October is, on paper, a busy month of regulatory deadlines for broadcasters. As set forth below, the month includes the requirement for almost all broadcasters to complete and upload to their public file their Quarterly Issues/Programs Lists, as well as the date for broadcasters to submit to the FCC their ETRS Form One reporting basic information about their EAS equipment. There are also routine EEO annual deadlines for stations in several states, and the response deadline for the 300 stations subject to the FCC’s first EEO audit under the new administration – which included new questions about stations’ DEI practices. A “major change” filing window for LPTV stations and TV translators is also scheduled to open this month. But these and other deadlines could be affected by the looming 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). If a shutdown does occur, the FCC, the FTC, the Copyright Office and other federal agencies may have to pause their operations, which may result in some of the regulatory deadlines discussed below for the FCC being delayed. Note that, in some cases, agencies have some funds set aside that allow them to keep functioning for a few extra days, which has been the case for the FCC during several of the last government shutdowns, but that is not assured. Because of the potential of this extended operation even if there is a shutdown, do not assume that regulatory deadlines set forth below will be postponed by a funding impasse.
In the past, when there has been a pause in government operations and after any residual funds to keep the agency operating have been expended, agencies like the FCC ceased the processing of routine applications and paused all other routine work, staying open only to the extent necessary to deal with emergencies and other vital activity. In at least one shutdown, the FCC even limited access to its website and online systems. In the past, FCC filings have been suspended, with additional time being provided after the government reopens to make filings that were due during the shutdown. But details are different in each shutdown. If Congress cannot resolve the funding issues by October 1, we would expect that the FCC and other agencies important to broadcasters to issue public notices about specific policies to be applied after funding runs out. Stay tuned to see if any of the dates below have to be rescheduled.
October 1 is the deadline for radio and TV station employment units in Alaska, American Samoa, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Missouri, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Puerto Rico, 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).
The filing of the Annual EEO Public File Reports by radio station employment units with eleven or more full-time employees or TV stations with five or more employees triggers a Mid-Term EEO Review that analyzes the last two Annual Reports for compliance with the FCC’s EEO requirements. The Mid-Term EEO Review begins October 1 for these larger radio station employment units in Alaska, American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, and Washington. TV station employment units in Iowa and Missouri are also subject to this review. Additionally, radio stations located in those states that are part of station employment units with five or more full-time employees must also indicate in their OPIFs whether their employment unit has eleven or more full-time employees, using a checkbox now included in the EEO folder of each station’s OPIF’s. This allows the FCC to determine which station groups need a Mid-Term EEO Review. See our articles here and here on radio stations’ Mid-Term EEO Review reporting requirements.
October 3 is the deadline for EAS Participants, including broadcasters, to file their annual Emergency Alert System Test Reporting System (ETRS) Form One – which provides information regarding EAS Participants’ EAS equipment and monitoring assignments along with other relevant data. While there is no nationwide EAS test scheduled for this year, the FCC requires that all EAS Participants annually update their EAS information in the ETRS database by filing an ETRS Form One.
October 3 is also the deadline for reply comments responding to the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing significant revisions to the FCC’s procedures under the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act. The proposed changes are aimed at streamlining the process for determining if constructing communications facilities, including broadcast towers, will affect the environment and historical sites. Comments were due September 18.
October 10 is the one date that affects all full-power broadcasters, including Class A TV stations. That is the deadline for all full power and Class A television stations and full power AM and FM radio stations, both commercial and noncommercial, to upload their Quarterly Issues/Program lists for the third quarter of 2025 to their OPIFs. The lists should identify the issues of importance to the station’s service area and the programs that the station aired between July 1 and September 30, 2025, that addressed those issues. These lists must be timely uploaded to your station’s OPIF, as the untimely uploads of these documents probably have resulted in more fines in the last decade than for any other FCC rule violation. As you finalize your lists, do so carefully and accurately, as they are the only official records of how your station is serving the public and addressing the needs and interests of its community. See our article here for more on the importance that the FCC has, in the past, placed on the Quarterly Issues/Programs list obligation.
October 10 is also the deadline for certain stations to upload to their OPIF any of the following information from the period from July 1 to September 30, if a station has any such information:
- Documentation from noncommercial educational stations not affiliated with NPR or CPB of any on-air fundraising benefitting third parties that interrupted their normal programming (see our article here);
- Class A TV stations’ certification of their continuing eligibility for Class A status; and
- Documentation from full power TV, Class A TV, and full power radio stations of any programming time that was leased by a foreign government or an agent of a foreign government or provided by a foreign entity for free in exchange for its airing (see our articles here and here for more information).
October 10 is also the deadline for reply comments responding to the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking reexamining the EAS and the Wireless Emergency Alerts system. For EAS, the FCC seeks comment on the system’s effectiveness, how it could be modernized, and other issues. Comments were due September 25.
