Broadcast Law Blog

APRIL 11, 2010

The FCC's January 2010 Order authorizing FM radio stations to increase power on their hybrid digital radio operations was published in the Federal Register on Thursday establishing the effective date of the new rules as May 10th. As we wrote earlier , the Commission's Order allows stations to increase from the current maximum permissible level of one percent of authorized analog effective radiated power (ERP) to a maximum of ten percent of authorized analog ERP.

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Broadcast Law Blog

APRIL 27, 2010

The FCC today issued a further Public Notice reminding all Video Programming Distributors (VPDs) -- including those who might otherwise be exempt from some elements of the closed captioning rules -- to register their contact information with the FCC. All VPDs, including television stations, should have already identified appropriate contact people within their organizations and filed their contact information with the FCC.

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Broadcast Law Blog

APRIL 1, 2010

In a decision by the FCC's Enforcement Bureau, the Commission issued a $1250 fine to a station that did not have its licensee's Articles of Incorporation and By-Laws in its public file when a listener came to check the file. While the rules allow such documents to be left out of the file if there is a list of ownership-related documents in the file and the documents themselves are provided within 7 days of a request, here the licensee did not provide the missing documents for over a month of the

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Laws 56

Broadcast Law Blog

APRIL 29, 2010

Contrary to recent rumors, the FCC is not out of the television broadcasting business just yet. In a decision released on Wednesday, the FCC has decided to allocate a new low VHF Television station to the state of Delaware. Responding in part to comments submitted by Delaware Senator Edward E. Kaufman, and over the objections of a few incumbent television stations, the Commission has decided that the community of Seaford, Delaware, in the southern part of the state, needs a new TV station on Cha

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Broadcast Law Blog

APRIL 4, 2010

In two decisions released in the last two weeks, the FCC fined two radio stations $4000 each for perceived violations of its contest rules. The first decision was based on a perceived ambiguity in the contest rules that did not make clear in broadcasts and in written rules that there would be only one winner in a contest. In the second , the FCC faulted the licensee for not giving the prize away within 30 days of the contest end.

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Broadcast Law Blog

APRIL 17, 2010

With the recent April 15th publication of an FCC Public Notice in the Federal Register, the due date for Comments regarding possible revisions to the FCC's Emergency Alert System (EAS) rules has been set at May 17th , with Reply Comments due by June 14. By this recent Public Notice, the Commission has requested informal comments regarding revisions to its EAS rules in connection with the forthcoming adoption of the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

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Broadcast Law Blog

APRIL 16, 2010

In two separate Orders today, the FCC issued monetary forfeitures against a cable operator for failure to install Emergency Alert System (EAS) equipment and for various tower violations. These same violations could have been cited against a broadcaster, so these cases are instructive to both broadcasters and cable operators. The FCC issued monetary forfeitures of $20,000 and $18,000 against two Texas cable systems owned by the same company.

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Broadcast Law Blog

APRIL 13, 2010

The FCC today released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking asking for public comment on its proposed Regulatory Fees for 2010. These fees are paid annually by most commercial entities that are regulated by the FCC for the privilege of being regulated. Noncommercial broadcasters are exempt from the annual regulatory fees. Collectively, the FCC is proposing to collect over $335 million in fees this year from licensees across the various regulated services.

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Broadcast Law Blog

APRIL 11, 2010

The FCC Form 323 Biennial Ownership Report -- temporarily off-lined in December for revisions -- has been reworked and is now back. The FCC has announced that the revised Form 323 is now available in its CDBS electronic filing system, and that all commercial broadcast stations must file their biennial ownership reports by July 8, 2010. As we wrote earlier , many broadcasters were concerned about privacy issues related to the new Form 323, as well as more practical issues regarding the time requi

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Broadcast Law Blog

APRIL 21, 2010

The FCC today issued a Forfeiture Order imposing a $30,000 fine on the licensee of three television stations for the stations' failure to publicize the existence and location of the Children's Television Reports for the Stations. Even at a rate of $10,000 per station, this fine is significant and should serve as a loud, clear reminder to all television stations to publicize the existence and location of their FCC Form 398 Children's Television Reports.

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Broadcast Law Blog

APRIL 30, 2010

In reaction to the Citizens United Supreme Court decision invalidating restrictions on corporate spending on advertising and other messages explicitly endorsing or attacking political candidates (about which we wrote here ), new legislation, called the DISCLOSE Act , has just been introduced in both houses of Congress seeking to mitigate the perceived impact of the Court's decision.

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