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For the last few years at this time of the year, we’ve departed from our usual coverage of legal and policy issues to talk about something else – broadcasters giving back.  With Giving Tuesday upon us, we wanted to urge our readers to consider ways to give back to our industry.  I guess it is now a tradition, so we’ll do it again this year and suggest some of the many ways we can express our thanks to the industry in which we work. 

Broadcasters have long been known for their service to their communities, service benefitting individuals and groups across the country.  While broadcasters are always giving back to their communities and should be celebrated for that, those of us who make our living in some aspect of the industry should recognize that there are plenty of ways for us to give back as well – both to those associated with the industry who have fallen on hard times, and to those who need assistance in obtaining education and training to enter the media industry we so appreciate.  We should all be thankful for jobs, friends, and good fortune. But we should also ourselves give back where possible.  In the broadcast industry itself, there are many groups doing good work.Continue Reading Giving Back to the Broadcast and Media Industries on Giving Tuesday

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 U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit announced that oral argument in the appeal of the FCC’s reinstatement
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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 comments are due January 13, 2025, in response to proposed community of license changes for several
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With the election over, broadcasters and their Washington representatives are now trying to decipher what the next administration will have in store at the FCC and other government agencies that regulate the media.  Already, the DC press is speculating about who will assume what positions in the government agencies that make these decisions.  While those speculations will go on for weeks, we thought that we would look at some of the issues pending before the FCC affecting broadcasters that could be affected by a change in administration.

There are two issues presently before the courts where the current Republican Commissioners dissented from the decisions which led to the current appeals. The FCC’s December 2023 ownership decision (see our summary here) is being appealed by both radio and television interests, arguing that the FCC did not properly relax the existing ownership rules in light of competition from digital media, as required by Congress when it established the requirement for Quadrennial Reviews to review the impact of competition and assess whether existing radio and TV ownership rules remain “necessary” in the public interest.  While briefs have already been filed in that case, it will be interesting to see how the new administration deals with the issues raised, as both sitting Republican Commissioners dissented, saying that the FCC should have considered digital competition in substantially relaxing those rules (see Carr dissent here and Simington Dissent here).  Even if the change in administration does not change the Commission’s position in court, the 2022 Quadrennial Review has already been started (see our article here), so a new administration already has an open proceeding to revisit those rules.Continue Reading How FCC Regulation of Broadcasters May Change in a New Administration  – Looking at the Pending Issues

In a Press Release issued on November 1, the Radio Music License Committee announced the results of its arbitration with SESAC.  Despite the arbitrators’ decision that rates for commercial radio broadcasters are going up modestly, RMLC declared the decision a win.  How can an increase in royalties be a win?  Let’s provide some background on this decision and why the radio industry may breathe a sigh of relief.

First, it is important to set the background for the decision.  As we wrote here, in 2015, RMLC and SESAC settled an antitrust lawsuit brought by RMLC, agreeing that rates for the public performance by commercial radio broadcasters of the catalog of SESAC music would be set by binding arbitration.  Every four years, a proceeding is held to set the royalties to be paid by a broadcaster for music used in its over-the-air programming and on internet streams of that signal. 

The royalty currently paid by commercial radio stations was set by a settlement between RMLC and SESAC before arbitration in 2020 (see our article here).  That agreement, under which music radio stations have been paying .2557% of revenue, expired at the end of 2022.  As RMLC and SESAC could not mutually agree to new royalties, the recent arbitration was held to set royalties for the period from January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2026.  The decision announced on Friday set those royalties at .2824% of revenue.  Why is this increase from .2557% to .2824% considered a win?Continue Reading RMLC Announces Arbitration Decision on SESAC Royalties for Commercial Radio Stations for 2023-2026

With much of everyone’s focus on the outcome of the November 5 general election, broadcasters can’t forget the regulatory dates and deadlines in November and early December.  While the dates and deadlines in November are lighter than in many other months, many routine deadlines do fall in early December, and even the upcoming month does have dates worthy of note. 

The one broadly applicable deadline for AM stations that does fall early in the upcoming month is November 3, when Daylight Savings Time ends.  AM daytime-only radio stations, Am stations with different daytime and nighttime patterns, and those operating with pre-sunrise and/or post-sunset authority should check their sign-on and sign-off times on their current FCC authorizations to ensure continued compliance with the FCC’s rules.  Broadcasters need to note that all times listed in FCC licenses are stated in standard time, not daylight savings time even if it is in effect.

