Legacy

A pair of Shreveport, La.-based TV stations needed a better way to meet FCC closed-caption mandates. After looking over several options, the evaluation team at the stations' licensee went with an automated closed captioning system from ENCO.

Saturday, Feb. 29, is the final day to enjoy early bird registration for the most educational Spring Break trip to South Florida one can take. Don't wait: register NOW for the the 11th Hispanic Radio Conference in Miami. It's an investment that will pay dividends for you and your station in the months and years to come.

Is it Perry Sook? What about Pat LaPlatney, or Brian Lawlor? Is Emily Barr at the top? It's still up to you, but your selection of RBR+TVBR's now-ranked 2020 Broadcast Television’s Best Leaders list must be done by 5pm Pacific today (2/28). Nominations will be tabulated next week, with the results appearing in our 2020 NAB Show Special Edition!

As RBR+TVBR's daily newsletter was being finalized, iHeartMedia CEO Bob Pittman and CFO Rich Bressler were delivering the company's fourth quarter 2019 results. It is the first for the company post-bankruptcy, making comps a tad difficult. What is certain is that iHeart's year-over-year revenue is flat.

Joe Ceryanec is retiring as VP/CFO of Meredith, which owns 17 over-the-air TV stations reaching 11% of U.S. households, effective March 31. On March 9, his successor will join the Des Moines-based company. The move brings to Meredith a 21-year GE veteran.

The nation's largest owner of broadcast TV stations had a huge final three months of 2019. But, like audio entertainment and media company Entercom, it requires a look at adjusted EBITDA. Once that's done, Nexstar's performance is one for investors to applaud. Coronavirus fears over the Summer Olympics could be spooking them today. Yet, Sook thinks a pandemic would actually help TV.

For months, there's been chatter of a sale of Univision Communications, with various unconfirmed reports across multiple news organizations. In the early morning hours of Tuesday, Feb. 25, the rumors became reality: The 64% ownership in Univision not held by Mexico's Grupo Televisa has been snagged by a pair of investment firms in an arrangement that will see the exit of CEO Vince Sadusky.

ViacomCBS shares continued to trend downward Friday, a day after the company produced Q4 2019 results that greatly disappointed investors. Noted Wall Street analyst Michael Nathanson, Senior Analyst at MoffettNathanson, has reviewed the company's report, which includes 2020 guidance. His assessment is just as bleak as the current ViacomCBS stock trajectory.

Thanks to its footprint, Cumulus Media's top executives are convinced that its own March Madness -- one that sees a flood of political dollars from the Mike Bloomberg for President campaign -- will greatly assist in achieving a Q1 2020 profit. Another free-spending candidate has also added to Cumulus' bottom line, while Bloomberg's spots are airing on another company's stations in N.Y.

A county in the Lone Star State petitioned the FCC to modify the satellite television markets for a group of stations in the Tyler-Longview DMA, as well as a big Dallas-market station. The Senior Deputy Chief of the Media Division's Policy Division reviewed the request, and on Wednesday made his decision: No.

Standard General Founding Partner Soo Kim has responded to a unanimous decision by TEGNA's Board of Directors to decline his firm's nomination of four individuals to seats on TEGNA's Board. In a letter to Standard General's shareholders, Kim asked recipients to look toward Wall Street, as TEGNA continues to engage in "value-destroying M&A strategy," which underscores "the urgent need for change."

In 1982, with a freshly minted B.S. in Accounting from the University of Iowa, Chuck Poduska took a job as an auditor at one of the first FOX affiliates to pop up in the U.S. He's risen through the ranks, and in November 2017 ascend to the role of VP/GM of a group of television stations in Kansas City owned by Meredith Corp. Now, Poduska is ready to retire.

Impactful initiatives reframing marketing in the 21st century, demonstrating the value of culture in ads and programming, are the highlight of a Hispanic Radio Conference session that puts a spotlight on the Cultural Insights Impact Measure tied to the ANA's Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing. As CMOs are inspired to genuinely reflect all in their ads, radio leaders are, too.

KidVid, ATSC 3.0, and other issues facing the FCC that pertain to broadcast television will be the focal point of an address to be delivered by Republican FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly at the February 25 APTS Public Media Summit in Washington, D.C.

RBR+TVBR on Friday was first to report what FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks has called the “striking … but not surprising” results of the just-released Fourth Report on Ownership of Broadcast Stations from the Media Bureau. Indeed, broadcast media ownership among women and minorities is lagging. The MMTC has now chimed in on the findings.