Radio & Television Business Report

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.

In September 2024, Great Plains Media agreed to sell an FM licensed to Lawrence, Kansas, to a leading Hispanic market media operation in greater Kansas City. An extension was granted in February 2025. Now, the deal has crumbled, leading the seller to go back to the drawing board on finding a buyer.

As of Saturday, WTLP-FM is abandoning its 20-year simulcast with WTOP Radio. Hubbard Radio placed the all-News station serving the National Capital Region on the signal in 2007. Before that, it was "Z104" — in two incarnations as a Top 40 station. Interestingly, it is the fourth hit-driven FM in the D.C. DMA since 1991 to adopt non-secular programming.

Eight days after Audacy Inc. reached an agreement that places some 42 spoken word properties on the SiriusXM channel lineup, the nation's subscription-based and ad-supported satellite radio company is readying the September 1 rollout of a sports-only access pass.

The winners of the 2026 NAB Marconi Radio Awards will be announced during a special dinner program presented by Xperi on Tuesday, October 20, at the Edison Ballroom in the City of New York on the evening prior to the start of NAB Show New York.

University of Wisconsin Badgers sports are heading back to Milwaukee airwaves under a new local partner. And it involves the AM/FM pair owned by the company founded and led by Craig Karmazin.

Pattison Media, is one of Canada’s largest privately-held media companies, with radio stations across three provinces. Thanks to a new deal, a large selection of those properties will be bringing enhanced visuals and enriched information to consumers in vehicles with the newest entertainment systems.

In mid-June the ATVA warned of a potential "blackout" of the FOX and MyNetwork TV affiliates in Central New York on Verizon FiOs systems. That's now occurred, and the pro-MVPD lobbying group is pointing fingers — naturally — at the TV station ownership group led by Webb Collums.

With YouTube TV grabbing NFL Sunday Ticket rights from DirecTV, restaurants and bars across the U.S. have been grappling with the transition. Some shifted services, while others are forking over dollars for both. Now, thanks to a new deal, every National Football League game will be made available via DirecTV For Business. 

XR Extreme Reach and AdImpact have partnered to help deliver deeper data and insights across local TV and digital channels for political campaigns. The partnership brings together AdImpact's measurement data with XR's ad serving insights, and is designed to deliver local market visibility and faster reporting.

Advertisers can’t buy listeners who don’t hear ads, and AM/FM radio reaches nearly double the percentage captured by the combined ad-supported audience of Spotify, Pandora, and podcasts, according to new data from Edison Research at SSRS.

The selection of ARC Software is designed to centralize affiliate research, maintain station and contact information, streamline agreement workflows, and strengthen long-term station relationships across the affiliate network for a faith-based audio content creator and distributor.