Radio Online Public File: No Comment Deadlines Yet

For all the speed the FCC mustered in moving to a rulemaking proceeding to consider migration of radio public files to an FCC-hosted site, they have yet to announce the comment deadlines. The trigger for those deadlines is publication of the notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register, which has not yet occurred. As of this writing, over 40 days had passed since the FCC adopted the rulemaking in December 2014.

Whenever the FCC does get around to doing so, comments will be due 30 days after that publication date, with reply comments 60 days after the publication date. The rulemaking proposed a gradual transition to the online public file, phasing in stations over two years based on market size and number of employees. In addition, the FCC has requested comment on whether smaller stations and non-commercial educational stations should be permanently exempt from the new requirement. Comments must be filed electronically via the FCC electronic comment filing system.