2011 First Quarter Issues/Programs List Advisory for Broadcast Stations

The next Quarterly Issues/Programs List (“Quarterly List”) must be placed in stations’ local public inspection files by April 10, 2011, reflecting information for the months of January, February and March, 2011.

Content of the Quarterly List

The FCC requires each broadcast station to air a reasonable amount of programming responsive to significant community needs, issues, and problems as determined by the station. The FCC gives each station the discretion to determine which issues facing the community served by the station are the most significant and how best to respond to them in the station’s overall programming.

To demonstrate a station’s compliance with this public interest obligation, the FCC requires a station to maintain, and place in the public inspection file, a Quarterly List reflecting the “station’s most significant programming treatment of community issues during the preceding three month period.” By its use of the term “most significant,” the FCC has noted that stations are not required to list all responsive programming, but only that programming which provided the most significant treatment of the issues identified.

Given that program logs are no longer mandated by the FCC, the Quarterly Lists may be the most important evidence of a station’s compliance with its public service obligations. The lists also provide important support for the certification of Class A station compliance discussed below.

We therefore urge stations not to “skimp” on the Quarterly Lists, and to err on the side of over-inclusiveness. Otherwise, stations risk a determination by the FCC that they did not adequately serve the public interest during the license term. Stations should include in the Quarterly Lists as much issue-responsive programming as they feel is necessary to demonstrate fully their responsiveness to community needs. Taking extra time now to provide a thorough Quarterly List will help to reduce risk at license renewal time.

It should be noted that the FCC has emphasized the importance of the Quarterly Lists. For example, the FCC held a hearing concerning the license renewal of a noncommercial educational station that, among other things, misrepresented that its public inspection file contained Quarterly Lists when in fact the public inspection file contained only lists of programming aired on the station without reference to any issues to which the programming was responsive. The FCC granted a short-term renewal of the station’s license and assessed a $10,000 fine for the violation. This decision emphasizes the importance of maintaining a complete public inspection file, including placing all
Quarterly Lists in it on a timely basis.

Preparation of the Quarterly List

The Quarterly Lists are required to be placed in the public inspection file by January 10, April 10, July 10, and October 10 each year. The next Quarterly List is required to be in the station public inspection file by April 10, 2011.

In preparing this Quarterly List, stations should keep the following in mind:

• The Quarterly List will be very important “evidence” in the station’s defense if the station’s license renewal is contested, so each station should approach the preparation process with care.
• Stations should maintain routine outreach to the community to learn various groups’ perceptions of community issues, problems, and needs. Stations should document and save the contacts they made and the information they learned. Letters to the station about community issues should be made a part of the station’s database.
• There should be some station procedure to organize the information that is gathered and bring it to the attention of program production staff with a view toward producing and airing programming responsive to significant community issues. This procedure and its results should be documented and saved.
• Stations should ensure that there is some correlation between the station’s contacts with the community (including the letters received from the public) and the issues they have identified in their Quarterly Lists. A station should not overlook significant issues. While the station may consider what other stations in the market are doing, each station will have the burden of persuading the Commission, in a contested license renewal proceeding, that it acted “reasonably” in deciding which issues to address and how.
• Stations should not specify an issue for which no programming is identified. Conversely, stations should not list programs for which no issue is specified.
• Under its former rules in this area, the FCC required a station to list five to ten issues per Quarterly List. While that specific rule has been eliminated, the FCC has noted that such an amount will likely demonstrate compliance with the station’s issue responsive programming obligation. However, the FCC has noted that some licensees may choose to concentrate on fewer than five issues if they cover them in considerable depth in any given quarter. Conversely, the FCC has noted that still other broadcasters may address more than ten issues in a given quarter, due perhaps to program length, format, etc.
• The Quarterly Lists should reflect a wide variety of significant issues. For example, five issues affecting the Washington, DC community might be: (1) the fight over statehood for the District of Columbia; (2) fire code violations in DC school buildings; (3) clean-up of the Anacostia River; (4) reforms in the DC Police Department; and (5) debate over needle exchange programs for IV drug users. The issues should change over time, reflecting the station’s ongoing ascertainment of changing community needs and concerns.
• Accurate and complete records of which programs were used to discuss or treat which issues should be preserved so that the job of constructing the Quarterly List is made easier. The data retained should help the station identify the programs that represented the “most significant treatment” of issues, e.g., duration, depth of presentation, frequency of broadcast, etc.
• The listing of “most significant programming treatment” should demonstrate a wide variety in terms of format, duration (long form and short-form programming), source (locally produced is presumptively the best), time of day (times of day when the programming is likely to be effective), and days of the week. Stations should not overlook syndicated and network programming as ways to address issues.
• Stations should prepare each Quarterly List in time for it to be placed in their public inspection file on or before the due date. If the deadline is not met, stations should give the true date when the document was placed in the public inspection file and explain its lateness. Stations should avoid creating the appearance that a document was timely placed in the public inspection file when it was not.
• Stations should show that their programming commitment covers all three months within each quarter.

These are just some of the more significant suggestions that can assist stations in meeting their obligations under the FCC’s rules. The requirement to list programs providing the most significant treatment of issues may persuade a station to review whether its programming truly and adequately educates the public about community concerns.

Class A Television Stations Only

Class A television stations must certify that they continue to meet the FCC’s eligibility and service requirements for Class A television status under Section 73.6001 of the FCC’s Rules. While the relevant subsection of the public inspection file rule, Section 73.3526(e)(17), does not specifically state when this certification should be prepared and placed in the public inspection file, we believe that since Section 73.6001 assesses compliance on a quarterly basis, the prudent course for Class A television stations is to place the Class A certification in the public inspection file on a quarterly basis as well.

New Filing Requirement for Television

On January 24, 2008, the FCC released a Report and Order stating that a new standardized form of programming report will replace the Quarterly List for full-power and Class A television stations. As of this writing, that requirement has not yet gone into effect. When it does go into effect, the quarterly filing of Form 355 with the FCC and its placement in the public inspection file and on the station website will replace the current Quarterly List requirement for television stations. The new form will require television stations to list information such as local civic programming, local electoral affairs programming, public service announcements, and independently produced programming. The form will also require television stations to include information about closed captioning, video described content, the provision of emergency information for the disabled, and the station’s efforts to ascertain the programming needs of various segments of the local community.