As has been widely reported, Sinclair Broadcast Group reached a $3.9 Billion cash and stock agreement in May with Tribune Media Company. The agreement calls for Sinclair to acquire Tribune Media and its 42 broadcast television stations, among other media assets. Just before the July 4 holiday, the companies filed a series of transfer of...… Continue Reading
At its April meeting, the FCC voted to allow noncommercial stations not affiliated with NPR or CPB to raise funds for third-party nonprofit organizations, even where such fundraising appeals interrupted normal programming, as long as the licensee did not devote more than 1% of its yearly airtime to such appeals. We wrote here about the...… Continue Reading
Pillsbury’s communications lawyers have published FCC Enforcement Monitor monthly since 1999 to inform our clients of notable FCC enforcement actions against FCC license holders and others. This month’s issue includes: Headlines: TV Broadcaster Agrees to $55,000 “Civil Penalty” for Airing False EAS Tones Radio Broadcaster to Donate or Surrender Nine FM Stations to Resolve Investigation […]
As Egon said in Ghosbusters, “print is dead.” Okay, that may be a bit of an overstatement. But at least as to many broadcast stations’ local public inspection files, it is essentially true as of today. Back in January, the FCC voted to do away with the requirement that commercial broadcast stations retain in their...… Continue Reading
No, I’m not referring to the fact that physically writing a letter seems to have joined button hooks and slide rules in the dustbin of history. Instead, another relic of history–the requirement that letters and emails from the public be kept in the public file–disappeared from the FCC’s rulebook today. Even more consequentially, that change […]
Today, the order eliminating the requirement that broadcasters maintain in a paper public inspection file copies of letters and emails to their stations about station operations becomes effective. While the FCC abolished the requirement back in January, one of the first deregulatory actions of the new Chairman (see our article on that decision here), the...… Continue Reading
July is a big month on the Washington regulatory scene for broadcasters. There are, of course, the routine quarterly regulatory obligations. For all stations, commercial and noncommercial, Quarterly Issues Programs Lists, summarizing the most important issues facing a broadcaster’s community, and the programs that were broadcast in the prior quarter to address those issues, must...… Continue Reading
I am officially a big fan of The Slants. I’ve never seen them in concert. I don’t own any of their albums (I’ve never even downloaded any of their individual songs). I’m actually still not entirely sure what “Chinatown Dance Rock” really is. But I will forever be indebted to Simon Shiao Tam and crew. ...… Continue Reading
(Registered agent contact information must be ELECTRONICALLY filed with the Copyright Office by December 31, 2017) How much is peace of mind worth to you? Does $6.00 and less than an hour of your time sound about right? What if I told you that this alone would significantly reduce the likelihood that you will be...… Continue Reading