The FCC announced this afternoon that it has reached an agreement with iHeartCommunications resolving “an investigation into the misuse of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) tones….” As we’ve noted before on numerous occasions, the federal government is very touchy about the use of an EAS alerting tone when there isn’t…
April 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: FCC Scuttles New York Pirate Radio Operator and Proposes $20,000 Fine Failure to Properly Identify Children’s Programming Results…
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…
Whenever we report on FCC indecency decisions, it is always an interesting test of our subscribers’ spam filters. I am betting today’s FCC enforcement action will trigger more than its share of spam alerts. In recent years, the FCC has been less active in issuing indecency fines as it struggles…
February 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: FCC Issues $3.36 Million Fine to Company and Its CEO for Selling Toll Free Numbers Antenna Fencing and…
It is an unusual occasion indeed when the FCC offers to revise its rules to provide regulatory relief to both television and radio stations. Yet that is precisely what the FCC proposed in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to update its station-conducted contest rule to allow broadcasters to post…
Everyone with a cell phone has probably received an unsolicited telemarketing robocall or text made by a company using an automated dialing system at some point. As we have previously written, a federal statute, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), prohibits making any autodialed call or sending a text to…
January 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: Individual fined $25,000 for Unauthorized “Chanting and Heavy Breathing” on Public Safety Station Failure to Timely Request STA…
I wrote in March of last year that the FCC had proposed fines of $1,120,000 against Viacom, $530,000 against NBCUniversal, and $280,000 against ESPN for airing ads for the movie Olympus Has Fallen that promoted the movie with an EAS alert tone. Seven Viacom cable networks aired the spot a…
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: Sponsorship Identification Violation Yields $115,000 Civil Penalty $13,000 Increase in Fine Upheld for Deliberate and Continued Operation at Unauthorized Location…