end, it became known that WPNT Inc., the licensee for the Frischling family's two FMs in Pittsburgh, had been added to the Missouri petition. We've reviewed the court documents, and have a quick link to our January 2018 interview with Gregg Frischling, who has not responded to requests for comment.  

In a 96-page filing complete with three exhibits made Monday with the Commission, the affiliate associations for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox Broadcasting collectively urge the FCC to modify the national audience reach cap as it applies to non-Big-Four network-owned stations while retaining the current 39% cap as it applies to the networks — creating a "necessary" two-tiered national owner reach limit. They also seek a "keep and tweak" approach to the "UHF discount."

If you'd like your radio or TV stations to get a little greener but have been stymied by the FCC, the NAB's got your back. In comments filed Monday with the Commission, the NAB responded to its proposal to eliminate the filing requirement for paper contracts and other documents under Section 73.3613 of the commission's rules. "NAB supports the proposal and urges the Commission to move quickly to eliminate this redundant and outdated requirement," it says.

“The Jewish Cowboy” of California's Coachella Valley will now be arguing that his TV broadcasting company's civil rights were violated by one of the nation's biggest MVPDs in federal court, rather than in state court. It's the latest chapter in a 2 1/2 year quest by Clark Garen, Managing Member of Tara Broadcasting, to get a low-power television station serving the Palm Springs, Calif., DMA on Charter Communications' Spectrum systems in the city of Beaumont. 

An internal memo penned by Entercom President/CEO David Field, first shared today by Streamline Publishing's co-owned Radio INK, has quickly emerged as another canon in the collection of liturgical love of Field for the radio industry — and another reason why the industry deserves more attention from ad buyers and marketers.

For the last four days, rumors have been rampant that Cox Media Group is shopping around many of its radio stations. The tinder for this fiery hearsay is a March 13 announcement that CMG's new VP/Communications & Public Affairs is joining the company at a time when the owner of radio and TV stations and newspapers focuses on "strategically aligning" its businesses and "leveraging local scale." RBR+TVBR spoke with a top Cox executive to set the record straight: it's fake news.

Despite visibly increased enforcement of unlicensed FM radio broadcast operations across the U.S., fueled by efforts led by Republican FCC Commissioner Michael O'Rielly, "pirate radio" operators continue to clog the airwaves in areas such as South Florida, New York City, and the greater Boston area. Now, the U.S. House of Representatives is considering legislation that would put greater fear — and financial punch — behind the FCC's Notice of Unlicensed Operations and proposed fines. 

With a SEC filing not coming until 8am Eastern on Thursday morning, iHeartMedia shared via its investor relations section on its corporate website in the wee hours of The Ides of March news that has been eagerly anticipated for nearly two weeks. The nation's No. 1 radio broadcasting company has filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, doing so in a Texas federal bankruptcy court.

In an address to Hispanic Radio Conference attendees delivered Wednesday afternoon in Doral, Fla., FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel called on the FCC to fully assess what went right -- and what went wrong -- as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands dealt with Hurricane Maria some six months ago. The comments came following a visit to Puerto Rico by Rosenworcel, who is already concerned about the 2018 hurricane season.

What a difference a year makes. In March 2017, Susan Larkin served as a Regional VP for Cox Media Group's stations in Orlando and Jacksonville. Four months later, she exited the company and joined Entercom as an RVP, eventually settling in San Francisco to oversee the company's Bay Area cluster. Larkin will no longer have to deal with a difficult Northern California housing market. Instead, she'll have to contend with the housing prices of the New York Tri-State Area, starting in April.

It was a year of transition for Townsquare Media Group in 2017. The company's entertainment business is under strategic review. Former CEO Steven Price is settling in to his new role as Executive Chairman, and his two replacements — as co-CEOs — are, like Price, energized about what lies ahead. Looking back isn't so great: The owner of radio stations in small and medium-sized markets swung to a loss in Q4.

With an extended deadline on a short-term forbearance agreement forged with its lenders set to expire Tuesday at 12:59am Eastern, iHeartMedia has taken another step closer to a restructuring of its capital structure. The company on Monday submitted to the SEC revised versions of a draft restructuring support agreement and related draft restructuring term sheet. The revisions "reflect further negotiations" with the advisors to groups of iHeart's noteholders, lenders and equity holders.  We've compared the revisions to the original document, and some notable changes have been made.

Since 2014, a newly formed entity has successfully launched five HD network affiliates in the smallest of markets across the U.S. As a result, NBC, FOX and CBS stations are now present in what had been some of the few remaining DMAs that didn’t have the full compliment of Big Four network carriage. The most recent market where local affiliates debuted under this company's leadership is Lafayette, Ind. Now, it can fully reap the benefits of their efforts, as the last Indianapolis-based stations to be found on local Comcast channel lineups are poised to disappear.

Your station's bank account may have a few more dollars added to its balance by the time media executives gather in Las Vegas for the 2018 NAB Show. Just don't make a cash withdrawal and lose it to the many one-armed bandits found around Sin City. The Incentive Auction Task Force and the Media Bureau have confirmed that an additional allocation of the TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund is anticipated in approximately four to six weeks.

In this guest Media Information Bureau column, Tribe Pictures CEO and Creative Director Vern Oakley discusses how "fake news" is old news and why "fake video" is the new threat — thanks to emerging technology that will allow the manufacturing of authentic-looking video your staff may not be able to flag as phony. Reading this could very well keep your stations' integrity in check.