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Quarterly Issues Programs Lists Due April 10th — This is a eminder to all radio and television stations, both commercial and noncommercial, that Quarterly Issues Programs Lists reporting on the important issues facing the stations’ communities, and the programs aired in the months of January, February, and March dealing with those issues must be prepared and placed…

Annual EEO Public File Report Deadline – April 1

Affected States:  Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas

By April 1, 2008, radio and television Station Employment Units (SEU) in the states listed above must: (1) prepare their Annual EEO Public File Report; (2) place it in the public inspection file…

In two recent cases, the FCC discussed the issue of "blanketing interference," the interference that can be caused by a broadcaster to electronic devices that are located in homes and businesses near to the station’s transmitter site.  In the first case, the FCC rejected a license renewal challenge finding that there was no…

Here we are, almost a full month into the new year, and a number of important dates for broadcasters are already upon us.  As we wrote here, for instance, the payment of a minimum fee to SoundExchange by radio stations streaming their signals on the Internet is due today.  Lowest unit rates are in…

The FCC has released the agenda for its first open meeting of the year, scheduled for this Thursday, January 17, 2008.  The agenda consists solely of presentations by the various Bureau Chiefs discussing their various policies and procedures in implementing the agency’s "strategic plan."  Such an agenda, while not common, is not unheard of, especially for the first meeting of the year, and especially after so many controversial decisions were made in the last two meetings at the end of 2007.  

This agenda was released a few days after House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell announced an investigation of the Commission’s rulemaking procedures and management practices.  FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has been under fire from Republicans and Democrats alike in both the House and Senate, especially following the agency’s December meeting in which the newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban was modified, as we discussed here.  Congress has criticized the agency’s lack of transparency, and infighting among the Commissioners has become open and much talked about in Washington, as reflected in meetings that are often delayed by hours and in Commissioner’s Copps’ vitriolic dissenting statement read aloud at the December meeting.  Continue Reading FCC to Hold Open Meeting Featuring Bureau Chief Presentations – While Congress Investigates

A reminder to all radio and television broadcast stations, both commercial and noncommercial, that Quarterly Issues Programs Lists reporting on the important issues facing the stations’ communities, and the programs aired in the months of October, November, and December dealing with those issues must be prepared and placed in the stations’ public inspection file…

At its Oct. 31 open meeting, the Commission adopted an Order declaring exclusive access and service clauses in video contracts between cable operators and multiple-dwelling units (MDUs) — think apartment buildings — to be unenforceable.  According to the FCC, such exclusive contracts can be harmful, and it expects that the rule change will result in greater…

The Commission’s Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“Further NPRM”) regarding the next generation Emergency Alert System (“EAS”) has been published in the Federal Register, setting the date for Comments as December 3, 2007 and the date for Reply Comments as December 17, 2007.  This summer, the Commission adopted a Report and Order extending its…