the HOT List

"This was an excellent quarter for us," Josh D'Amaro, CEO of The Walt Disney Co., beamed as the parent of ABC Owned Stations began his company's fiscal third quarter earnings call. In the role for five months, D'Amaro couldn't be more pleased — even as the FCC under Brendan Carr has Disney's broadcast TV stations in its crosshairs.

Rumors first surfaced across the Queen City last week that a reduction-in-force was coming to The E.W. Scripps Co. On Tuesday, President/CEO Adam Symson addressed the "organizational changes" tied to a previously announced "transformation" at the broadcast TV station ownership group. He did so in an internal memo.

The second quarter 2026 earnings season has officially started, following last week's release of dollar-generation details from Graham Media Group's parent. Kicking off the publicly traded audio-and-video companies sharing their Q2 fiscal report card is the Washington, D.C.-founded organization led by CEO Alfred Liggins III.

It is a move that comes after a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing made by its sibling, Dish DBS: EchoStar's satellite-based consumer market-focused Hughes Network Systems, has moved forward with its own bankruptcy filing. Why? The decision is primarily due to its inability to repay some $1.5 billion owed to debtholders.

On August 1, CBS viewers in seven markets will need to switch channels in order to continue watching the network's TV programming. On September 1, the ABC network affiliation in St. Louis will see a shift. This is disconcerting to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, who says the agency is closely examining one affiliation move agreement.

The lone Democratic Party voice on the Federal Communications Commission has again lashed out at the agency under the leadership of Chairman Brendan Carr for its proceeding in which ABC Owned Stations have been asked to participate in an early license renewal effort.

The PBS Member station's 70 years of archives are stuck at a facility believed to be used by Iron Mountain, in Denver. This led the television station to sue the data storage giant. A district judge ordered Iron Mountain to refrain from deleting any of the files as litigation continues.

Thanks to its transformative $22 million transaction with Hymen Childs' Service Broadcasting, announced in May, Urban One has a "revitalized" Dallas-Fort Worth station group. As such, the company led by Alfred Liggins III has refreshed its leadership team in North Texas.

There's chatter that one of the nation's largest radio station ownership groups could be faced with its own oversized job force shrinkage. Why? The post-bankruptcy ownership structure of Cumulus Media shows that the president of notorious newspaper owner Alden Global Capital will hold a big stake of Cumulus stock.

Attorneys representing Jeff Warshaw have made important calculated updates to his lawsuit against Soros Fund Management, the controlling interest holder in Audacy. It is a move designed to protect his backup legal theories in case a judge later rules no enforceable contract ever existed between the two sides.

Spanish Broadcasting System is down two members of its executive team. Chief Revenue Officer Gene Bryan has parted ways with the company, and Chief Content Officer Jesus Salas has resigned, an executive confirmed to Streamline Publishing late last week.

A U.S. District Judge has signed off on an order that presents a small victory to WGA West and a group of state Attorneys General led by California's Rob Bonta, as Paramount Skydance has agreed to hold off closing its proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery until a date that could come as late as June 1, 2027.

Unlike the shift of CBS network affiliations from a host of Nexstar-owned stations to the digital multicast signals associated with stations owned by Forum Communications and Hearst Television, respectively, Gray will place ABC on a DT1 signal. It's presently home to Gray's "Matrix Midwest" Sports offering.

It was the subject of industry rumors that began on Friday. Now, RBR+TVBR has learned that a group of CBS affiliates associated with Nexstar Media Group are losing the network come August 1, with two-year agreements in place with two companies it competes with across the impacted markets.

In September 1994, Gray Media emerged as the buyer of the CBS affiliate serving Lexington, Ky. Today, that facility offers The CW Network to the market via a digital multicast channel. In the coming months, a full-powered UHF will become its sibling, giving Gray a duopoly.