- The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau released its second EEO audit notice for 2024. Audited stations and their station employment units (commonly
FCC Opens Window for Filing for 12 New Noncommercial TV Stations While Other Commercial Filing Windows on Hold
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
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: October 7, 2024 to October 11, 2024
- The FCC’s Media Bureau released a Public Notice announcing the opening of a filing window for construction permits for new
Broadcasters Should Evaluate Attack Ads for Liability Concerns in the Final Weeks Before the November Election
With less than a month to go before the November election, we can expect more and more attack ads, some of which may lead to cease and desist letters from the candidate being attacked. These letters can raise the risk of defamation claims against broadcasters and cable companies when the ads are not bought by candidates. The use of artificial intelligence in such ads raises the prospect of even nastier attack ads, and its use raises a whole host of legal issues beyond defamation worries, though it raises those too (see our article here on defamation concerns about AI generated content, and our articles here, here and here about other potential FCC and state law liability arising from such ads – note that since our last article on state AI laws, there are now over 20 states with AI laws I place). Given the potential for a nasty election season getting even nastier, we thought that we would revisit our warning about broadcasters needing to assess the content of attack ads – particularly those from non-candidate groups.
As we have written before, Section 315 of the Communications Act forbids broadcasters (and local cable companies) from editing the message of a candidate or rejecting that ad based on what is says except in extreme circumstances where the ad itself would violate a federal criminal law and possibly if it contains a false EAS alert (see, for instance, our articles here, here and here). Because broadcasters cannot censor candidate ads, the Supreme Court has ruled that broadcasters are immune from any liability for the content of those ads. (Note that this protection applies only to over-the-air broadcasters and local cable companies – the no censorship rule does not apply to cable networks or online distribution – see our articles here and here) Other protections, such as Section 230, may apply to candidate ads placed on online platforms, but the circumstances in which the ad became part of the program offering need to be considered. Continue Reading Broadcasters Should Evaluate Attack Ads for Liability Concerns in the Final Weeks Before the November Election
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: September 30, 2024 to October 4, 2024
- The FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau announced that the deadline for EAS Participants to file their annual Emergency
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: September 23, 2024 to September 27, 2024
- The FCC released a Report and Order permitting digital FM radio stations to operate at different power levels on their
October 2024 Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – Quarterly Issues Programs Lists, Annual EEO Public File Reports, ETRS Form One, Comment Deadlines, and More
October is, on paper, another busy month of regulatory deadlines for broadcasters. But there is again the looming possibility of a federal government shutdown beginning October 1 if Congress fails to fund the government for the coming year (or pass a “continuing resolution” to allow government agencies to function at their current levels). While as of today there are reports of a plan to extend funding through December, until a continuing resolution is passed, the threat remains. If a shutdown does occur, the FCC, the FTC, and the Copyright Office may have to pause their operations which may result in some of the regulatory deadlines discussed below being delayed. However, in some cases agencies have leftover funding to keep them functioning for a few extra days. Stay tuned to see if any of the dates below have to be rescheduled. [Update – 9/26/2024, 9:00 AM – a continuing resolution extending government funding through December 20 was passed late yesterday by both the House and the Senate averting, for now, the shutdown about which we were concerned. Thus, the deadlines listed below are in effect as scheduled]
Assuming this recurring issue is resolved, let’s look at some of the October dates and deadlines, starting with the routine dates of importance to broadcasters. October 1 is the deadline for radio and television station employment units in Alaska, American Samoa, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Missouri, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington with five or more full-time employees to upload their Annual EEO Public File Report to their stations’ Online Public Inspection Files. A station employment unit is a station or cluster of commonly controlled stations serving the same general geographic area having at least one common employee. For employment units with five or more full-time employees, the annual report covers hiring and employment outreach activities for the prior year. A link to the uploaded report must also be included on the home page of each station’s website, if the station has a website. Be timely getting these reports into your station’s OPIF, as even a single late report can lead to FCC fines (see our article here about a recent $26,000 fine for a single late EEO report).Continue Reading October 2024 Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – Quarterly Issues Programs Lists, Annual EEO Public File Reports, ETRS Form One, Comment Deadlines, and More
This Week in Regulation for Broadcasters: September 16, 2024 to September 20, 2024
- The FCC announced that it has corrected its CORES database which had overstated the regulatory fees to be paid by
FCC Applies Rural Radio Policy to Block Move of Silent AM Station to New City of License – Do We Still Need a Rural Radio Policy?
Our recent posts have been obsessed with the FCC’s regulatory fees and the issues with the CORES fee filing system miscomputing the fees for many radio stations (an issue that seemingly has now been resolved so that payments can be made by the September 26 deadline). In doing so, we have minimized our coverage of some of the other interesting decisions and regulatory activity from the FCC and other agencies that affect broadcasters. One of those actions involved the proposal of a now-silent AM station to move from the small Alabama community of Bay Minette, Alabama to another small Alabama community, Spanish Fork. The Commission issued a letter saying that they could not grant the application as the proposal would move the station from a rural area to a community within an urbanized area – the Fairhope-Daphne urbanized area. The FCC found that this move would violate the FCC’s rural radio policy unless a showing could be made that there were public interest reasons to rebut the application of the policy in this case. The letter gave the applicant 30 days to attempt to rebut the presumption against the move.
The rural radio policy was adopted more than a decade ago to, in theory, preserve program diversity in rural areas by restricting the move of radio stations into more urbanized areas through community of license changes. The policy restricts rural stations from changing their city of license to a location from which the station could place a principal city contour over 50% of any urbanized area (see our articles here and here for more details on this policy). As the proposed move in the Alabama case would allow the AM to cover more than 50% of the Fairhope-Daphne urbanized area with its proposed new 2 mv/m contour, the change would be prohibited unless a special showing can be made overcoming the presumption against such moves, even though the move would allow the AM station to cover over 250,000 more people than it currently does. The Commission notes that it also disfavors removing a second local service (a service licensed to a particular community) from a community of over 7,500 people. As Bay Minette has over 7,500 people, and the town has only one other existing radio station, the move of the AM station would also run afoul of this policy. These presumptions are very difficult, if not impossible, to overcome absent some showing that the FCC’s technical analysis is incorrect. Continue Reading FCC Applies Rural Radio Policy to Block Move of Silent AM Station to New City of License – Do We Still Need a Rural Radio Policy?
FCC Announces Filing of Radio Regulatory Fees is Back On – Due Date Still September 26
The FCC yesterday released a Public Notice announcing that its CORES system, through which regulatory fees are submitted, has been updated and the incorrect regulatory fee amounts for radio stations have been corrected. As we wrote last week, the FCC asked that radio broadcasters suspend their fee filings when it became apparent that many radio fees had been miscomputed and CORES reported those fees to be much higher than they were supposed to be. The Public Notice says that problems that caused the misstated fees have been corrected, and that radio operators can now submit their fees.
The Public Notice says that fees are still due by September 26 at 11:59 PM EDT. No extension of time appears to have been granted. The Public Notice also says that the FCC will “reconcile” with radio broadcasters who paid an incorrect amount before the issue with CORES was discovered -seemingly indicating that refunds will be provided to those who paid more than was due. The FCC says that they will be reaching out to those broadcasters who paid incorrect amounts before the CORES problem was discovered. Continue Reading FCC Announces Filing of Radio Regulatory Fees is Back On – Due Date Still September 26