Dates to Remember
October 30, 2026
All EAS Participants must file ETRS Form One.... Read More
Last month, we reported that in the final days of Chairman Tom Wheeler’s stint at the FCC, the Media Bureau decided to act upon a petition for reconsideration of a requirement that all individuals included in ownership reporting – even for non-commercial station non-profit board members – obtain a restricted use FCC registration number (RUFRN) […]
Read More →At its January meeting, the Commissioners voted to delete “comments from the public” from the list of items that commercial broadcasters must place in the public inspection file. For commercial TV stations, this action also eliminated the need for stations to keep a separate paper public file at the station in addition to the online […]
Read More →On February 8, 2017, the FCC mailed Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) audit letters to several hundred radio and television stations as part of an ongoing requirement that the Media Bureau randomly audit roughly 5% of broadcast stations each year. The notice and lists of stations audited can be found here. One interesting statement in the […]
Read More →With the Incentive Auction scheduled to officially end on March 31, 2017 (with the end of the Forward Auction Assignments Phase), the FCC is expected to issue its Auction Closing and Channel Reassignment Notice in April 2017, officially staring the 90-day period for repacked stations to file for new channel construction permits and remit reimbursement […]
Read More →At its open meeting on February 23, 2017, the FCC Commissioners voted to relax a rule governing where FM translators being used for AM stations can be located. Previously, to 60 dBu contour of such translators had to be contained within the lesser of the AM station’s 2 millivolts per meter (mV/m) daytime contour or […]
Read More →On February 3, 2017, Chairman Pai revoked a number of controversial regulations, orders and reports released by the FCC’s Bureaus and Offices in the waning days of the last Administration, noting that in some cases Commissioners were given no advance notice of the regulations. In others, two of the four then sitting Commissioners objected to […]
Read More →The FCC has adopted a notice of proposed rulemaking seeking comment on whether the FCC should authorize television stations, on a voluntary basis, to use ATSC 3.0, the next generation TV transmission standard. The new standard will allow ultra-high definition video, immersive audio and content personalization, and will apparently have improved reception on mobile devices […]
Read More →The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau has issued an alert about unauthorized persons recently illegally gaining access to studio-to-transmitter (STL), remote broadcast, and similar audio connections. Citing specifically to equipment manufactured by Barix, and instances where offensive and indecent material were transmitted, the warning noted that the illegal access may have resulted from the failure to set […]
Read More →January 31, 2017 All stations streaming a signal on the internet must file their statement of use and make a minimum payment of $500 per channel to SoundExchange. All commercial stations that wish to avoid claims of copyright infringement from Global Music Rights organization need to obtain an interim license from GMR by this date […]
Read More →In only a few weeks, much has changed at the FCC. Most notably, Ajit Pai, a sitting FCC Commissioner, has been named Chairman by President Trump. Broadcasters have a rare advocate in Chairman Pai, whose efforts to revitalize AM radio and lessen broadcast regulatory burdens have been laudable in his last 3 years as a […]
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