FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, in a speech this week at the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Summer Convention (the text of the speech is available here), announced that he has circulated to the other Commissioners for review and approval a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking looking to make changes to AM interference standards. Specifically, he said that the NPRM would look at Class A AM interference standards.…
FCC Adopts Incubator Program To Assist New Radio Owners – What Does it Provide?
At its meeting last week, the FCC adopted a Report and Order creating an incubator program to incentivize existing broadcasters to assist new entrants to get into broadcast ownership. The FCC in its order last year relaxing TV local ownership rules and abolishing the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule had agreed to adopt an incubator program (see our articles here and here).…
FCC Asks for Comments on the State of the Audio Marketplace – A Precursor to Reviewing the Radio Ownership Rules?
The FCC routinely, at the request of Congress, does a study of the Video Marketplace. That study is submitted to Congress so that Congress can use it as a factual basis for any legislative issues that may come up dealing with the TV marketplace. The FCC has not previously done this sort of routine study of the audio marketplace. However, in recent legislation,…
FCC Requires Updating By Broadcasters of EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS) Form One By August 27
The FCC recently released a Public Notice reminding all EAS participants that they need to file ETRS Form One by August 27, 2018. This form needs to be filed by all radio and TV stations, including LPFM and LPTV stations (unless those LPTV stations simply act as a translator for another station). While the FCC has not announced another nationwide EAS test for this year,…
NAB Asks For Changes in FCC Local Radio Ownership Rules – What’s Next?
The National Association of Broadcasters radio board last week voted on a proposal to revise the FCC rules limiting the number of stations that one company can own in a radio market. This proposal was forwarded to the FCC for consideration in the next Quadrennial Review of the FCC’s ownership rules, scheduled to commence at some point later this year, in a letter delivered to the FCC’s Chief of the Media Division.…
FCC Rejects LPFM Informal Objections Against Hundreds of Pending FM Translator Applications
On Friday, the Audio Division of the FCC’s Media Bureau released a letter decisionrejecting an objection filed by three groups advocating on behalf of LPFM stations against almost 1000 FM translator applications – most of which were filed to provide FM translators for AM stations in the most recent window for the filing of such applications. We wrote about the grounds for the objections here,…
Comments Due July 6 on Proposed Rules for Resolving FM Translator Interference Complaints
By David Oxenford on June 6, 2018 Posted in AM Radio,FM Radio,FM Translators and LPFM
The FCC today published in the Federal Register a summary of its proposed rules for resolving complaints of interference to existing full-power stations or other existing FM services from new or relocated FM translators.
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12 Years of the Broadcast Law Blog – Where We Have Been and What We Are Looking at Next
In 10 days, we’ll mark the 12th anniversary of my first post welcoming readers to this Blog. I’d like to thank all of you who read the blog, and the many of you who have had nice words to say about its contents over the years. In the dozen years that the blog has been active, our audience has grown dramatically.…
June Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – EEO, Translators, Political Rules and Earth Stations
For radio and television stations with 5 or more full-time employees located in Arizona, Idaho, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, NewMexico, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, WestVirginia, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia, June 1 brings the requirement that you upload to your online inspection file your Annual EEO Public Inspection File Report detailing your employment outreach efforts for job openings filled in the last year,…
FCC Denies LPFM Advocate’s Petition for Reconsideration of Changes in Rules for Location of FM Translators for AM Stations – Not a Resolution of Informal Objections Against Translator Applications
Earlier this week, the full FCC issued a decision denying a Petition for Reconsideration of the FCC’s 2017 decision to relax the rules on the permissible locations of FM translators for AM stations, allowing them to locate anywhere within the greater of the AM station’s 2 mv/m contour or a circle with a 25 mile radius from the AM station’s transmitter site.…
FCC Opens Rulemaking Proceedings on the Processing of Interference Complaints for FM Translators and Eliminating the Posting of Licenses at Broadcast Control Points
At yesterday’s FCC open meeting, the Commission commenced two proceedings of interest to broadcasters. The first deals with the processing of complaints of interference caused by new FM translators. The second proposes to eliminate the need for the posting of station licenses and other FCC authorizations at the control points of broadcast stations. Comments dates in each proceeding will be computed from the publication of these orders in the Federal Register,…
License Renewal Cycle Starts in a Year – Crackdown on Silent Stations and Online Public File Signal Warnings to Broadcasters
Starting June 1, 2019, just over a year from now, the next broadcast license renewal cycle will begin. By that date, radio stations in DC, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia must file their renewal applications. Every other month for the next 3 years will bring the filing of radio license renewals in another set of states. And television stations will begin their renewal cycle a year later (June 1,…
