WPIX New York

Nexstar Media Group is asking the Federal Communications Commission to cancel its order that WPIX New York be divested by Mission Broadcasting, claiming that the agreements under which Nexstar runs the station for Mission are legal and approved by the commission. Nexstar also wants a $1.2 million fine levied against it by the FCC canceled. Mission was also fined $612,395 as part of the commission’s Notice of Apparent Liability. “Through the NAL, the commission seeks to wield its enforcement authority in a myriad of improper ways,” Nexstar said in its response.

The FCC has hit Nexstar Media Group and its business partner Mission Broadcasting with a $1.2 million fine and an order to sell WPIX New York or other stations to come into compliance with longstanding station ownership limits. The commission on Thursday issued a 42-page decision in its probe of Nexstar’s ties to Mission Broadcasting and whether their business agreement violated the FCC’s reach limit on TV station ownership.

WPIX New York owner Mission Broadcasting is being fined $150,000 by the FCC over a contract dispute with cable giant Comcast that caused the cable TV company to file a complaint with the agency in 2022. TV stations and cable operators have a legal duty to negotiate retransmission consent carriage deals in good faith. But the FCC found that Mission violated that standard by requiring contract terms with Comcast that would have prevented either side from filing a complaint with the FCC.

A correspondent for three New York TV stations, he became famous for his “Shame on You” segments that investigated consumer fraud and aggressively confronted wrongdoers on camera.

NewsNation and WPIX New York, both part of Nexstar Media Group, unveiled two new studios on Tuesday at The Daily News Building on 42nd Street in New York, where the network and station both operate from. NewsNation expanded to 24 hours, Monday through Friday, on April 24, and WPIX marks 75 years on the air this year.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a news producer, a traffic coordinator and a digital sales manager for stations owned by Hearst, Nexstar and the Get After It Media network.

The hour-long weekday newscast will feature Tamsen Fadal, Vanessa Freeman and “Mr. G.”

Nexstar Media Inc. filed a suit against Comcast Cable Communications charging that the cable company was breaching its retransmission contract by failing to pay fees for carrying WPIX New York. In the suit, filed in New York State Supreme Court, Nexstar is seeking unspecified damages, interest and other costs, including attorney’s fees.

Comcast wants the FCC to issue a ruling that Nexstar should be attributed ownership of WPIX New York , which would make it in violation of the commission’s 39% cap on broadcast national audience reach. The cable operator claims Nexstar’s divestiture of the station to meet FCC requirements in its acquisition of Tribune was a “sham.”

The news executive with more than 20 years of experience in New York City newsrooms, most recently as assistant news director at WCBS, will oversee journalism at Nexstar’s CW affiliate in the Big Apple.

New jobs post to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a news director, a news digital content manager, and a systems engineer.

Burns started working at the Nexstar CW affiliate in March 2019. Her last day at the station will be March 26.

The veteran Nexstar leader with 30 Years of large market broadcast experience to oversee the New York CW affiliate’s broadcasting and digital operations under a local programming and marketing agreement with Mission Broadcasting.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for general sales manager for Nexstar and a president-CEO for Lakeland PBS in Minnesota.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for a general manager, a creative services director and a maintenance technician for Nexstar, Hearst and Allen Media stations.

WPIX New York VP-GM Bart Feder will leave his post on Jan. 29, he said Wednesday. Feder, who has spent most of his career in television newsrooms, was hired as the SVP of news in 2015 by Tribune Broadcasting. Once Tribune was bought out by Nexstar two years ago, he shifted into the VP-GM role at WPIX. Now that the station has changed hands again, he said it’s time for him to leave.

Scripps purchased WPIX as part of its acquisition of eight television stations in seven markets from Nexstar. Those stations were being divested in connection with Nexstar Media Group’s acquisition of Tribune Media in September 2019. Scripps granted Nexstar the option to buy back WPIX. The option expired at the end of 2021. Nexstar assigned its option to Mission Broadcasting, and Mission exercised the option.

Nexstar has transferred its option to purchase Scripps’ New York CW affiliate WPIX to Mission Broadcasting and Mission has exercised its option to purchase the station for $75 million plus accrued interest, to be calculated on the period between the Sept. 19, 2019, purchase date of WPIX by Scripps and the option sale closing date.