December 1, 2020 Radio License Renewal Applications Due – Applications for renewal of license for radio stations located in Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota must be filed in the Licensing and Management System (LMS). These applications must be accompanied by Schedule 396, the Broadcast Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Program Report, also filed...… Continue Reading
On November 19, the FCC issued a Report and Order for which the Wi-Fi community can be justly grateful at their Thanksgiving celebrations. For some years the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC” or the “Commission”) has been concerned that the potential for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) in the 5.85 – 5.925 band has never panned out. ...… Continue Reading
Capitol Hill On November 4, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated he is willing to resume negotiations on COVID-19 relief legislation before the end of the year (he had previously indicated no legislation is possible before the end of the year). Whether this would be standalone legislation or part of a necessary government funding package...… Continue Reading
Back in August, we wrote about the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC”) decision to end the prohibition of commonly owned radio stations in the same service (AM or FM) that have 50% or more overlap of their primary service contours from duplicating more than 25% of their programming. Now that the decision is published in the Federal Register, it...… Continue Reading
On October 29, Fletcher Heald attorneys Frank Montero and Keenan Adamchak in cooperation with the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (“NFCB”) presented a webinar on the upcoming noncommercial educational (“NCE”) FM and lower power FM (“LPFM”) filing windows. In this webinar, they explored the NCE and LPFM application forms, processes, and FCC tie-breaking criteria, as well as pointing out...… Continue Reading
Taking the next step in its ongoing efforts to revitalize the AM broadcast service, the Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has authorized AM radio stations to convert to all-digital broadcasting. Making such a switch is expected both to improve the quality of the signal received by listeners and to expand the area in which the audience...… Continue Reading
The Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC”) Media Bureau announced via Public Notice the end of a filing freeze on certain full power and Class A TV station modifications that lasted more than 16 years and the leadership of seven FCC chairpersons. The freeze was part of the FCC’s effort to keep a stable technical database first...… Continue Reading
The Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC”) Local Public Notice Rule Changes have been published in the Federal Register and will go into effect tomorrow, October 30. These changes – which we detailed at length in a previous post – eliminate the obligation to publish a public notice of certain broadcast applications in newspapers, requiring instead that...… Continue Reading
Broadcast Deadlines: November 16, 2020 Amending the Schedule of FCC Application Fees – Comments are due in response to the Federal Communications Commission’s (“FCC” or the “Commission”) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking requesting comments on proposed changes to its application fee schedule, which the FCC considers to be significant and which include fee amounts, most of...… Continue Reading