This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: April 6, 2026 to April 10, 2026

By David Oxenford & Keenan Adamchak on April 12, 2026

Posted in AM Radio, Assignments and Transfers, Cable Carriage, Emergency Communications, FCC Fines, FM Radio, FM Translators and LPFM, General FCC, Multiple Ownership Rules, Television

Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.

The FCC’s Media Bureau released a Memorandum Opinion and Order extending the waiver of the Audible Crawl Rule for another 18 months (through November 29, 2027) or until the FCC rules on the NAB’s pending petition for rulemaking and waiver – whichever is sooner. The rule requires TV broadcasters to provide an audio description of visual, nontextual emergency information, such as radar maps or other graphics, that is displayed during non-newscast programming, on a secondary audio stream (the station’s “SAP Channel”). Since the FCC adopted the rule over 10 years ago, the Media Bureau has granted 6 successive waiver requests based on the unavailability of any technical means to ensure compliance by converting visual information into audio for broadcast on the SAP channel. The latest extension expires on May 27, 2026.
- The Commission also announced that it will be considering at its regular monthly open meeting on April 30 a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing to eliminate the requirement. The FCC released a draft of the NPRM. It proposes to drop the requirement if the station provides a textual crawl on screen conveying the same emergency information that is in the visual image and that text is converted to audio provided on the SAP channel (as already required for all such textual alerts).
The FCC’s Office of Economics and Analytics issued the FCC’s biannual call for comments on the State of Competition in the Communications Marketplace. The FCC seeks comments on a list of questions about competition in the video and audio marketplaces, including the impact of digital competitors on radio and TV stations and the role that regulation plays in the competitive landscape. The FCC uses these comments to prepare required reports to Congress on competition issues and often references the reports in proceedings dealing with competition, including FCC proceedings dealing with its ownership rules. Comments are due May 21 and reply comments are due June 22.
The Media Bureau ordered a North Carolina FM translator to suspend operations for apparently causing co-channel interference to a nearby full-power FM station. The translator’s licensee had modified the station’s facilities to address earlier interference complaints, but the FM station’s licensee submitted new listener complaints showing that interference persisted. The FCC’s translator interference rules require that a minimum of 6 listener complaints from separate locations be submitted to demonstrate that a translator is causing actual interference to a full-power station. The Bureau rejected the argument that the listener complaints submitted by the full-power station’s licensee should be rejected since they all came from the same neighborhood, stating that although complaints cannot all come from the same building, in certain situations – such as a small zone of interference – listener complaints may be clustered in a small area, as was the case here. The Bureau also cautioned the FM station’s licensee against using the FCC’s interference complaint process for private financial gain after the FM translator’s licensee alleged that the FM station’s licensee asked for $500,000 in return for settling the dispute. The Bureau noted that any monetary settlements resulting from the voluntary dismissal of an interference complaint must be limited to reimbursement of the complaint’s expenses in pursuing the complaint.
A US District Court issued an order extending for another seven days a Temporary Restraining Order blocking the full integration of the Nexstar and TEGNA television stations while the court considers if a longer pause should be adopted while it reviews antitrust objections to the combination. Recognizing that Nexstar has already closed on its acquisition of TEGNA following FCC approval (see our Broadcast Law Blog article here), the court allowed Nexstar to take certain business, accounting, and legal actions for the TEGNA stations; but ordered that operational decisions, including those dealing with station contracts such as retransmission consent agreements, be conducted by independent persons not currently or recently associated with Nexstar. The intent of these actions is to preserve the TEGNA stations as independent operations should the court order that the closing be undone.
The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau issued two Notices of Illegal Pirate Radio Broadcasting against landowners in New York City and Jamacia, New York for allegedly allowing pirates to broadcast from their properties. The Bureau warned the landowners that the FCC could issue fines of up to $2,453,218 under the PIRATE Radio Act if the landowners continue to permit pirate radio broadcasts from their properties.