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 announced that September 24 is the deadline for paying the 2026 annual regulatory fees which were set by the FCC’s August Report and Order announcing the amounts of those fees.  The FCC and its Bureaus also released the following guides and fact sheets providing details for filing and paying the 2026 regulatory fees: Media Bureau Fact Sheet (for broadcast station fees), Full-Service TV Station Fees (listing each full-power TV station’s fee), Space Bureau Fact Sheet (for earth station fees), Payment Methods and Procedures Public Notice (detailing use of the CORES database to pay fees by wire transfer, ACH, or credit card—checks and money orders cannot be used to pay fees) Waiver, Reduction, Deferral, and Installment Payment Requests Public Notice (explaining how to request a fee waiver or deferral or an installment payment plan due to financial hardship), and Regulatory Fee Exemptions Public Notice (noting fee exemptions, including the de minimis exemption for entities with total fees less than $1,000 and the noncommercial station exemption).  The FCC also opened its 2026 fee lookup database where radio broadcasters can check their stations’ fees.  See our Broadcast Law Blog article here for more on broadcasters’ 2026 regulatory fees.
  • As a reminder of the importance of timely paying regulatory fees, the FCC’s Media Bureau and Office of Managing Director revoked a Montana FM station’s license for its failure to pay its delinquent regulatory fees or to show cause why payment should be waived or deferred.  In April, the station was issued an Order to Pay or Show Cause requiring the station, within 60 days, to either pay its delinquent regulatory fees or explain why it cannot pay the fees.  The station’s license was revoked after it neither timely responded to the Order nor paid its delinquent fees.  The station has an unpaid regulatory fee debt totaling $6,754.80 for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023.  The Bureau noted that the station’s license revocation did not relieve it of its obligation to pay its delinquent fees (as the FCC could pursue collection of these fees).
• The US Supreme Court issued a short decision staying the recent decision of the 4^th Circuit Court of Appeals, which had rejected the FCC Media Bureau’s Public Notice that extended LUC to political parties and joint fundraising committees.  The 4^th Circuit had found that, under the law, only candidates were entitled to those rates (we wrote about the 4^th Circuit decision on our Blog, here).  The Supreme Court found that the Republican campaign committees that had sought the stay of the 4^th Circuit decision had met the requirements for a stay, largely on procedural grounds.  The Supreme Court found that the 4^th Circuit decision allowed the consideration of an appeal from an FCC staff decision, before the full Commission had considered it, which is in conflict with decisions of other Courts of Appeal that have held that full Commission review was a prerequisite to consideration of any judicial appeal.  Because of this conflict, the Supreme Court may have to review the case to resolve this conflict.  The Supreme Court also found that the Republican committees had satisfied the requirement for a stay that they show irreparable harm if a stay is not granted as the Republican groups would be harmed by having to pay more for advertising if the Public Notice was not in effect.  By granting the stay, the Public Notice’s interpretation of the application of LUC applies, so it appears that political party advertising and that of joint fundraising committees, if authorized by a federal candidate, is now subject to LUC until the Supreme Court can fully consider the merits of the case, likely well after the upcoming election.
• The National Association of Broadcasters applauded the decision of House Majority Leader Steve Scalise to schedule a vote of the full House of Representatives on the AM Radio For Every Vehicle Act.  The vote is scheduled to occur during the week of September 14.  If approved by the House, the bill will have to be approved by the Senate before the end of the year (which is the end of this session of Congress), and signed by the President, before it becomes law. We wrote about this bill, which would require that AM radios be in all cars sold in the United States, when it was originally introduced, here, and again when it was reintroduced with some minor changes in the current session of Congress here. 
• The FCC moved to dismiss the lawsuit filed by Disney/ABC seeking to block the FCC’s early consideration of the ABC stations’ license renewal applications.  As we noted here, Disney has argued that the early consideration of the license renewals was politically motivated and violated its First Amendment rights.  The FCC’s motion argues that the Court does not have jurisdiction to consider procedural actions of the Bureau staff which, it alleges, were motivated by a review of Disney’s EEO practices, not questions about its speech.
• The Media Bureau announced pleading deadlines for Spanish Broadcasting System’s (SBS) transfer of control applications proposing SBS’ post-bankruptcy organization plan and its associated foreign ownership petition.  SBS proposes to emerge from Chapter 11 as a reorganized entity with its existing stock cancelled in exchange for new stock and notes.  SBS also filed a petition seeking FCC approval of its new and existing foreign investors’ ownership interests pursuant to Section 310(b) of the Communications Act.  Absent FCC approval, Section 310(b) prohibits foreign ownership interests greater than 20% in an FCC licensee and foreign ownership interests greater than 25% in a U.S. entity directly or indirectly controlling an FCC licensee.  SBS seeks approval for its foreign ownership interests to exceed the 25% statutory benchmark, specific approval for certain foreign investors to hold greater than 5% ownership interests, and advance approval for its foreign investors to increase their ownership interests in the future up to a non-controlling 49.99%.  Petitions to deny the transfer applications and the foreign ownership petition are due October 2, oppositions to any petitions to deny filed are due October 19, and replies to any oppositions filed are due October 26.
• The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau issued a Notice of Violation against a Michigan FM translator station’s licensee after the Bureau’s inspection revealed that the licensee failed to file a minor modification application for changes to the translator’s antenna system and because the translator was operating at 394% of its authorized transmitter power output.  The licensee must now explain to the Bureau how it will correct the rule violations and prevent future violations from occurring.