the HOT List

The great migration for television broadcasters who relinquished their spectrum in the FCC's Incentive Auction and entered into channel-sharing agreements with other stations has officially commenced. One of the first stations to turn off its transmitter for the last time is in Boston. It's a property that Sunbeam Television turned in to the FCC in exchange of $162,108,481 from wireless companies.

Emmis Chairman/CEO Jeff Smulyan touched on the positives and negatives impacting his company during its fiscal Q3 2018 earnings conference call on Thursday morning. But, determining its pro forma performance required a look at the company's 10Q filing with the SEC and a supplemental pro forma one-sheeter posted to the Emmis website. Here's the full story of where Emmis stands against the radio industry today.

If you weren't convinced that broadcast media is on the cusp of a possible at-home consumer renaissance, NPR and Edison Research just served up a bright report right on cue, as stormy weather blew east and the sun returned to Southern Nevada on Wednesday. Thanks to a 2017 holiday sales surge, some 16% of Americans now own a voice-activated smart speaker.

That's what Financial Times' Los Angeles-based Matthew Garrahan reports. If true, 21st Century Fox will soon be making a Form 314 filing with the FCC that will see the transfer of control of "about" 10 stations from Sinclair Broadcast Group.

In October 2014, the owner of two FM radio stations in Pittsburgh went on a shopping trip. After 30 years of happily serving this reimagined Rust Belt city, a quartet smack dab in the middle of America was snagged. Today, Steel City Media is actively growing all six of its stations. How, in a world of corporate media and quarterly earnings reports watched by Wall Street, is this being done? It's all about relationships.

"PN1362" arrived Monday at the Senate Commerce Committee, sent by the White House. The action would reappoint Republican Brendan Carr to a five-year term as a Commissioner, starting July 1, 2018. It marks the Trump Administration's second attempt at keeping Carr at the FCC through June 2023.

As RBR+TVBR exclusively reported on Friday, LBI Media's nationally distributed Spanish-language broadcast TV network Estrella TV will soon make its grand return to the Miami market, ending a six-month absence from the nation's third-largest Hispanic DMA. We now know what the sale price is, and how the station has been devalued since the seller acquired this property some 12 years ago. We also know who the exclusive broker is in this transaction.

Since 1969, the marketing slogan "Virginia Is For Lovers" has wooed tourists and business investors from around the world. Among the individuals lured to the Old Dominion is a person best known as a top media broker. This is the story of Monticello Media, a company born roughly a decade ago on the back porch of the North Florida home of George Reed.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2018 Medallas de Cortez awards, in eight categories. The awards, sponsored by vCreative, will be presented at the Hispanic Radio Conference, to be held March 13-14 in Miami at the Intercontinental at Doral. Nominations are now open, and the deadline for entries is January 24.

According to Kagan, the U.S. broadcast station deal volume seen in 2017 was higher than that seen in 2016 and 2015. Are brokers popping corks of champagne left over from New Year's Eve, in celebration of this good news? Or, are the numbers skewed thanks to a handful of media mega-deals -- including one that hasn't even closed yet? We reached out to the broker community for their take on how 2017 truly shaped up for media sales.

Has your station fallen victim to one of the biggest reasons listeners tune out? No, it's not a lousy hit record from a superstar that's one big "stiff." Rather, as guest Media Information Bureau columnist Stuart Dornfield notes, it's likely your commercials. Let's face it: Many radio spots stink. Here is some advice on how to remedy that problem.

The FCC has approved the first-ever wireless "power-at-a-distance" charging technology. The "WattUp" from Energous could allow multiple devices to be recharged up to three feet away, regardless of manufacturer. This could mean added audio and video consumption opportunities for your station's streams, and we spoke with a former FCC Chairman and Emmis head Jeff Smulyan for their reaction.

It's shaping up to be a bruising end to 2017 for several publicly traded media companies. Yet, with three days to go before the start of 2018 trading on Wall Street, two prominent radio broadcasting companies' shares stand out amid a sea of red-colored trading activity. One company sees its shares now worth mere pennies in value. Another radio company has also seen its stock plummet to never-before-seen lows.

In 1990, a low-power TV station designed to improve the signal coverage of a full-power station located to the north of Houston made its debut. Over the years, it has faithfully served as a simulcast partner for what is today Ion Media-owned KPXB-49 in the nation's eighth-largest DMA. Now, with the FCC's spectrum auction concluded and repacking underway, as well as the voluntary rollout of ATSC 3.0 next-gen digital TV broadcasts, Ion has decided it no longer needs the LPTV. 

No, it's not a Net Neutrality UFC match at Capital One Arena. Rather, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Democratic Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel will be the center of attention at a Jan. 18 event at NAB headquarters in Washington, D.C. focused on the important role of broadcasters in emergencies.