The PSKY-Warner Bros. Merger Has Officially Closed

Paramount closed its acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on Tuesday, handing tech scion David Ellison control of a combined company now called Skydance and one of the largest collections of film, television, and news assets in Hollywood.

The deal immediately places Skydance among the industry’s leading competitors, alongside streaming powers such as Netflix and YouTube and just behind Disney and Amazon. It brings under one roof many of the studios’ most valuable properties, along with the news operations of CNN.

Ellison moved quickly to assert control. By Tuesday morning, monitors across CNN’s Manhattan headquarters displayed the Skydance corporate logo, and he had scheduled a companywide town hall for that afternoon.

“Today is a historic day, not just for Skydance but for our entire industry,” Ellison said in a statement. “We couldn’t be more excited to get to work.”

The NY Times reports the prize was hard-fought. Ellison wrested Warner Bros. Discovery from Netflix after a monthslong contest in which he made nine offers. The transaction also closed over the objections of a coalition of state attorneys general who sued to block it on antitrust grounds.

Mark Thompson Remains Providing Some Relief For Staffers

Mark Thompson will remain chairman and editor in chief of CNN after Skydance completes its $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery this week, most likely on Tuesday.

Thompson, CNN’s chief executive, told employees said he reached the decision to stay after lengthy talks with Skydance executives, including chief executive David Ellison. He wrote that he has “real confidence that they both understand and will fully support the principle and practice of the kind of independent news that CNN has always stood for.” He will keep “the same responsibilities and prerogatives that I have now,” the memo said.

Thompson will report to both Ellison and co-chief executive Ynon Kreiz, according to a person familiar with the planned leadership structure. On Monday, Skydance said Thompson and Bari Weiss, who runs CBS News, will both serve on a “C.E.O. news executive leadership team,” each overseeing their own network.

Thompson Stays at CNN, Skeptics Say Change Is On Horizon

Mark Thompson isn’t going anywhere, at least not yet.

CNN’s chairman and editor-in-chief told staff Monday he’s sticking around after Paramount Skydance’s $81 billion takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery, which is supposed to close Tuesday. He’ll report straight to David Ellison, who runs the new combined company (just called Skydance now). Bari Weiss is also staying put as editor-in-chief of CBS News.

Thompson’s pitch to the newsroom was basically: I talked to these guys, and they get it. “I have real confidence that they both understand and will fully support” the independent journalism CNN has always claimed to stand for, he wrote. The fine print of how CNN actually fits into the new company still isn’t locked in, but he says his job, and his authority, stay the same. He’s also still pushing the digital subscription plan, and says the new bosses are into it.

Leadership Set At Skydance

 

Paramount Skydance on Monday confirmed the leadership structure of the combined company ahead of the expected close this week of its $81 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

David Ellison, Paramount’s CEO, will serve as chairman and chief executive of the combined company, dubbed Skydance, alongside co-CEO Ynon Kreiz, the outgoing CEO of Mattel. Ellison will oversee long-term strategy, creative vision and direction, including talent relationships, strategic partnerships, technology and capital allocation. Kreiz will handle day-to-day management and the integration of the businesses. Paramount disclosed Kreiz’s appointment last week.

Trump Pivots: Halts Taxpayer-Funded TV Commercials

President Donald Trump said Monday that the television ads praising him and his agenda will no longer be paid for with taxpayer money. He wrote that he will instead cover them himself and with money raised for MAGA Inc., his super PAC, after days of bipartisan criticism over the government’s role in funding the spots.

In a Truth Social post, Trump said the “Radical Left” was upset that he was “taking Ads, which I consider to be a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A., and paying for them with U.S.A. money.” He called that “a rather standard thing to do,” then added that “rather than doing that, although nothing will make them happy, I have decided to do the Patriotic Ads, among others, and pay for them myself, and with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.”

The announcement, reported by CBS News and CNBC, comes roughly two weeks after the ads began airing and about a month before the November midterms.

San Jose Radio: K-Love Closes On 94.5 FM

K-Love Inc. has closed its $2 million purchase of the 94.5 FM signal in Gilroy, California, from Connoisseur Media, completing a deal announced in July and adding a full-power outlet for its Christian programming in San Jose.

The station, formerly KBAY-FM, is now KJNV-FM. K-Love bought the frequency to expand its service in the market.

The sale included only the 94.5 FM facility. Connoisseur kept the KBAY name and Country format, which continues as Bay Country. Before the closing, the company moved that programming from 94.5 to the stronger 98.5 FM signal, previously home to classic rock KUFX.

Sportscaster Hired and Fired Same Day Lawyers-Up

A sports broadcaster who lost a Portland Trail Blazers job before it began is asking the team to reconsider and has hired a lawyer to handle publicity on his behalf.

In a press release Monday, 29-year-old Braiden Bell renewed his apology for social media posts he made as a teenager, some of which contained racist and misogynistic language. He said the posts do not reflect who he is now and asked the franchise to weigh his record since then before closing the door on the role.

Bell’s lawyer said Bell is not asking anyone to excuse what he wrote and has owned the posts without excuses. The attorney argued that comments made about 14 years ago should be judged against the person Bell has become, and Bell offered to work with the team on community and educational programs, including outreach to Asian American and Pacific Islander groups and organizations that support women and girls in sports.

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly Steps Away As 'All Things Considered' Host

Mary Louise Kelly is stepping down as a host of NPR’s “All Things Considered” after 25 years at the network and is also leaving the national security podcast “Sources & Methods.”

NPR's Mary Louise Kelly

Kelly said she will remain at NPR and continue contributing interviews after a short break. Sacha Pfeiffer, an investigations correspondent, will serve as acting host of “All Things Considered.”