October 11 is the deadline for all U.S.-based foreign media outlets classified as “an agent of a foreign government” under the Foreign Agents Registration Act to notify the FCC of their relationship to, and whether the outlet receives any funding from, a foreign government or political party. The FCC must report to Congress every 6 months on the operations of U.S.-based foreign media outlets, a report which the FCC will submit on or before November 7.
October 15, at 6:00 p.m. ET, is the beginning of the filing freeze on Class A, LPTV, and TV translator minor change applications and LPTV and TV translator displacement applications. These freezes, along with the freeze on all Class A, LPTV, and TV translator major change applications that begun on September 3, will end at 12:01 a.m. ETonOctober 22. On October 22, at 12:01 a.m. ET, filing windows will open for Class A, LPTV, and TV translator major and minor modification applications and for LPTV and TV translator displacement applications. During this window, stations can file to change channels or make site moves of up to 121 km. The filing window for Class A, LPTV, and TV translator major modification applications will close at 6:00 p.m. ET on December 3, and the filing window for Class A, LPTV, and TV translator minor modification applications and LPTV and TV translator displacement applications will close at 6:00 p.m. ET, January 14, 2026. As the FCC’s Media Bureau stated in its Public Notice released earlier this month, the filing freezes and filing windows are part of phased process which will allow existing Class A, LPTV, and TV translator stations to modify their facilities before new LPTV and TV translator station applications can be filed beginning at 12:01 am ET on January 21, 2026. For more on these filing freezes and filing windows, see our article here.
October 17 is the extended deadline for the 300 radio and TV stations identified in the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s 2025 EEO audit notice to upload their responses to their Online Public Inspection Files. The FCC randomly audits approximately 5% of all broadcast stations each year regarding their EEO compliance. Audited stations and their station employment units – which are commonly owned stations serving the same area – must provide to the FCC their last two years of EEO Annual Public File Reports and documentation demonstrating that the stations complied with the FCC’s EEO rules. As with previous FCC audits, the FCC staff will review the audit responses and ask for additional information if they find the public file documentation to be incomplete, but they are not expected to inform audited stations that their EEO performance was found satisfactory. As we discussed here, the FCC’s EEO audits now seem to be partially used to seek out the types of “invidious” DEI programs (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) that the current administration has labeled as discriminatory in and of themselves, adding several new questions in an effort to investigate the use of these programs by audited broadcast stations. The Bureau has clarified certain issues about the new DEI-related questions in Section 2(b)(vi)(a-b), (vii-viii) of the Audit Letter (see our article here for more on these DEI questions). The Bureau will allow respondents to protect confidential business information from public disclosure by emailing their responses to these DEI questions to the Bureau, while the remaining responses must be uploaded to the station’s OPIF. The Bureau also said that stations do not need to include advertising contracts in their responses to the DEI questions, and that station employment units with fewer than 5 full-time employees (employees assigned to work at least 30 hours a week) are exempt from responding to these new questions.
October 20 is the effective date of the FCC’s Direct Final Rule repealing 98 broadcast rules that the FCC identified in the Delete, Delete, Delete proceeding as obsolete, outdated, or unnecessary. The deleted rules include over-the-air subscription TV approval procedures, the requirement that radio and TV stations be equipped with specific instruments for determining station power levels, several international broadcast station technical requirements, station operating power calculation methods, and certain rules that simply provide references to FCC policies (the underlying policies are not affected by the deletion of the references).
Broadcasters in many states need to remember that Lowest Unit Rate Windows are now open for November elections, which include elections with national significance, including those for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, and for mayor in New York City. In addition, stations in portions of Delaware and Tennessee should also be aware of the opening of the political windows tied to local elections occurring in December– meaning that Lowest Unit Rates apply to sales to candidates and their authorized committees (see our article here on the basics of computing LUR):
| LUR DATE | STATE | ELECTION DATE | ELECTION TYPE |
| October 7, 2025 | Delaware | December 6, 2025 | Municipal Election – Dagsboro |
| Tennessee | December 6, 2025 | Municipal Election – Ashland City |
As a refresher, in the 45 days before a primary election, and 60 days before a general or special election, broadcasters must extend to legally qualified candidates their lowest unit rate and continue to follow all other applicable political broadcasting rules. For a deeper dive on how to prepare for the 2025 elections, see our post here, which also includes a link to our comprehensive Political Broadcasting Guide. Also, take a look at our 2025 Broadcasters’ Calendar for an idea of whether your state has any upcoming primary, general, or special election (but please confirm election dates locally as some dates may have changed, and new elections – particularly special elections to fill seats that may have been vacated – may have been scheduled since the calendar was prepared).
As always, consult your own legal and technical advisors for other dates of importance that might apply to your stations in the upcoming month.
