By: Scott R. Flick and Christine A. Reilly The next Quarterly Issues/Programs List (“Quarterly List”) must be placed in stations’ local public inspection files by July 10, 2011, reflecting information for the months of April, May and June, 2011. Content of the Quarterly List The FCC requires each broadcast station…
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: FCC Fines FM Broadcaster an Extra $5,000 For Inaction Inaccurate Tower Ownership Information Ends in $3,000 Fine Failure to Heed…
As I wrote in April, the FCC decided after much delay to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a pair of lower court rulings seriously challenging the FCC’s prohibition on indecent programming that airs before 10pm. Today the Supreme Court announced that it has agreed to hear the matter,…
As I wrote back in February, the federal government has decided to conduct the first-ever national test of the Emergency Alert System. Today, FEMA and the FCC announced that the test will occur on November 9, 2011, at 2pm Eastern Standard Time. On that date, the public will hear a…
The FCC today announced a freeze on the acceptance of any petitions for rulemaking seeking to change a station’s assigned channel in the Post-Transition Table of DTV Allotments. While application freezes were once relatively rare at the FCC, they became quite common as a planning mechanism during the years when…
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: FCC Fines FM Broadcaster for Excessive Power and RF Radiation Levels Forfeiture More Than Triples After Consent Decree Default Missing…
A Notice of Apparent Liability released today by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau provides 25,000 reasons that you don’t want to bounce a check when making a payment at the FCC. As I noted in a post this time last year, there has been a conspicuous effort by the FCC to…
Broadcasters don’t know it yet, but recent actions by the Department of Justice suggest that the federal government may be moving closer to raining on their upcoming license renewals. The reason? Medical marijuana advertising. While it seems like a recent phenomenon, the first state laws permitting medical marijuana go back…
Headlines: FCC Begins to Move on Pending Video News Release Complaints Failure to Monitor Tower Lighting Results in $12,000 Penalty Video News Releases Garner $4,000 Fines for Two Television Broadcasters After a flurry of complaints from advocacy groups a few years ago raised the issue at the FCC, the Commission…
Caught between a rock and the Second Circuit, the FCC hesitantly took the defense of its indecency policy to the Supreme Court today. The FCC filed a petition seeking the Court’s review of the Second Circuit’s decisions in indecency cases involving Fox and ABC programs. Last year, the Second Circuit…