August 2006

On Friday, the FCC announced that it will auction 9 new FM channels on January 10.  These are channels that went unpurchased in prior FM auctions – either because no one bid on the channels or because the winning bidder defaulted on its winning bid (presumably by not paying for the channel when the full payment was due). 

The channels are for new stations at the following locations:  Covelo and Tecopa, California; Cedar Key and Perry, Florida; Kihei, Hawaii; Outlook, Montana; Ocracoke, North Carolina; Meyersdale, Pennsylvania; and Parowan, Utah.  The FCC proposed rules for the auction, here, and set out the amounts of minimum bids that it expects to collect for each of these channels, here.  The exact date for the filing of the initial short form applications and the posting of the minimum bids will be announced after the final rules for the auction are adopted.  Comments on the Proposed Rules and the minimum bids are due on September 6.

Perhaps most interesting is the fact that the FCC has chosen to open only this mini-window at this time.  In each of the last two years, at about this time of year, the FCC has announced the opening of auction windows for large numbers of FM stations.  Hundreds of stations have been auctioned in these last two years.  The FCC has hundreds of FM allotments around the country that already been made but which have never been available for applications.  These will be apparently be subject to auction at some later date.Continue Reading New Radio Channels to Be Auctionned By FCC

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting announced recently that it has provided $7.74 million in grants to assist 85 public radio stations in their transition to digital operations.  This announcement is interesting, coming as it does only a week after Communications Daily reported on August 16 that CPB engineers were finding that HD Radio was…

Comments are due to be filed with the FCC by this Thursday, August 24, on the NAB’s proposal to allow AM radio stations to use FM translators to fill in nulls in their coverage.  Particularly for AM stations with very directional patterns, or with authorizations that specify little or no nighttime coverage, this proposal could provide an excellent way for these stations to maximize service to their listeners.  The NAB is making the filing of comments easy through an electronic filing system available on its website here.

While it is important for those supporting this proposal to file comments to urge the FCC to consider it, this is but the first step in a long process before this proposal can become reality.  The FCC here is asking only for comments on the NAB’s Petition for Rulemaking.  If the FCC finds merit in the NAB proposal, then it would have to draft its own Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to suggest rules that would govern the use of such translators.  After taking comments on the Notice, if the FCC is still convinced that the idea is a good one, the Commission would then have to draft a set of final rules and an order adopting those rules.  Thus, in the best case, this is a long process.Continue Reading FM Translators for AM Stations?

In the early 1990s, calls were heard in the halls of Congress, among public interest groups and in the press about the harmful effects of advertising on children. Within a few years, we saw legislation and FCC actions limiting the amount of advertising aimed at children, and effectively prohibiting the hosts of children’s programs from promoting goods or services during their programs. We may now be seeing a similar wave building with respect to the advertising “unhealthy” foods – particularly as that advertising affects children.

A recent Broadcasting and Cable article referred to discussions held between advertising organizations and Senator Brownback of Kansas, seeking to encourage industry self-regulation on the advertising and promotion to children of unhealthy foods.   After the discussion, the Senator reportedly agreed to refrain from pursuing any Congressional action at this time, while industry efforts to develop voluntary guidelines proceeded. However, the concern was clearly expressed that, should industry actions not be forthcoming, legislative action may follow.

These efforts to regulate the advertising of unhealthy foods have been arising not only at the Federal level, but also in state legislatures around the country.   Several state broadcast associations have faced proposals in their legislatures to enact restrictions on the advertising of unhealthy foods. So far, most of these efforts have not resulted in actual regulation, at least in part because of the difficulty of defining what foods would be covered by any rules that may be adopted. Continue Reading Restrictions on Advertising Unhealthy Foods?

Today, press reports stated that the FCC has sent letters of inquiry to 77 television stations inquiring about their use of Video News Releases (VNRs) without properly notifying their audience about the source of such releases.  VNRs are essentially pre-produced segments provided to television stations for inclusion in their programming.  The Washington Post carried a story, here, describing some of the stories which triggered the FCC investigation.  These reportedly included a report from an electronics show used by several TV stations in their news reports.  The producer of the report had been paid by the electronics manufacturers featured in the story for including their products in the story.

The FCC released a Public Notice in April, 2005 detailing its policies on VNRs.  The Public Notice makes clear that a station must disclose who paid for material broadcast on a station, whether or not the station received the consideration.  Clearly, if an advertiser paid a station for airing a news report, the station would be required to disclose the payment.  But the Public Notice makes clear that the station also owes its audience a disclosure even if it received no consideration, if the party that produced the material broadcast on the station received some consideration, and the station could discover that consideration by asking the producer if he or she was paid or through other means of reasonable investigation.  Continue Reading FCC Investigates Video News Releases

On July 18, we wrote about the arrest of the CEO of BetOnSports, the Internet gambling site, and the indictment of individuals involved with the Company, including representatives of its advertising agencies.  Yesterday, the New York Times reported that BetOnSports has stopped taking bets from people in the United States in compliance with the US…

In recent months, SoundExchange has been reaching out to webcasters seeking to identify those who are delinquent in their royalty payments for music used on the Internet. Numerous broadcasters and webcasters have received calls or letters from SoundExchange seeking information about apparent underpayments or missing mandatory reports of royalty liability that should be filed regularly by…