From the LA Times: “President Trump, who has threatened press freedoms before, suggested Wednesday that NBC might lose its broadcast licenses following critical stories detailing his behavior. NBC reported last week that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called Trump a…
As we expected, the National Association of Broadcasters and the Radio Television Digital News Association have each issued a statement in response to the president’s tweet about “challenging the license of NBC” because of “all the fake news coming out…
Our friend Steve Newberry, president/CEO of Commonwealth Broadcasting, has been named to a special post at the National Association of Broadcasters: executive vice president/strategic planning/special projects. Steve will helm a number of projects for the Association, including organizing the new…
The House Subcommittee on Communications and Technology has scheduled an FCC oversight hearing for October 25. Going into the hearing, there are a couple of issues that are looming: the markup of the measure to reauthorize and reform the Commission,…
A new survey from Borrell encompassing over 3500 local advertisers delved into what advertising categories would be increased, decreased, or stay about the same in the near future. The results showed that there were just as many respondents planning to…
The Senate has voted to confirm Ajit Pai as chairman of the FCC for another five years in a party-line vote, 52-41. (The Dems voted Nay because of Pai’s stance against Net Neutrality and his deregulation efforts.) Pai responded by…
The Commission has launched the Hurricane Recovery Task Force to organize its work on restoring communications services in locales ravaged by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria. Special Counsel Michael Horowitz will chair the panel, which will consist of a cross-section…
The FCC bumped consideration of the main studio rule from its October open meeting, but the topic is top job on the tentative agenda for this month’s open meeting, scheduled for October 24. In addition to MB Docket Number 17-106,…
We have established that the iPhone is Public Enemy Number One in the world of radio, but Google isn’t helping with the recent announcement that their new phone—the “Pixel 2″—follows Apple’s lead in eliminating the analog headphone jack. That screws…
In case you were wondering, Forbes Magazine just released this year’s list of the highest-paid personalities in radio. Can you guess who’s number one? Yup, it’s our old pal Howard, whose salary from radio alone tops $90 million. (Forbes reports…
The Commission is giving AM stations with FM translator applications in the Auction 99 filing window that are in mutually-exclusive situations until the end of November (specifically, November 29) to settle their conflicts. According to the FCC, there are 88…
