For well over four years, television stations have not been able to file applications to upgrade their technical facilities as the FCC froze such applications as it wanted to preserve a stable database of TV facilities while it conducted the Incentive Auction and implemented the repacking of the TV band. For TV stations affected by the...… Continue Reading
It’s that time again – time to get dressed to the nines for a night of bidding, imbibing, and banter all for a good cause. Pull up your calendars and mark Thursday, Nov. 2, 2017 for the 28th Annual FCBA Charity Auction hosted by the FCBA Young Lawyers Committee. This event is the place to...… Continue Reading
The FCC announced late today that the freeze that has been in place since April 2013 which prevents full-power and Class A TV stations from filing applications to expand their coverage areas will be lifted temporarily, likely before the end of this year. The lifting of the freeze allows stations that were not repacked following […]
In these last few weeks before the many municipal elections that will be occurring in November in states across the country, I have recently received several questions about a broadcaster’s legal obligations toward write-in candidates who want to run advertising on a radio or television station. Under FCC precedent, all legally qualified candidates (including those...… Continue Reading
The United States Court of Appeals yesterday issued an order denied the appeal of an FCC order that rejected a requirement that multilingual EAS alerts be provided in every market. We wrote about the FCC’s proceeding here and here. The Court upheld the FCC’s decision as reasonable, finding that the Commission did not have enough...… Continue Reading
On October 16, 2017, the Incentive Auction Task Force and the FCC’s Media Bureau jointly announced the initial allocation from the TV Broadcaster Relocation Fund (Relocation Fund) for the reimbursement of eligible full power and Class A television stations as well as multi-channel video programming distributors (MVPDs) (Eligible Entities) impacted by the Incentive Auction. The...… Continue Reading
This is a reminder to not snooze on next week’s CPB compliance webinar! On Wednesday, Oct. 25 at 2:00 p.m. EDT. Fletcher, Heald, & Hildreth’s CPB Compliance guru Bob Winteringham will present a FREE one-hour webinar to help you navigate the twists and turns of CPB compliance. You can register for the webinar, for free, via this...… Continue Reading
Last year, the FDA adopted requirements to tag advertisements for vaping and e-cig advertising with a warning that e-cigs contain nicotine and that nicotine is an addictive chemical. These requirements were to go into effect in 2018. In the last week, I have received several questions about these rules and their effective date. According to...… Continue Reading
The comment dates have now been set on the FCC’s proposal to abolish the requirement that licensees of certain classes of broadcast stations (including translators and auxiliary stations) maintain a paper copy of the FCC rules. We wrote about that proposal, one of the first actions of Chairman Pai under the Modernization of Media Regulation...… Continue Reading