Broadcast Law Blog : Broadcast Lawyer & Attorney : Davis Wright Tremaine Law Firm : Broadcast Law Blog : Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York, San Francisco, Shanghai

A reminder that by February 1 noncommercial radio stations in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and New York, and noncommercial television stations in Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma must prepare and file electronically a biennial Ownership Report with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) using the current noncommercial FCC Form 323-E.

Please note, this filing date applies only to noncommercial radio and TV stations in the states listed above. The FCC has revised its rules regarding the reporting of ownership interests for commercial broadcast stations, and has revised the commercial Ownership Report – Form 323. Although commercial broadcast stations will file on a unified reporting deadline, by Order released late December 2009, the FCC has suspended indefinitely the filing of biennial Ownership Reports for commercial broadcast stations as we've posted previously. The Commission is taking additional time to address certain issues raised by petitioners and to revise the new form further.  Once the FCC re-releases the form, stations will have 90 days to file the report, so stations should watch this space or the FCC's releases for future news about the return of the Ownership Report for commercial stations. 

Noncommercial stations, on the other hand, continue to follow the previous rules filing biennial Ownership Reports on FCC Form 323-E, which has not been revised. The FCC is conducting a rule making proceeding to change, potentially, some of the ownership reporting rules for noncommercial licensees, but meanwhile, noncommercial broadcast stations continue to follow the existing rules.  Accordingly, as Feb. 1, 2010, marks the two-year anniversary of the filing of a biennial Ownership Report for noncommercial stations in the above-referenced services and states, those stations must now file a biennial Ownership Report to update their ownership information or affirm the information currently on file.  More information about this filing deadline can be found in our recent client advisory, available here.  

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Last Friday we posted about the FCC's announcement that it would open a filing window in December for noncommercial applicants interested in seeking authority for 67 existing vacant FM allotments.  Today, the FCC revised the timing of that window and postponed the opening until February 2010.  Accordingly, rather than accepting applications for these vacant noncommercial allocations in December, the window for filing will now be from February 19 through February 26, 2010.  In addition, the accompanying freeze on the filing of commercial and noncommercial minor modifications will now go into effect on February 6th and last through the closing of the window on February 26, 2010.  The FCC postponed the window in response to a request from a group of noncommercial entities and associations who said that two months would not be enough time for interested applicants to get approval from their boards and pull together an application.  The FCC agreed and pushed the date back.  So noncommercial entities interested in filing for these new stations have some additional time to prepare.  Further information is available in our earlier blog and in the FCC's Public Notice released today. 

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The FCC today announced the opening of a filing window for noncommercial applicants interested in seeking authority for 67 existing vacant FM allotments.  Applications on FCC Form 340 will be accepted from December 11th through December 18th for these vacant FM allotments in the non-reserved band between Channels 221 and 300.  A full listing of the allotments that are available can be found here.  Although the vacant channels are in the non-reserved FM Band these particular allocations have been reserved exclusively for noncommercial use.  Thus, the window is restricted to noncommercial educational applicants only.

In the event that multiple applications are filed seeking the same allotment, then the channel will be awarded by applying the Commission's comparative point system for noncommercial applicants.  Further details on filing an application can be found in today's Public Notice, and complete step-by-step instructions are available on the Commission's website here. 

In order to provide stability and predictability for applicants interested in filing for these vacant allotments, the FCC is imposing a freeze on the filing of minor change applications for both commercial and noncommercial FM radio stations.  The freeze will go into effect after 11:59 PM on November 25, 2009 and remain in effect through the close of the filing window.  Accordingly, any existing FM stations that intend to file a minor modification in November and December should plan ahead so they don't get delayed by the freeze.  In addition, the FCC has also imposed a freeze, effective immediately, on any applications proposing to change the reference coordinates for these 67 allotments.  Similarly, petitions or counterproposals proposing a change in the class, channel, or community of license of any of the allotments will not be accepted until December 19th, after the filing window has closed. 

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On September 10, 2009, David Oxenford addressed the Christian Music Broadcasters' Momentum '09 Conference in Orlando, Florida.  Dave' s presentation was titled 18 Issues in 18 Minutes: What a Broadcaster Should Worry About From Washington DC.  In 18 minutes, Dave discussed topics including the FCC's proposed localism rules, sponsorship identification and noncommercial underwriting issues, contest fines, FCC technical operating and public file rules , FCC EEO obligations, and copyright issues including streaming fees and the proposed broadcast performance royalty.  The 18 minute presentation to a general session of the conference was followed by a one-hour "Digging Deeper" session where conference participants asked for more details on many of these issues.

A copy of Dave's PowerPoint presentation used for the 18 minute session can be found here. 

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The Commission yesterday released two further Public Notices regarding the upcoming window for new noncommercial (NCE) FM radio stations.  As was previously announced, a filing window will be open from October 12 until October 19 during which time interested parties may submit applications for new NCE stations or for major changes to existing NCE stations.  This window is significant, because it marks the first time in seven years that parties have been able to file for a new NCE FM station.

The first of the public notices released yesterday, which is available here, contains further details about how to submit an application in the window.  Parties interested in learning more about filing an NCE FM application will find useful, step-by-step information about the application and licensing process here.  In addition, the notice announces a filing freeze prior to the opening of the window.  Beginning September 8, 2007 and continuing through the close of the window on October 19, there will be  freeze on the filing of minor change applications for all reserved band channels, and, due to their potential impact on the window filings, on Channel 221, 222, and 223 non-reserved band minor change applications and amendments.  This freeze will stabilize the database and allow applicants filing in the window to know what they need to protect. 

The second public notice released yesterday proposes to restrict the number of applications that a single party can file in the NCE window to ten, and seeks input from interest parties regarding that proposal.  A copy of the notice can be found here, and the deadline for comments is 15 days after the Notice has been published in the Federal Register, with reply comments due ten days after that.  By proposing to limit the number of applications that a single entity may file in  the window, the FCC seeks to avoid parties filing a large number of speculative filings, which create the potential for extraordinary procedural delays.  All filings must be submitted in MM Docket No. 95-31, and can be filed either in paper or electronically through the FCC's Electronic Comment Filing System. 

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