FCC Fines

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It is time for all commercial operators to pay your annual regulatory fees.  Each year, broadcasters (and other entities regulated by the FCC) are required to pay fees that are used to fund the FCC.  These fees are due each year before the October 1 start of the new federal government fiscal year.  This week, the FCC announced that 2026 Regulatory Fees must be received by the FCC no later than 11:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time on September 24, 2026. All regulatory fees must be paid using the CORES platform. That platform is now open for the payment of these fees.  Be sure to pay on time, as if you pay late, you will be assessed a 25% penalty, interest may accrue on the balance after the due dates, and the FCC can withhold action on and even dismiss applications filed by a licensee that did not timey pay their fees.  

The Media Bureau’s Fact Sheet provides a detailed reference for the calculation of fees for different broadcast services (including the fees for construction permits) and the process by which payments can be made.  Licensees may find that some station fees have been preloaded into CORES, but radio licensees can always check the FCC’s regulatory fee look-up website, http://fccfees.com/, before paying to confirm the amount due for each station. This site will also inform the payee of the relevant codes needed to input into CORES for any station fees that are manually uploaded. Full-power television stations will find their fees in the chart found in Appendix F of the Report & Order. As in prior years, the FCC has set a de minimis threshold of $1,000. If the total amount owed by a licensee is $1,000 or less, that licensee does not owe any regulatory fees.  Broadcasters who are also the licensees of earth stations should review the Fact Sheet from the Space Bureau about those fees.  Broadcasters who have other nonbroadcast private radio licenses should review the Fact Sheet from the Wireless Bureau.

Continue Reading Annual Regulatory Fees Due September 24 – FCC Releases Detailed Instructions for Payments

On Friday, the FCC released its first EEO audit notice for 2026 – and the second to feature questions introduced last year to look for evidence of “invidious DEI” programs in place at broadcast stations.  The FCC’s Public Notice, audit letter, and the list of the 400 radio and TV stations (both commercial and noncommercial) selected for audit is available here.  Those stations, and the station employment units (commonly owned or controlled stations serving the same area sharing at least one employee) with which they are associated, must provide to the FCC (by uploading the information to their online public inspection file) their last two years of EEO Annual Public File reports, as well as backing data to show that the station in fact did everything that was required under the FCC rules.  The response to this audit is due to be uploaded to the public file of affected stations by October 20, 2026. The audit notice says that, if an employment unit selected in this audit was audited in 2024 or 2025, or if their renewal was granted after June 1, 2024, it should notify the FCC, and it might be exempted from the audit. Any station having a question, or needing more time to respond, is instructed to contact the FCC at least 5 days before the October 20 deadline. 

In the past, poor EEO performance has led to substantial penalties.  A 2023 proposed fine of $25,000 for some Kansas radio stations that had not fully met their EEO obligations (see our article here) showed that it is important to review your EEO compliance, even if your stations are not subject to this audit.  As the response (and the audit letter itself) must be uploaded to the public file, it can be reviewed not only by the FCC, but also by anyone else with an internet connection anywhere, at any time.  The Kansas fine proposal, plus a $26,000 fine imposed on Cumulus Media in 2024 for a late upload of a single EEO Annual Public File Report (see our article here), shows how seriously the FCC has in the past taken the EEO obligations.  To date, the FCC under Chairman Carr has not proposed any EEO fines.  Instead, the FCC’s focus when reviewing employment issues seems to be DEI programs, and this audit, as with the first EEO audit of the Carr administration in 2025, includes a number of questions, discussed below, designed to identify DEI programs at broadcast stations that this Commission may want to review. 

Continue Reading FCC Announces EEO Audit of 400 Stations – All Broadcasters Should Review the Requirements to Be Prepared for the Next EEO Review
  • The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau released an EEO Audit Notice targeting 400 radio and TV stations for review of their EEO
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  • The FCC’s Media Bureau announced that the upcoming new noncommercial educational FM translator reserved band (88.1-91.9 MHz) filing window has
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This week, the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau entered into a Consent Decree with iHeartMedia to resolve its investigation into whether iHeart violated the FCC’s sponsorship identification rules. Interestingly, iHeart does not admit that it violated any rules, nor does the FCC suggest any specific conduct by iHeart violated any rule.  So why the Consent Decree?  The Decree say that it resolves an investigation into whether iHeart “violated the Commission’s sponsorship identification rules in connection with allegations that iHeart provided artists additional airplay on the Company’s radio stations in exchange for the artists’ performances at Company events, without the disclosure required under the Commission’s sponsorship identification laws.”  What is the disclosure that is required, and when is it required?  Again, the Decree does not make clear what identification would be required, nor does it say exactly what circumstances would trigger the requirement for a sponsorship identification.  So we have to look at the terms of the Decree itself to see if we can piece together exactly what is prohibited and when on-air sponsorship identifications are required. What we ultimately find is that the Decree really conveys a message that applies to broadcasters in many situations – when the station gets free or discounted “stuff” (whether it be a band’s appearance at a station event or free meals at a local restaurant) in exchange for something that is broadcast over the air, the audience needs to know that the airplay was sponsored.

The first place to look in trying to draw some specific guidance from this Decree is at its history.  The Decree stems from an Enforcement Advisory released by the Enforcement Bureau in February 2025, after Senator Blackburn from Tennessee alleged that bands had complained to her about some station practices in strongarming them into playing at station events for free or at reduced pay. The 2025 Advisory warned that any “deals” for bands to play at station events in exchange for more airplay, or any threats (express or implied) to reduce airplay if a band did not appear at an event, would be seen as a violation of the payola and sponsorship identification rules.  The Bureau referred to such threats as “covert manipulation of radio airplay.”  The Advisory states “[w]hen payola causes stations to broadcast programming based on their financial interests at the expense of community responsiveness, the practice is inconsistent with localism.” We wrote more about the Advisory when it was released, and included a broader discussion of the payola rules. 

Continue Reading FCC Consent Decree With iHeart Discusses how Exchanging Airplay for Discounts or Free Stuff Can Trigger Sponsorship Identification Requirements, Including for Songs Played in Exchange for a Band’s Appearance at Station Events
  • At its regular monthly Open Meeting, the FCC took actions to increase the security of the Emergency Alert System by
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  • The FCC’s Media Bureau released a Public Notice announcing that applications for new noncommercial Reserved Band (88.1 to 91.9 MHz)
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