Articles Posted in Programming Regulations

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March 2010
The next Quarterly Issues/Programs List (“Quarterly List”) must be placed in stations’ local public inspection files by April 10, 2010, reflecting information for the months of January, February and March, 2010.

Content of the Quarterly List
The FCC requires each broadcast station to air a reasonable amount of programming responsive to significant community needs, issues, and problems as determined by the station. The FCC gives each station the discretion to determine which issues facing the community served by the station are the most significant and how best to respond to them in the station’s overall programming.

To demonstrate a station’s compliance with this public interest obligation, the FCC requires a station to maintain, and place in the public inspection file, a Quarterly List reflecting the “station’s most significant programming treatment of community issues during the preceding three month period.” By its use of the term “most significant,” the FCC has noted that stations are not required to list all responsive programming, but only that programming which provided the most significant treatment of the issues identified.

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December 2009
The next Quarterly Issues/Programs List (“Quarterly List”) must be placed in stations’ local public inspection files by January 10, 2010, reflecting information for the months of October, November and December 2009.

Content of the Quarterly List
The FCC requires each broadcast station to air a reasonable amount of programming responsive to significant community needs, issues, and problems as determined by the station. The FCC gives each station the discretion to determine which issues facing the community served by the station are the most significant and how best to respond to them in the station’s overall programming.

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September 2009
The next Quarterly Issues/Programs List (“Quarterly List”) must be placed in stations’ local public inspection files by October 10, 2009, reflecting information for the months of July, August and September 2009.

Content of the Quarterly List
The FCC requires each broadcast station to air a reasonable amount of programming responsive to signifi­cant community needs, issues, and problems as determined by the station. The FCC gives each station the discretion to determine which issues facing the community served by the station are the most signifi­cant and how best to respond to them in the station’s overall programming.

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August 2009
The volatile combination of broadcast employees concerned about their income and job security, and cash-strapped businesses looking for cheap and effective ways to promote themselves in difficult economic times, creates an unusually fertile ground for payola and plugola violations. Complicating matters are state efforts to prohibit “payola” activities that are legal under federal payola law. Even being accused of payola can be devastating to a broadcaster, and stations must be extremely diligent in uncovering and preventing payola and plugola violations.

Payola is the undisclosed acceptance of, or agreement to accept, anything of value in return for on-air promotion of a product or service. It is forbidden by Sections 317 and 507 of the Communications Act of 1934, and by Sections 73.1212 (broadcast) and 76.1615 (cable) of the FCC’s Rules. Its sibling, Plugola, occurs when someone responsible for program selection promotes on-air a venture in which he or she has a financial interest without disclosing that interest to the station licensee and to the public. A payola or plugola violation by an employee usually results in the employer violating the FCC’s sponsorship identification rule as well.

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7/16/2009
As the sources of content available to the public proliferate, attracting and retaining an audience grows more challenging. A common strategy is to use provocative or “attention-getting” on-air elements to increase station awareness among media-saturated listeners and viewers. However, stations must be mindful of the numerous legal restrictions on content, particularly given that illegal on-air content can garner fines as high as $325,000 per violation. In addition, certain types of illegal on-air content can subject a broadcaster to civil and criminal liability, as well as loss of its license.

Introduction
Familiarity with the FCC’s rules regarding on-air content is not optional for on-air talent, station programmers or station management. In most cases, editorial judgments made in advance, especially in the case of syndicated or pre-recorded programming, can prevent illegal content from reaching the air. It is therefore important that those involved in airing broadcast programming be up-to-date on the boundary lines that the FCC and the courts have drawn to distinguish legal from illegal on-air content.

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On March 13, 2009, and in response to the Congressional extension of the digital transition deadline from February 17 to June 12, 2009, the FCC released an R&O which, among other things, revised the rules associated with its requirements for DTV Consumer Education Initiatives. Those significant revisions, which became effective on April 1, 2009, included additional viewer notifications regarding antennas, help/walk-in centers, rescanning activities, and service loss.

The FCC has released a draft version of its most recent FCC Form 388 which includes the rule changes. A copy of the revised FCC Form 388, which has not yet received OMB approval, is available for review on the FCC’s website at https://www.fcc.gov/Forms/Form388/388.pdf.

By July 10, 2009, all television stations are required to report on the DTV Education Initiatives undertaken in the months of April, May and June by electronically filing the revised FCC Form 388. The FCC Form 388 is also required to be placed in the station’s public inspection file by July 10, 2009 and posted by that date to the station’s website, if it has one. Details of the FCC’s DTV Consumer Education requirements can be found in our Advisory posted on our website by clicking the link below.

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1/6/2009
The next Children’s Television Programming Report must be filed with the FCC and placed in stations’ local Public Inspection Files by January 10, 2009, reflecting programming aired during the months of October, November and December 2008.

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September 2008
The next Quarterly Issues/Programs List (“Quarterly List”) must be placed in stations’ local public inspection files by October 10, 2008, reflecting information for the months of July, August and September. The FCC’s action adopting the new program report Form 355, which is intended to replace the Quarterly Issues/Programs Lists for full-power and Class A television stations, will not have any effect on this third quarter public file requirement.

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