The FCC on Tuesday released its Report and Order on regulatory fees. The Order says that the fees will be due by September 30. The FCC should soon issue additional guidance about the exact filing dates and procedures. In the Order, the FCC did reduce the fees for radio somewhat from those proposed in their... Continue Reading…
In many states, we are in election season for local offices, which has resulted in a question that has come up repeatedly in the last few weeks about local candidates – usually running for state or municipal offices – who appear in advertisements for local businesses that they own or manage. Often times, these individuals... Continue Reading…
With the summer winding down, you can expect that come September, like everywhere else, Washington will leap back to life and the government will try to accomplish what they can before the end of the year. That will no doubt mean some regulatory actions (and potentially court actions and legislative actions) affecting broadcasters this Fall,... Continue Reading…
Last week, we wrote about the FCC’s announcements of the opening of the filing period for LPTV, TV translator and FM stations that are seeking reimbursement for the costs they incurred because of the repacking of TV channels into a smaller part of the spectrum following the incentive auction. The FCC forms that need to... Continue Reading…
Notice was published in the Federal Register today of the FCC’s changes in the children’s television rules – setting the effective date for most of those new rules as September 16. The elimination of the obligation to air three hours of children’s educational and informational programming for each digital multicast channel will expire on that... Continue Reading…
As we noted in our post yesterday, the OMB recently approved the FCC’s forms to allow for reimbursement of the expenses of LPTV and TV translator stations and FM stations (full power and low power) and FM translators caused by the repacking of the TV spectrum following the incentive auction. This approval sets the stage... Continue Reading…
Months ago, the FCC approved reimbursing TV translators, LPTV stations, FM stations, and FM translators that incurred costs as a result of the repacking of TV stations into less spectrum following the TV incentive auction (see our post here). Congress last year allocated the FCC money so that LPTV stations and TV translators forced to... Continue Reading…
The FCC this week issued a Notice of Apparent Liability proposing a $233,000 fine to Cumulus Media for violations of the sponsorship identification rules. The fine illustrates not only how seriously the FCC takes its sponsorship identification rules (particularly in the context of political and issue advertising) but also the how aggressively the FCC can... Continue Reading…
Last week, the FCC started a new proceeding through the adoption of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to review several restrictions that currently apply to Low Power FM stations. While doing so, it will also review the current rules, dating from the analog television days, restricting certain FM operations in the non-commercial reserved band of... Continue Reading…