Dates to Remember
October 30, 2026
All EAS Participants must file ETRS Form One.... Read More
From EAS to children’s television, the FCC actively added to its cash reserves in June by assessing forfeitures against broadcasters. A full power TV station in Montana received a $1,000 fine for failing to publicize the existence and location of its quarterly children’s television reports via on-air announcements during a one-year period. An FM station […]
Read More →All broadcasters are very familiar with BMI and ASCAP since they must be paid royalties every year for use of songs in their repertoires. What you may not have known is that since 1941, ASCAP and BMI have been parties to anti-trust consent decrees with the US Department of Justice since, between them, they control […]
Read More →Get ready to pay a little more for your applications and reports at the FCC. Starting July 3, the new fee schedule will take effect. Fees have not been adjusted since 2009 and in the interim five-year period, there have been increases in the consumer price index which triggered the most recent review and increase. […]
Read More →June 1 & 16, 2014: TV, Class A & LPTV Stations in Texas: air your POST-filing announcements AM & FM Stations in Delaware & Pennsylvania: air your POST-filing announcements. June 1, 2014: TV, Class A & LPTV Stations in Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah & Wyoming: file your renewal application electronically via Form 303-S. […]
Read More →The FCC voted 3-2 at its May meeting to adopt a Report & Order related to the TV incentive auction. Other than broad generalizations that are available from an FCC public notice, and the tidbits that could be gathered from the online video of the meeting and dissenting commissioner statements, details of the decision are […]
Read More →Most broadcast stations don’t budget for legal fights over their public files, but TV stations might want to think twice on that front, especially when it comes to the political file. First, a history lesson. When the FCC adopted its online public file rules, it made clear that it was not going to use them […]
Read More →It has been sixty-plus days and counting since the comment period closed on the FCC’s AM Revitalization Proceeding, but the FCC has not made any decisions or provided any immediate relief for AM broadcasters. Commissioner Pai, a proponent of AM reform, did make a few comments recently, announcing that the FCC will begin holding meetings […]
Read More →As many know, the last part of a filing window for new and major change applications in the radio services is the actual auction where the highest qualified bidder wins. Along the way, the FCC considers expressions of interest, identifies applicants, requires the filing of full applications, identifies singletons, identifies mutually exclusive applicants, allows one […]
Read More →The FCC’s late 2013 low power FM filing window produced many applicants, but a few have run into a bit of a problem with the FCC. It seems that a few entities provided some information on their Form 318 applications that made the FCC a bit suspicious. On its own, the Audio Division analyzed information […]
Read More →In the context of a petition to deny a broadcast station renewal application, the FCC has taken the opportunity to “kill” the Zapple Doctrine, a holdover policy having its roots in the now repealed Fairness Doctrine. The Zapple Doctrine originated in 1970 when the FCC responded to Nicholas Zapple’s request for an interpretation of whether […]
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