Legal News

NAB Requests Extension of May Obligation for TV Stations to Convert Emergency Information from Text to Speech

By David Oxenford|2015-03-31T21:43:19-05:00March 31st, 2015|Legal News|

The FCC two years ago adopted a rule requiring that television stations that provide emergency information visually (e.g. through open captions or crawls), outside of news programming, convert that emergency information into audio and run that audio on SAP channels (secondary audio programming channels – usually used for Spanish language translations of English-language programs). That… Continue Reading

April Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters – Including Quarterly Issues Programs and Children’s Television Reports; Comments In Proceedings Including One on Digital Auxiliaries; and More Incentive Auction Seminars

By David Oxenford|2015-03-31T21:38:28-05:00March 31st, 2015|Legal News|

April is one of those months with many routine FCC obligations. Quarterly Issues Programs lists need to be in your public file by the 10th of the month. This is an obligation for all full-power broadcast stations – commercial or noncommercial. Similarly, all TV stations have an obligation to submit their Children’s Television Reports on… Continue Reading

FCC Enforcement Monitor

By Scott R. Flick and Jessica Nyman|2015-03-31T19:35:26-05:00March 31st, 2015|Legal News|

March 2015 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: Deceptive Practices Yield Multi-Million Dollar Fines for Telephone Interexchange Carriers LPFM Ads Cost $16,000 Multiple TV Station Licensees Face $6,000 Fines for Failing […]

FCC Enforcement Monitor

By CommLawCenter|2015-03-31T12:14:06-05:00March 31st, 2015|Legal News|

By Scott R. Flick and Jessica Nyman March 2015 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 ...

FM Licensee Says “Optimization”, Audio Division Says “Directionalization”

By Anne Goodwin Crump|2015-03-30T14:20:20-05:00March 30th, 2015|Legal News|

Dramatic “optimizing” of FM antenna gets the hairy eyeball from the Audio Division In the FM radio world, there are supposed to be only two kinds of antennas: directional and non-directional. While it has long recognized that that simplisti...

One-A-Day Sponsorship IDs?

By Steve Lovelady|2015-03-29T09:58:12-05:00March 29th, 2015|Legal News|

FCC invites comments on proposal by coalition of nine radio licensees to shift sponsorship IDs primarily to Internet In an unusual petition that was filed last November – but took five months to hit the FCC’s public radar screen – a ...

Update: TIS Tweaks Tweaked

By FHH Law|2015-03-28T17:25:42-05:00March 28th, 2015|Legal News|

Technical Content Alert!!! The rule changes discussed below are highly technical. If you’re OK with stuff like “attenuation [must be] greater than the attenuation at 1 kHz by at least: 60 log10(f/3) decibels, where ‘f’ is the au...

FCC Flexes Its Indecency Muscle – Despite Long Hiatus and Unclear Standard

By Harry Cole|2015-03-27T13:07:32-05:00March 27th, 2015|Legal News|

Apparently horrified by a three-second video clip inadvertently aired during newscast, FCC slams licensee with $325K fine It’s been a while since we checked in on the FCC’s indecency policy. When last we did, the constitutionality of that p...

Getting Rulemaking Petitions On File Online

By Laura Stefani|2015-03-27T10:30:36-05:00March 27th, 2015|Legal News|

New option allows filing of petitions for rulemaking through ECFS. If you’re planning on filing a petition for rulemaking with the FCC but you’re out of paper, or maybe your printer is low on toner and the local Kinko’s is...