The change follows another recent shift on the program. NPR named Scott Detrow the full-time weekday host in August 2025, when Ari Shapiro left.\

Kelly joined NPR in 2001 as a senior supervising editor for “All Things Considered” and later served as the network’s national security correspondent. In a LinkedIn post, she said the job sent her around the world to interview presidents and prime ministers and to cover protests, peace deals, elections and wars.

“The stories that stick with me are of ordinary people living through extraordinary events,” Kelly wrote. “Of leaning across a beat-up kitchen table, listening as strangers pour tea and pour out their stories, asking us please to bear witness and tell the world. We have. We will.”

Apple News Hid Stories About DNC Financial Woes

Apple News did not promote a single story about the Democratic National Committee’s financial troubles among its top 20 stories from Jan. 1 through Sept. 28, according to a Media Research Center analysis that identified 78 such articles, the New York Post reported.

None of those stories appeared in the platform’s daily top 20, the conservative watchdog said, even as the findings land weeks before the 2026 midterm elections. “Apple isn’t curating the news,” MRC president David Bozell said. “It’s running a high-tech protection racket for the political left.”

Researchers found that 78 outlets published pieces on the DNC’s debt during the period, and that none of them were featured in Apple News’ promoted top 20. At least 14 stories from outlets Apple News frequently promotes also went unfeatured, including USA Today, The Guardian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Politico and the New York Post.

Apple News has about 125 million monthly users and is pre-installed on Apple devices. Stories it promotes can draw anywhere from 1 million to 20 million page views, the MRC said. “Our study found Apple News suppressing coverage of the Democratic Party’s fundraising woes while eagerly serving up stories damaging to Republicans,” Bozell said.

Good Morning! Here's The Pulse For Tuesday, Oct 6

Radio Broadcasting

Programming Tweaked: Urban One Dallas is realigning programming across its three Dallas-Fort Worth stations, returning Rickey Smiley to mornings at KBFB (97.9 The Beat), shifting lineups at KKDA (K104), and giving 105.7 KRNB a new music direction. MORE

K-Love Closes: K-Love Inc. has closed its $2 million purchase of the 94.5 FM signal in Gilroy, California, from Connoisseur Media, completing a deal announced in July and adding a full-power outlet for its Christian programming in San Jose. MORE

NPR Host:  Mary Louise Kelly is stepping down as a host of NPR’s “All Things Considered” after 25 years at the network and is also leaving the national security podcast “Sources & Methods.” MORE

Hearing On TWH Press Ban Set for Thursday

Lawyers for CNN, MS NOW and Politico said Monday that the White House has offered no new evidence to support its repeated claims that the outlets’ reporting has endangered national security.

The argument, in a court filing late Monday, is the companies’ final written effort to persuade U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly to keep White House access in place for their journalists after President Donald Trump revoked their credentials last month.

D/FW Radio: Urban One Tweaks Programming On Three Stations

Urban One Dallas is realigning programming across its three Dallas-Fort Worth stations, returning Rickey Smiley to mornings at KBFB (97.9 The Beat), shifting lineups at KKDA (K104), and giving 105.7 KRNB a new music direction.

• At 97.9 The Beat, Radio Hall of Famer Smiley will anchor mornings beginning at 5 a.m. Jazzi Black will handle middays from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., followed by Bryhana Monegain in afternoon drive. “Posted on the Corner with Incognito and DJ Misses” will air in evenings.
• KRNB is introducing what Urban One calls a new audio identity built on a mix of R&B from the 1990s, 2000s and today. Vice President and General Manager Maurice Potts said the rebranding is meant to create a stronger connection with listeners while delivering the music and personalities they want.
• K104 will continue with DeDe McGuire and “DeDe in the Morning” in mornings. Michael Shawn moves to middays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Hollywood Bay Bay takes afternoon drive, and Lil D shifts to evenings.

R.I.P.: Disgraced Televangelist Jim Bakker

Jim Bakker and First Wife, Tammy Faye

Jim Bakker, the televangelist who with his first wife Tammy Faye built one of the largest Christian media empires of the 1980s around “The PTL Club,” then lost it in a sex scandal and federal fraud conviction, died Monday. He was 86.

His second wife, Lori Bakker, announced the death in a statement. The cause was not immediately clear. Bakker had suffered a stroke in 2020.

Radio History: Oct 6

➦In 1866...Reginald Aubrey Fessenden born (Died at age 65 – July 22, 1932). He was a Canadian-born radio pioneer, who did a majority of his work in the United States and also claimed U.S. citizenship through his American-born father.  During his life he received hundreds of patents in various fields, most notably ones related to radio and sonar.

Reginald Fessenden

Fessenden is best known for his pioneering work developing radio technology, including the foundations of amplitude modulation (AM) radio. His achievements included the first transmission of speech by radio (1900), and the first two-way radio-telegraphic communication across the Atlantic Ocean (1906). In 1932 he reported that, in late 1906, he also made the first radio broadcast of entertainment and music, although a lack of verifiable details has led to some doubts about this claim.

After studies at Bishop University, Fessenden went to work for Thomas Edison, then the Westinghouse labs and the US Weather Service. In 1902, he started his own company to develop his superheterodyne discoveries, and in 1906 accomplished the first two-way radio voice transmission between Scotland and his shore station at Brant Rock Massachusetts.

That Christmas he broadcast the world’s first public program of music and voice transmitted over long distances, from Brant Rock to the ships at sea. He had over 300 patents, and was awarded $2.5 million by the US Radio Trust for his inventions, many of which were used by the US in World War I without his permission.

➦In 1949...Japanese-American broadcaster, Iva Toguri D'Aquino (Tokyo Rose, was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined $10,000 for treason.