All EAS Participants must file ETRS Form One.

November 4, 2026

Noncommercial FM Translator filing window opens at 12:01 am ET.

November 17, 2026

All EAS Participants must receive and retransmit the National EAS Test scheduled to be sent at 2pm Eastern.

November 17, 2026

Noncommercial FM Translator filing window closes at 6p ET. Minor modification filing freeze for LPFM, FM Boosters and FM translators is lifted.

November 19, 2026

All EAS Participants must file ETRS Form Two no later than 2pm Eastern.

December 1, 2026

Radio and TV Stations located in Alabama, Georgia, Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Connecticut, Maine, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont: if five (5) full time employee threshold is met, prepare EEO public file report covering the period from December 1, 2025 to November 30, 2026, upload it to the station online public inspection file and post it on the station website

Mid-Term EEO Review for Television stations located in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont: if station employment unit has five (5) or more full-time employees, an independent mid-term EEO review of the station’s last two EEO public file reports by the FCC will occur in connection with your upload of the 2025-26 EEO public file report due December 1.  By uploading an EEO public file report, the FCC automatically knows that the television station meets the 5 or more full-time employee threshold for a mid-term review. So unlike for radio, there is no OPIF mechanism available or needed for TV stations to specify the number of SEU employees

December 3, 2026

Auction 114 Qualified Bidders deadline to remit upfront payment via wire transfer is 6p ET

January 4, 2027

All EAS Participants must file ETRS Form Three before or by this date.

January 10, 2027

TV, Class A, AM & FM Stations (commercial & noncommercial): Deadline to complete and upload to online public file the 4^th Quarter 2026 issues/program lists and any foreign sponsorship identification reports

 Class A TV Stations Only: Deadline to complete and post to your online public file the 4^th Quarter 2026 certification of ongoing Class A eligibility

Noncommercial Broadcast Stations: Deadline to complete and post to your online public file the 4^th  Quarter 2026 report for any 3^rd Party Fundraising conducted during the quarter

January 30, 2027

All Commercial Full Power and Class A Television Stations – deadline to complete and submit the 2026 children’s television report in LMS and separately upload children’s television commercial limits certification for all of 2026 in the station online public file

January 31, 2027

Web Streaming Radio Stations: deadline to remit annual license fee (minimum annual fee is $1100 for each stream this year) and related statement of account with SoundExchange for the statutory license allowing streaming of sound recordings on the web. Payment can be made on SoundExchange’s online filing portal “Licensee Direct.”

February 2, 2027

Auction 114 Bidding Begins for all qualified bidders who remitted upfront payments

Within 48 hours of the November 17^th test, stations must file ETRS Form Two to report whether they received and retransmitted the test.  The form will be available in ETRS immediately following the test and must be filed by 2:00 pm ET November 19^th.

Once the ETRS Form Two is filed, stations will be able to immediately prepare and file the ETRS Form Three to report any issues or problems with the receipt or retransmission of the test, but will have until January 4, 2027 to make that final filing.

Stations should check equipment for functionality and be sure the latest software is installed.

If you need assistance accessing ETRS or would like to preview test responsibilities by watching instructional videos, all of those links can be found in the FCC’s National EAS Test public notice.

A number of commenters in the Delete proceeding have suggested eliminating all or some of the remaining EEO requirements for broadcast stations, but those comments have not yet been acted upon. In the meantime, the FCC continues to conduct periodic EEO random audits and is poised to conduct station specific EEO audits as part of license renewals, which begin with radio stations in 2027.

Anderson’s petition contends that the distance limitations set forth in section 73.215(e) of the FCC’s rules afford existing FM broadcast stations no leeway in relocating transmission facilities from aging towers or lost tower sites to existing towers. He proposes a new subsection (f) that would allow deviation from the spacing limitations provided a showing is made that no greater interference will be caused to short-spaced stations than would occur at the currently specified minimum distances. Comments can be filed here.

In its license renewal application, the station disclosed that in the fourth quarter of 2020 and throughout all four quarters of 2021, it had aired less than the required amount of regularly scheduled weekly children’s television. The Media Bureau initially referred the Station’s renewal application to the full Commission, which determined that during the license term, the station had faced significant regulatory and operational changes, as well as unique factual scenarios, and returned the renewal application to the Bureau for further processing.  In the consent decree, the Media Bureau concluded that in consideration of the facts and nature of the station in this case, the Licensee’s history of compliance, and the Licensee’s agreement to pay $28,000, it would grant the license renewal for a full term and terminate its investigation.

Other stations with license renewal applications still pending due to children’s TV violations have recently received similar treatment and varying contribution amounts.

License renewals for television stations will begin in June 2028 and continue into 2031. Children’s television compliance certifications are required in every license renewal application.

