Broadcast Station Reminder: Annual EEO Public File Reports and Biennial Ownership Reports due August 1 for Select States
Annual EEO Public File Report Deadline—August 1
Affected States: California, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wisconsin
By August 1, 2007, radio and television Station Employment Units in the states listed above must place in their Public Inspection File and post on their website, if they have a website, their FCC Annual EEO Public File Report. A Station Employment Unit (SEU) is a group of stations, under common control, serving a common area, and sharing at least one employee. If an SEU includes stations in different states with different filing deadlines, the SEU can select which filing deadline it will use. Once selected, the Annual Report filing deadline should be consistently applied for all future EEO Annual Reports. The states with the August 1 filing deadline are: California, Illinois, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Wisconsin.
Biennial Ownership Report Deadline—August 1
Affected States: Radio TV- Illinois and Wisconsin - California, North Carolina, and South Carolina;
In addition, by August 1, 2007, radio stations in California, North Carolina, and South Carolina, and television stations in Illinois and Wisconsin must prepare and file an FCC Form 323 Biennial Ownership Report with the FCC. Similarly, noncommercial stations in these states must file a Biennial Ownership Report on FCC Form 323-E.
The timing for the filing of the Biennial Ownership Report and the preparation of the Annual EEO Public File Report is based on the anniversary of the filing of the station's license renewal. In turn, the renewal-cycles are organized by state and type of service, and are staggered based on the FCC's prearranged schedule. Periodically, we will remind groups of stations as to their upcoming deadlines, and stations should be vigilant to make these required filings.
Copies of our complete reminder memos containing additional information on each of these requirements can be found here and here.