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 the FCC’s EEO rule.
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.
September 2007
The next Children’s Television Programming Report must be filed with the FCC and placed in stations’ local Public Inspection Files by October 10, 2007, reflecting programming aired during the months of July, August, and September.
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 Missouri must also file their Biennial Ownership Reports by the same date.
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.
Obligation to Provide Emergency Information to Persons with Hearing Disabilities
August 2007
Mindful of Hurricane Dean, and with three months left in this year’s hurricane season, it is imperative that television station broadcasters ensure they have adequate policies in place and reliable procedures tested to insure that persons with hearing disabilities have timely access to the emergency information that such stations have provided aurally in their programming.
June 2007
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4/13/2007
The FCC today released four Orders adopting Consent Decrees with CBS Radio, Citadel Broadcasting Corporation (“Citadel”), Clear Channel Communications, Inc. (“Clear Channel”), and Entercom Communications Corp. (“Entercom”). Pursuant to the Consent Decrees, the broadcasters agreed to pay a combined $12.5 million to close investigations into possible violations of the FCC’s sponsorship identification rules. Specifically, the Consent Decrees resolved allegations that the broadcasters may have accepted cash or other consideration from record labels in exchange for airplay of artists from those labels without disclosing those arrangements, a practice commonly referred to as “payola.”
May 2006
The FCC recently fined a television licensee $4,000 for violations that occurred during a contest run by the station in 2004. The FCC determined that the station failed to conduct the contest substantially as announced and advertised, a violation of Section 73.1216 of the Commission’s Rules. It was discovered during the investigation that the licensee excluded multiple entries from consideration, misplaced legitimate entries, and failed to award all announced prizes.
A PDF version of this entire article can be found at FCC Fines Television Licensee $4,000 for Violations of Contest Rules.
February 2006
Notwithstanding the fact that it has been over 35 years since Congress banned cigarette ads from the airwaves, broadcasters continue to ask for advice on whether they may air certain types of tobacco-related advertisements. In fact, questions in this area of law appear to be on the increase. One reason is the proliferation of small, independent cigarette manufacturers resulting from the 1998 tobacco settlement. That settlement has caused the price of cigarettes to rise, thereby making it profitable for small companies to become cigarette manufacturers. Given the pressure that these manufacturers and their retail outlets are likely to place on broadcasters to help in promoting these new tobacco products, we offer the following Q&A to aid broadcasters in complying with tobacco advertising restrictions should they be asked by any company to air tobacco-related spots… article continues
Comm Law Center