We recently wrote about the FCC’s proceeding to assess the status of stations that are primarily home shopping in nature – to determine if such stations are serving the public interest and are entitled to must carry status on cable systems. The FCC has just issued an Order extending the comment deadline in that proceeding.
obligations
FCC Issues Clarification of Mid-Term EEO Report Obligations of Broadcasters
As we reminded broadcasters earlier this month, the first filings of FCC Form 397, the Broadcast Mid-Term EEO Report, will be due to be filed at the FCC on June 1. This report is filed 4 years after the due date for filing of a station’s license renewal application, and is to be filed by all radio station employment units with more than 10 full time employees, and all TV station employment units with five or more employees. The first reports are due on June 1 by radio groups in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. Every two months thereafter, stations in a different group of states will need to file their Mid-Term reports. Last week, the FCC released a Public Notice clarifying some aspects of the filing process.
The Public Notice addressed two principal issues – (1) what happens when radio station clusters and their associated station employment units include stations in different states with different filing deadlines, and (2) what happens when employment units include both radio and television stations in the same state. For radio employment units with stations in different states, the FCC reminds broadcasters that they should have made an election about which state’s filing deadline to use back in 2003 when the current EEO rules were adopted, and they should have been using that election for each of their public file reports since then. That same election would control the filing deadline for the Mid-Term report. Continue Reading FCC Issues Clarification of Mid-Term EEO Report Obligations of Broadcasters
Radio Items Missing In Action at the FCC
Two long awaited broadcast items seem to be missing in action at the FCC. Both the final rules on digital radio ("HD radio") and the Commission’s Notice of Proposed rulemaking on using FM translators to fill in gaps of the signals of AM stations, while expected quite a while ago, have still not been released by the FCC. The digital radio item, adopting rules on digital radio, eliminating the need to file for experimental authority for multi-channel FM operations and allowing AM stations to operate digitally at night, was adopted by the FCC at its meeting in March, yet the final text of the decision still hasn’t been released. As the text has not been released, the effective date of the new rules has not been set. Those AM stations ready to kick on their nighttime digital operations continue to wait.
As we explained in our previous posting on this matter, here, the digital radio order also contains a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, addressing issues such as the public interest obligations of broadcasters on their multicast digital channels. That was one of the items that was supposedly delayed the action that finally occurred at the March meeting, and perhaps it is delaying the release of the text of the order in this proceedingContinue Reading Radio Items Missing In Action at the FCC
FCC Initiates Inquiry Into Children’s Television Rules
Last week, the FCC issued a Public Notice asking for information as to the compliance of television broadcasters with their obligations to provide programming that addresses the educational and informational needs of children. While the Notice indicates that it is a follow-up to the 2004 Order addressing the children’s broadcasting obligations of digital television broadcasters, the…