From Broadcast Law Blog

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 any politician to revoke a broadcast license simply because they disagree with the station’s content undermines [the] basic freedom . 

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 owned stations serving the same area) must provide to the FCC their last two years of EEO Annual Public File Reports and other documentation showing that the stations complied with the FCC’s EEO rules. 

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,

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. 

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 Media Bureau released a Public Notice announcing the opening of a filing window for construction permits for new noncommercial TV stations in certain locations in Alabama,

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,

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 Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau announced that the deadline for EAS Participants to file their annual Emergency Alert System Test Reporting System (ETRS) Form One is extended to October 18 in order to reduce burdens on EAS Participants that are recovering from the damage caused by Hurricane Helene. 

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 released a Report and Order permitting digital FM radio stations to operate at different power levels on their upper and lower digital sidebands and clarifying that.

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,

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 it has corrected its CORES database which had overstated the regulatory fees to be paid by many radio stations. 

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. 

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.