The FCC this week announced its next EEO audit – one limited to only 69 radio stations. No television stations or cable systems were included in the audit notice. The Notice is available here, and list of stations involved is here. Responses to the audit are due August 6. Unlike the last audit (about which we wrote here), the responses will be sent to the FCC’s EEO division, not posted solely on the station’s online public file. Stations, of course, still have the obligation to post their response on the online public file, but they also have to submit the audit to the FCC.
If any station in your cluster is on the list of audited stations, all stations in that “station employment unit” (a group of commonly owned stations serving the same area with at least one common employee) must respond. If that cluster has 5 or more full-time employees, it must observe the FCC’s EEO requirements and respond to this audit, providing significant information about its hiring in the last two years. Stations with fewer than 5 employees need provide only limited information about the positions of its employees and whether the station has been subject to any federal or state EEO complaints or legal actions. If a station that is being audited is involved in an LMA or time brokerage agreement with another broadcaster, the audit may require that the broker provide employment information as well as the licensee. There are some exceptions where stations can be excused from the audit if they were recently renewed or audited.
Be sure to take care in responding to the EEO audit as the FCC will be reviewing it carefully, and issues with the audit can lead to fines. Even though the FCC has allowed online recruiting to be the sole method in which a station recruits new employees (see our article here), if a station does not keep the required paperwork and submit it in response to the audit, the station can still be fined by the FCC (see the article here about recent EEO fines). So check the audit list twice to see if your station is on it, and if it is, take time and answer carefully.