[UPDATE: The FCC just released its Report and Order defining the requirements for stations wishing to meet their contest disclosure obligations by posting their contest rules online. The revised FCC rule requires a licensee to (i) broadcast the relevant website address periodically with information making it easy for a consumer to…
Articles Posted in FCC Enforcement
FCC Permits Online Contest Disclosures
As we wrote last month, the agenda for the FCC’s September open meeting included consideration of its proposal to modernize the 40-year-old broadcast contest rule. Today, after more than three and a half years of (unopposed) anticipation, the FCC adopted rules that “allow broadcasters to disclose contest rules online as…
FCC Enforcement Monitor
August 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 Again Cracks Down on Wi-Fi Blocking at Conference Centers Licensee Faces $27,000 Fine for Repeatedly Failing to…
FCC Enforcement Monitor
July 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: Repetitive Children’s Programming Costs TV Licensee $90,000 It’s Nice to Be Asked: FCC Faults Red-Lighted Licensee’s Failure to…
Digital (Im)permanence and the FCC’s Online Public File
We’ve all heard the warning: once you put something on the Internet, it will be there forever. But an Oregon TV station learned the hard way that records in the FCC’s online public inspection file are easier to delete than you might like—and backdating restored files is not an option.…
FCC Enforcement Monitor
June 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: Educational FM Licensee Receives $8,000 Fine for Unauthorized Operation FCC Cancels $6,000 Fine for Late Filings due to…
FCC Enforcement Monitor
May 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: 404 Not Found: Missing Online Public File Documents Lead to $9,000 Fine Wireless Providers Pay $158 Million to…
Cascading False EAS Alerts Bring Million Dollar Penalty
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…
FCC Enforcement Monitor
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…
FCC Enforcement Monitor
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…