James Talarico’s late-night interviews have been moved to YouTube twice — and it may actually be helping the Senate candidate.

The FCC spent years giving broadcasters reasons to invent complicated ways not to own stations, and is now giving them reasons to own those stations after all.

Media Inno Managing Partner Tom Sly joins Tim Hanlon this week on episode 23 of In the Vicinity.

Madhive Chief Innovation Officer Aaron Brown joins Tim Hanlon this week on episode 22 of In the Vicinity.

TVND founder and former news director Kirk Varner joins Tim Hanlon this week on episode 21 of In the Vicinity.

Madhive CEO Jim Wilson is back on In the Vicinity this week to talk to Tim Hanlon about what the proposed FCC ownership rule changes could mean for local broadcasters.

Next week’s vote at the FCC is likely to replace a decades-old national TV broadcast station ownership cap formula with a substantially more subjective regulatory standard - and a whole new set of challenges.

Tim Hanlon goes solo this week on episode 18 of In the Vicinity.

The likely winners of FCC Chairman Carr’s proposed rule change are not the communities he invokes in his rhetoric.

Is a dedication to local news the real reason why the NAB, Fox and Sinclair are asking the FCC to stop the major sports leagues from heading to streaming?

The current administration’s political pressure against aimed at television journalism is real. But the regulatory system governing broadcast licenses has evolved in ways that make rapid, politically driven punishment extraordinarily difficult.

Is Indianapolis a narrow exception tailored to unique facts? Or is it an early indicator that triopolies — whether through ownership or ecosystem influence — are becoming normalized?

The sharp divide — between most large commercial station groups on one side and public broadcasters, multichannel pay-TV providers, and small station owners on the other — reveals a classic regulatory clash: who bears the cost of progress, and who stands to profit from it?

PLUS: Surviving the distraction economy, Alan Wolk’s Week in Review, and eliminating the FCC.

Disbanding the FCC would not usher in a neutral, market-driven utopia. It would privatize governance, weaken accountability, and accelerate the erosion of already fragile media institutions.

The distinction between owned-and-operated stations (O&Os) and network affiliates has never been more consequential — and with the FCC signaling openness to loosening ownership rules, it may soon determine which stations thrive and which struggle.

Without enforceable accountability, the move to ATSC 3.0 risks becoming ATSC 1.0 “2.0” — another costly cycle of broken promises, obsolescence, and squandered public value.

If Brendan Carr’s vision prevails, local TV risks becoming both homogenized and politicized — consolidated into a few large conglomerates, and pressured to avoid programming that might displease those in power.

The real question is whether broadcast ownership rules written for a world of media scarcity can still make sense in a world of communications abundance.

“KidVid” rules were born of good intentions — to ensure children weren’t shortchanged by profit-driven commercial broadcasters. But three decades later, they’ve morphed into an outsourced compliance exercise dominated by a single producer.