For television stations, there is a deadline later in the month. November 26 is the deadline for television stations to provide an aural description of visual but non-textual emergency information, such as maps or other graphic displays, conveyed outside of station newscasts.  This would include maps showing severe weather and other graphic depictions of emergency information during non-news programming.  Since 2013, stations must make textual information about emergency conditions that occur during non-newscast video programming (such as textual crawls about emergency conditions) audibly accessible to individuals who are blind or visually impaired through having the textual information presented aurally on the station’s SAP channel – the secondary audio channel.  The 2013 rules required that visual maps and other non-textual information also be described on SAP channels but, as we discussed in articles here, here, and here, the FCC has extended this deadline numerous times because of the unavailability of workable technology that can automatically perform the functions required by the rule.  By the November 26 deadline, stations will either need to provide aural information about non-textual emergency information that runs outside of a newscast, or avoid airing such graphical alerts during non-news programming, or hope that there are new requests for FCC relief before the looming deadline.Continue Reading November 2024 Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters: AM Stations Need to Adjust to the End of Daylight Savings Time, Deadline for Aural Description of Visual Emergency Alerts for TV, Final Rules for FM Zonecasting, and More

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 National Association of Broadcasters denounced recent threats to revoke broadcast station licenses for political reasons, stating: “The threat from
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On Friday, the FCC released another EEO audit notice for 2024.  The FCC’s Public Notice, audit letter, and the list of the 150 radio and TV stations 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 December 2, 2024. Additional time to respond, to January 16, 2025, was given to stations in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia impacted by the disruption caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.  The audit notice says that stations audited in 2022 or 2023, or whose license renewals were filed after October 1, 2022, can ask the FCC for further instructions, possibly exempting them from the audit because of the recent FCC review of their EEO performance. 

With the release of this audit, and last year’s $25,000 fine proposed for some Kansas radio stations that had not fully met their EEO obligations (see our article here), it is important to review your EEO compliance even if your stations are not subject to this audit.  The FCC has promised to randomly audit approximately 5% of all broadcast stations each year. 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, plus a recent $26,000 fine imposed on Cumulus Media for a late upload of a single EEO Annual Public File Report (see our article here), and the FCC’s recent decision to bring back EEO Form 395 reporting on the race and gender of all station employees (see our article here), shows how seriously the FCC takes EEO obligations.Continue Reading FCC Announces Second EEO Audit of 2024 – 150 Radio and TV Stations Targeted

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 Enforcement Bureau released its second EEO audit notice for 2024.  Audited stations and their station employment units (commonly
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The FCC last week released a Public Notice announcing the opening of a filing window for parties interested in building new noncommercial TV stations at 12 communities in the following states: Alabama, Alaska, California, Idaho, Iowa, New Mexico, Oregon, Texas, and Virginia.  Applications by nonprofit educational organizations can be filed in a window opening on December 4 and ending at 6 PM Eastern Time on December 11.  The Public Notice describes the filing procedures and eligibility requirements, and sets out how, if there are multiple applicants for any channel, the applications will be evaluated under the FCC’s “points system” for choosing between competing noncommercial applicants. 

Seeing this filing window raised questions among some broadcasters as to when there will be filing windows for other services, particularly ones where commercial stations can apply.  There has not been a window for filing for new FM stations since 2021 (see our article here noting that many channels in the auction immediately after the pandemic went unsold and could be re-auctioned in the future).  The last filing window for new commercial TV channels opened in 2022.  No filing window for new LPTV stations or TV translators has occurred since 2009, largely because applications were on hold during the TV incentive auction and repacking of the TV band (see our article here – but note that there is currently an opportunity for major channel changes by LPTV and translator stations, but not for new stations).  There has been no window for new AM stations in well over 20 years (except for special windows to allow applicants for channels where station licenses had been surrendered to the FCC).  And no window for new FM translators has been open since 2003 (see our article here about the final resolution of applications from that window – 15 years later), except for the special windows for translators to be used with AM stations, and the last of those windows closed in 2017 (see our article here).  Why have there been no commercial filing windows for so long?Continue Reading FCC Opens Window for Filing for 12 New Noncommercial TV Stations While Other Commercial Filing Windows on Hold