the HOT List

Chapter 11 — It's now a possibility at the second-biggest radio broadcasting company by number of stations, based on comments made by CFO John Abbot during Cumulus Media's Q3 2017 earnings call held prior to Thursday's Opening Bell on Wall Street. While net revenue was flat in the quarter, net income sank by a whopping 97.2% -- fueled by a big slow down at its radio station group.

A member of powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, chaired by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), has written directly to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai demanding "a complete understanding of the overall impacts of this new standard." 

Nielsen has secured its fourth major MVPD for the integration of non-personally identifiable TV viewing data with its panel data tied to its local TV measurement service. It will go into effect in 2018.

A NuVoodoo Media Services study released this week debunks any thought that AM and FM radio stations are receptacles of "fake news." That's the stuff of TV and websites. But, there is some "fake news" out there that concerns radio, and RBR+TVBR Editor-in-Chief Adam R Jacobson has something to say about it.

Up against difficult Q3 2016 comps due to a sharp decrease in political dollars and the absence of Olympics advertising, TEGNA -- the media company formerly known as Gannett prior to the spin-off of its newspaper segment -- knew it was going to have a down Q3 in 2017. But, there's a silver lining to its expected dip in earnings: It's not as bad as what Wall Street anticipated, and TEGNA shares finished up 4.1% on Wednesday, to $12.31.

While the attention of media industry observers and influential Wall Street analysts has arguably been focused on the fiscal situation at Cumulus Media and the soon-to-be-completed Reverse Morris Trust-fueled merger of CBS Radio with Entercom, the nation's No. 1 owner of radio stations has something it'd like to say: It's not only a radio leader, but also a media leader. Those are the words of iHeartMedia COO/CFO Rich Bressler, who used his company's Q3 earnings call to plug his company's reach.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly interpreted Saga Communications' Q3 2017 net income from continuing operations. We apologize for the misunderstanding. The revised article can be accessed here, with full details on how Saga's net income soared while achieving net revenue growth of 1.3%.

On a day that saw Cumulus Media stabilize with a much-needed gain, the radio industry needed a positive story to share with investors. Spanish Broadcasting System (SBS) couldn't oblige, as its stock not controlled by Raúl Alarcón Jr. sank 10.1%, to 62 cents, in Tuesday's trading. We've also got a look at Salem Media Group's Q3 earnings just before our deadline. They weren't great.

Tony Rogers is a white guy, raised in Texas in the 1970s and 1980s. He's a son, brother, husband, and uncle. He's also a master of attracting multicultural consumers, as SVP/CMO for Walmart. Rogers could also be you, and all it takes is moving on a path that combines both a rational and emotional perspective on consumer attraction — it's a route that uses the name of a popular band at many a radio station today: The Head and the Heart.

Don't think for a minute that a lack of Olympics-related programming, and the dollars that go with it, are single-handedly responsible for the year-over-year comparison when looking at how TV performed in Q3 2017. There's more to the story, the Standard Media Index Q3 report released Monday afternoon suggests.

Picture this: You are the steward of a 70-year-old brand. This brand's success is bigger than ever, with a more than 40% market share. No, we're not talking about a big News/Talk radio station on the AM dial. But, we should be, based on what was delivered Monday morning in a powerful Keynote Address at the ANA Multicultural Marketing & Diversity Conference from P&G Chief Brand Officer Marc Pritchard.

Nexstar Media Group certainly enjoyed a strong Q3 thanks to its newly forged synergies from the closing of its Media General acquisition and integration of those stations into its operations. But, like Gray Television, strong growth came against talk of advertising woes and tough political comps.

If one were to ask how a company could withstand an 82% drop in political dollars yet still show a profit in Q3, all they would need to do is review the financial results released Monday morning by Gray Television. The owner-operator of 100+ TV stations across the U.S. met its profit forecasts in strong fashion.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai just got a first-hand look at the slow recovery facing Puerto Rico up-close and in person. Pai met with government and industry officials to assess the status of recovery efforts and consult on next steps that the FCC should take to assist in the restoration of communications networks. He's now on his way back to Washington.

On Nov. 1, the radio broadcasting industry's speculation over who would be getting Entercom spin-offs, as required by the company to receive Department of Justice approval of its CBS Radio merger, came to an end. The nation's No. 1 broadcast company, iHeartMedia, is gaining some big AMs and FMs via an asset exchange with Entercom. In order to do that, iHeart has created a divestiture trust that sees the shift of two FMs in the Seattle market and one AM serving Boston sail away into the "Ocean."