the HOT List

A Superior Court of Pennsylvania ruling released Thursday finds that the embattled former owner of a LPTV station serving Philadelphia it lost control over, putting it in the hands of another party, must rely on the FCC to win back possession — and not the Keystone State's judicial system.

Despite widespread opposition from Senate Republicans, Anna Gomez is on her way to filling the long-vacant fifth seat on the Federal Communications Commission, thanks to a floor vote conducted Thursday in the upper body of Congress.

It took just minutes after it became clear that Anna Gomez had the necessary votes to win confirmation by the U.S. Senate of her appointment by the Biden Administration as a FCC Commissioner for the words of praise to arise from lobbying groups that will actively be working with her and her future staff. Also chiming in with positive comments: the Chairwoman of the FCC herself.

Respected broadcast media financial analyst and advertising forecaster Brian Wieser on Wednesday unveiled a new, original forecast of the U.S. advertising industry. It covers more than 20 different forms of media, and includes data through 2028 from 2016 on an annual basis. What does Wieser have to share about broadcast radio and over-the-air television?

She joined the FOX Television Stations duopoly serving the National Capital Region in 2017 as VP of Finance. Now, she's the new SVP/Manager at WTTG-5 and WDCA-20, taking a role last held by an individual who was just promoted to Executive Vice President of Ad Sales for Fox Television Stations.

On September 1, the nation's No. 1 broadcast television station ownership group completed its $35 million purchase of KUSI-51 in San Diego from McKinnon Broadcasting Company, in a deal brokered by Kalil & Co.  With the transaction's closing, Nexstar Media Group officially has a duopoly in "America's Finest City." And, KUSI has a new VP/General Manager.

A total of 41 television stations with a reach of nearly 22 million television households across the U.S. will not be participating in any "great affiliation swap" anytime soon.  It's thanks to a new agreement reached between Nexstar Media Group and one of the nation's "Big Four" networks.

As RBR+TVBR reported on August 22, the chief programming executive at NPR will conclude her tenure at the end of 2023, ending a nearly 30-year tenure that includes on-demand audio innovations. On Sept. 11, Eva Rodriguez will become Executive Editor. These changes came after the June arrival of Daphne Kwon as Chief Financial Officer. On Tuesday, it became known that the Chief Executive Officer of NPR will be stepping aside.

What are the ramifications when a leader of a broadcast media company deletes text messages over several years, even though there may be a legal obligation to keep them accessible as items that could be needed for an ongoing court case? In the case of Griffin Communications, it is a matter of negligence, and not a bad faith action. 

Millions of Charter Communications Spectrum customers who rely on their cable TV services to consume the local ABC Owned Station are in the dark. And, in every U.S. market where Spectrum operates, access to 25 cable channels including ESPN has been denied. Welcome to the latest retransmission consent impasse, and it impacts The Walt Disney Company and the dominant MVPD in the nation's two largest markets.

Sinclair Broadcast Group has signed a fresh multi-year deal that not only renews station affiliations but returns The CW in 21 markets where DirecTV has been unable, by law, to bring the network to local viewers since July 12.

For those who believed a scheduled auction of all of his radio stations, as ordered by a Nevada federal bankruptcy judge, marked the finality of a long, twisting ownership tenure for Ed Stolz and his Royce International of three FM radio stations, an AM radio station, and two FM translators, think again.

The former General Manager of NBCUniversal-owned WTVJ-TV in Miami, who is also known as the first President of the company's Spanish-language Telemundo broadcast television network, has died at the age of 80.

A bankruptcy auction of Ed Stolz's former radio stations is on schedule for October 26. At the request of trustee Michael Carmel, his FCC counsel is distributing information to a variety of media brokers to attract interest and attention to the bidding opportunity. More than 40 media brokerage firms, including some of the largest in the U.S., were contacted.

It is formerly known as Emmis Communications and was once a formidable operator of radio stations across the U.S. Now known as Emmis Corporation, the publicly traded company founded by Chairman Jeff Smulyan has shared that it has received "overwhelming support" from shareholders to amend its articles of incorporation, as outlined in its proxy statement.