 Deadline for all Full Power Commercial and Noncommercial Television stations to place their 2027-29 carriage election statement in the public file (and if applicable, email the election to any MVPD providers for which carriage is initially being sought or changed) and deadline for all Class-A and Low Power Television stations eligible for mandatory carriage and making an initial carriage election or changing carriage status to send notice of their 2027-29 carriage election via email to MPVD providers. Emailed notices or elections must be sent to the MVPD’s email address listed in the “Carriage Election Contact Information” in the MVPD operator’s online public file.

 Radio and TV Stations located in Iowa, Missouri, Alaska, American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, Marianas Islands, Oregon, Washington, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands: if five (5) full time employee threshold is met, prepare EEO public file report covering the period from October 1, 2025, to September 30, 2026, upload it to the station online public inspection file and post it on the station website.

Mid-Term EEO Review for Television stations located in California: if station employment unit has five (5) or more full-time employees, an independent mid-term EEO review of the station’s last two EEO public file reports by the FCC will occur in connection with your upload of the 2025-26 EEO public file report due August 1.  By uploading an EEO public file report, the FCC automatically knows that the television station meets the 5 or more full-time employee threshold for a mid-term review. So unlike for radio, there is no OPIF mechanism available or needed for TV stations to specify the number of SEU employees.

October 2, 2026

LPFM, FM translator and FM Booster Stations: Minor modification filing freeze begins and will continue until 6p ET on November 17, 2026.

October 10, 2026

TV, Class A, AM & FM Stations (commercial & noncommercial): Deadline to complete and upload to online public file the 3^rd Quarter 2026 issues/program lists and any foreign sponsorship identification reports.

Class A TV Stations Only: Deadline to complete and post to your online public file the 3^rd Quarter 2026 certification of ongoing Class A eligibility

Noncommercial Broadcast Stations: Deadline to complete and post to your online public file the 3^rd   Quarter 2026 report for any 3^rd Party Fundraising conducted during the quarter.

October 20, 2026

Deadline for all broadcast stations included in the FCC’s August 21, 2026, EEO Audit to upload their responses to the online public file of the audited station and any other stations in the station employment unit.

October 30, 2026

Deadline for virtually all broadcasters – including Low Power FM stations (LPFM), Class D non-commercial educational FM stations, and stations that are silent pursuant to a grant of Special Temporary Authority – to file or update ETRS Form 1.

November 4, 2026

Noncommercial FM Translator filing window opens at 12:01 am ET.

November 17, 2026

Noncommercial FM Translator filing window closes at 6p ET.

EAS National Test – at 2:20 pm ET all EAS participants are required to participate in the test.

November 19, 2026

Deadline – by 2:20 pm ET – all EAS participants must file ETRS Form 2.

All EAS Participants – including Low Power FM stations (LPFM), Class D non-commercial educational FM stations, and EAS Participants that are silent pursuant to a grant of Special Temporary Authority – are required to participate in the test and file the required ETRS Forms, with the following exceptions (1) digital TV translator stations; (2) FM broadcast booster and FM translator stations entirely rebroadcasting other FM stations, and (3) digital full power stations operating as satellites or repeaters of a hub station/common studio or control point that rebroadcast 100 percent of the programming of the hub station/common studio/control point.

When accessing ETRS, previously filed ETRS Form 1s may be available for you to update in order to avoid new data entry.  Stations should ensure that their EAS equipment is operational with up-to-date software and is monitoring the correct stations.  Per the FCC, an EAS Participant’s failure to receive or transmit an EAS message during a national test or actual emergency because of an equipment failure may subject the EAS Participant to enforcement action. After the last National EAS Test, several broadcasters that did not submit ETRS forms received notices of inquiry from the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau.

Should you require our assistance with any aspect of the National EAS Test, please let us know so that we can provide timely assistance to you as we work through numerous other FCC filings this fall.

The Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act of 1999 (SHVIA) provides that a satellite carrier that uses the statutory copyright license to retransmit at least one television broadcast station signal into a local market is required to “carry upon request the signals of all television broadcast stations located within that local market.” SHVIA defines “Local Market” as “the designated market area in which a station is located” and “the county in which the station’s community of license is located.”

The Commission’s rules provide the term “local market” as it is used for satellite carriage purposes “includes all counties within a market, as well as the home county of the television station in that county.” Reading this, the Media Bureau found that the station was located in two markets – its Nielsen-assigned DMA and, as one of the counties in its previous DMA – and therefore the station could simultaneously elect mandatory carriage throughout both DMAs. In overturning the Media Bureau’s decision, the Commission stated that nothing in SHVIA or its rules state that a station can elect mandatory carriage in two DMAs and that the station has the flexibility to “choose” whether to assert must-carry rights in (1) ‘its Nielsen-assigned DMA plus the county where its community of license is located, or (2) ‘the entire DMA where its community of license is located’.”