Radio+Television Business Report

While the NAB and a bevy of licensees seek a relaxation or wholesale repeal of the Commission's local broadcast ownership rules, an advocacy group for African American station owners has asked the Carr Commission to leave its current regulatory limits as-is.

The nation's largest single owner of broadcast TV stations has confirmed that it is bringing to market an in-house strategic and creative hub designed to serve as an express lane to its portfolio of media properties across the United States.

As RBR+TVBR was first to report earlier this week, Gray Media has reached a deal to purchase a full-power television station in the Volunteer State in a transaction that saw brokerage Kalil & Co. represent the seller. It is now known how much Bahakel Media will pocket from the transaction.

With little fanfare and swift approval, the three Commissioners of the FCC gave their thumbs' up to a Report and Order amending its rules to provide regulatory certainty and clarity to low-power TV broadcasters.

Across each year, local media analysts actively track the advertising spend and media choices used by SMBs across the U.S. While small local businesses have largely been absent from big-city Radio for years, one Audacy station engaged in a recent effort designed to salute these components of the local economy.

New York's Finger Lakes Region offers outdoors enthusiasts, wine lovers and beer and spirits connoisseurs a bevy of activities. For digital media veteran Scott Swanson, attracting these business as Radio advertisers is now in the cards. Why? He just agreed to purchase Finger Lakes Radio Group.

For seven years, he's been a Managing Director and Senior Media and Internet Analyst for Loop Capital, and before that worked as an equity analyst at both CIBC Oppenheimer and JP Morgan Investment Management. As of today, he is Gray Media's new VP of Investor Relations.

Publicly traded Beasley, which sees its stock back in the $5 range after a one-day "meme stock"-fueled burst in value last week, is giving the VP/Treasury of Corporate Controller position to a man who currently oversees the company's treasury operations, accounts receivable and accounts payable, and traffic functions. 

It has served the African American community in Wisconsin's largest market since 1967. Pending FCC approval, it will become the latest property in the Civic Media stable — along with a 61-year-old newspaper serving the Black community of Milwaukee.

RBR+TVBR has asked Cumulus Media representatives for comment. That’s because The Dan Bongino Show was a signature offering from Cumulus’ Westwood One national radio arm until earlier this year, when Bongino was appointed as the new Deputy Director of the FBI.

The Sinclair Broadcast Group subsidiary and broadcast equipment provider are looking back with smiles on a two-year partnership they believe sets the stage for a positive future. “Our partnership with SCMS has been impactful in many ways,” says Dielectric President Keith Pelletier.

A cable TV service provider with a big footprint in Westchester County and on Long Island, in addition to smaller West Coast markets, is crying foul against a broadcast television station operator that is poised to sell all of its assets to Nexstar Media Group.

He's a Texas native who once held leadership roles at NASA, where he managed live TV operations for the ISS. Most recently, he was VP of Technology for the ABC Owned Television Stations property in Houston. Now, this 20-year veteran is the head of the CBS Stations properties in Dallas-Fort Worth.

Since 1976, ABC has looked to the film industry's honor pageant as a major advertiser and viewer draw, noting its relationship at Upfront events each May. Starting in 2029, ABC will no longer have the Oscars telecast — nor will any other over-the-air television network.   

While Anna M. Gómez has had her priorities, including bipartisan goals that should unite the FCC, the past 10 months has see the Commission take "a markedly different approach" — one the lone Democratic votemaker at the agency is highly critical of. This includes likely thawing of media ownership caps.

The NAB on the final day of comment submissions to the FCC as part of its 2022 Quadrennial Review argued for more deregulation and an FCC focus on the impact of competition on broadcast stations and their services, "rather than on needless formalities such as formulating a market definition."

"We're empowering broadcasters to meet their public interest obligations." Those are the words of FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, as he offered a positive critique of his leadership and accomplishments at the Commission since taking the baton from Jessica Rosenworcel in late January.

It was hardly unexpected. The Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation, in her opening comments, lashed out at FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for engaging in what Democrats have labeled politically motivated and Freedom of Speech-limiting efforts by the Commission.

The owner of the EstrellaTV Spanish-language broadcast television operation has reached a media sales agreement with one of the nation's largest entities, a unit of iHeartMedia. At the same time, EstrellaTV parent MediaCo is wishing its Research Director, a 35-year industry veteran, a very hearty retirement. 

The deadline to files comment on the FCC’s Quadrennial Review of its ownership rules for broadcast radio and television is here. A flood of opinions are expected to arrive within the next several hours, and ahead of that, one radio station licensee has submitted his call for relaxing current restrictions.