September 2007 This Broadcast Station EEO Advisory is directed to radio and television stations licensed to communities in: Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Missouri, Oregon, Washington, as well as American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and highlights the upcoming deadlines for compliance with…
September 2007 Content of the Quarterly List The next Quarterly Issues/Programs List (“Quarterly List”) must be placed in stations’ local Public Inspection Files by October 10, 2007, reflecting information for the months of July, August, and September. A PDF version of this entire article can be found at 2007 Third…
September 2007 Radio stations licensed to communities in Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Florida, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico must file their Biennial Ownership Reports with the FCC by October 1, 2007. Reports for Television stations licensed to communities in Iowa and…
8/28/2007 On Tuesday, August 21, SoundExchange–the organization representing copyright owners in connection with statutory licenses for broadcasting music on the Internet–began sending formal offers of discounted royalty rates through the year 2010 to qualified small webcasters. These are generally those webcasters earning $1.25 million or less in gross revenues. A…
June 2007 Topics include: FCC Fines Radio Station $4,200 for Lack of Effective Tower Fences FCC Fines Television Station After Discovering Deserted Main Studio FCC Fines Radio Station for Airing Prank Phone Call FCC Officially Increases Maximum Fine for Indecency and Profanity A PDF version of this entire article can…
December 2006 The digital world can seem confusing and intimidating to those who want to “broadcast” music over the Internet, but moving into cyberspace also presents exciting new opportunities. There are myriad ways that music is used on the Internet. There are companies that operate Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) licensed…
November 2006 This Advisory provides a review of political broadcasting rules of the FCC. In this Advisory, of particular note are new regulations imposed on political broadcasting by the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (“BCRA”) of 2002, popularly known as “McCain-Feingold.” BCRA contains several provisions that affect the way stations handle…
November 2006 On November 20, 2002, the FCC released a Second Report and Order and Third Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the “Second R&O”) in which it adopted new equal employment opportunity rules and policies for broadcasters and for multi-channel video programming distributors (the “new EEO Rule”). A complete copy of…
November 2006 In an effort to reduce the risk of reversal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, the FCC successfully persuaded the Court to allow it to pull back and review four indecency decisions. Earlier this week, the FCC announced the outcome of that review.…
By Kathryn R. Schmeltzer and Jarrett S. Taubman November 2006 Sample questions include: What is the source of the Commission’s authority to limit “obscene,” “indecent,” and “profane” program material? What FCC regulations prohibit “obscene” or “indecent” program material? What Commission regulations prohibit “profane” program material? What about the First Amendment?…