1. FCC chairman Reed Hundt facing credibility gap in eyes of broadcast and cable operators

2. FCC approves Westinghouse Broadcasting ("Group W")/CBS merger

3. Cable industry continues its support of telcom reform

4. Arguments on cable/telecommunications cross-ownership ban set to be heard by the Supreme Court while Congress worked to end said ban

5. Tribune executive Rick Jacobson leaves to become president/COO of 20th Television

6. King World (which was working on a Planet Hollywood-themed revival of "Hollywood Squares" tentatively called "Planet Hollywood Squares" {that version, minus the Planet Hollywood theme, eventually surfaced in 1998 and ran until 2004; remaining the most recent version of that show}) and Columbia TriStar (handling revivals of "The Dating Game" and "The Newlywed Game") see opening for syndicated game shows in daytime in light of controversies over "trash talk" shows (such as pre-1994 Oprah and increasingly Jerry Springer)

7. Part 2 of an interview with longtime "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney

8. Possibility of a settlement in dispute between ASCAP (American Society of Composers and Publishers) and the National Religious Broadcasters

9. Group W's first Asian client, Discovery Asia, open for business

10. TVN Entertainment planning digital delivery system for 1996 to help cable compete with DBS (direct broadcast satellite)

11. A look at cable's growth on several fronts and attempts to compete with DBS, wireless and telco challengers
12. Over 30 channels forced to delay launches until 1996
13. List of over 100 proposed outlets seeking to launch by 1997 (among them were BET Jazz; CNNfn; Game Channel {a proposed game-show channel named after a block on the Family Channel that never launched}; TV Land; Speedvision and Military Channel)
14. AT&T plans investment of up to $4 billion in Time Warner Cable
15. CableNet conference nears with look at upcoming technology

Other pieces of interest include: FOX considering late-night soaps to compete with NBC's "Tonight Show", CBS's "The Late Show" and ABC's "Nightline"; ABC boasts of success with Part 1 of "The Beatles Anthology"; Brown & Williamson sues former executive Jeffrey Wigand after Wigand's identity as the source of a "60 Minutes" piece on Big Tobacco (that ultimately was spiked) was leaked to the media; itinerary of the Western Show cable conference in Anaheim; Big 3 call for FCC to set a minimum HDTV standard; a commentary on Hogan & Hartson partner Robert Corn-Revere on the book "Abandoned in the Wasteland", co-authored by former FCC chair Newton Minow (he of the "vast wasteland" remark) regarding children's programming; Seagram CEO Edgar Bronfman keynoting the 1996 NATPE convention; Warner Bros. Domestic Television signs Rosie O'Donnell for upcoming talk show (with elements of the long-dormant variety format); announcement of "Scoop with Sam and Dorothy" in which the Sam Rubin-Dorothy Lucey show was targeted as a challenger to "Live with Regis and Kathie Lee"; announcement of plans to revive the "Crook & Chase" series in syndication (the series began in syndication and ran from 1986-90 before moving to TNN, where it remained until being renamed "Music City Tonight" when hosts Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase inherited the time slot vacated when "Nashville Now" ended following host Ralph Emery's retirement); Paramount reviving NBC castoff "Viper" for syndication; MTM Enterprises offering "The Beef" for syndication, tentatively hosted by Vance DeGeneres (older brother of Ellen); new Sony president/COO Nobuyuki Idei confirms commitment to both hardware and pictures despite $2.7 billion write-down following disappointing Columbia/Tri-Star performance; WLS-FM 94.7 announces shift from talk to either urban contemporary or country (the station ultimately chose the latter genre); Nostalgia Television brings in former Showtime entertainment reporter Bill Harris to host "Cinema Spotlight" and Ron Nessen (a former NBC White House Correspondent and later White House Press Secretary for all but the first month of Gerald Ford's presidency {replacing Jerald terHorst, who resigned the position following Ford's decision to pardon former President Richard Nixon in relation to the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's resignation}) as host of a show titled "Issues and Answers" (reviving the name of ABC's Sunday morning talk show used from 1960 until it was replaced by the present "This Week" in 1981); ABC launches website to promote its prime-time lineup; interview with MJI Broadcasting owner Josh Feigenbaum; an obituary for Milwaukee FOX affiliate WITI-TV 6 anchor Vince Gibbons, who died from a massive heart attack on November 15 at the age of only 46; NBC announces cancellation of "Pursuit of Happiness" and "seaQuest 2032" while revamping their weekend and Tuesday/Wednesday lineups (including bringing in "3rd Rock from the Sun" for Tuesdays at mid-season and by March moving "JAG" from Saturdays to Wednesdays); the return of Ken Schanzer to NBC Sports after working at the newly-defunct "Baseball Network"; Andy Rooney clashing with CBS over the aforementioned spiked "60 Minutes" story on Big Tobacco - especially significant considering CBS chairman Laurence Tisch also controlled the Lorillard tobacco company and also clashing with "60 Minutes" executive producer Don Hewitt; VH1 gains rights to air reruns of "American Bandstand" (specifically the 1975-85 era); Reese Schonfeld steps down as president of Food Network while staying on as vice-chairman and retaining his equity; Carnie Wilson's self-titled talk show on brink of cancellation (presumably to make room for the Rosie O'Donnell project) and a deal by FOX to carry the Mike Tyson-Buster Mathis Jr. boxing match was all but done (this fight, one of the few boxing matches to air on network television after the 1970s, was Tyson's second boxing match after serving a three-year prison sentence following his conviction on charges of raping Desiree Washington, competing in 1991 as Rhode Island's representative in the Miss Black America pageant)