Public File Item Eliminated

At its January meeting, the Commissioners voted to delete “comments from the public” from the list of items that commercial broadcasters must place in the public inspection file. For commercial TV stations, this action also eliminated the need for stations to keep a separate paper public file at the station in addition to the online public file due to privacy concerns.

The rule change must go through the Office of Management and Budget first before it becomes effective. So don’t go and clean out your public file yet. We still have a few weeks before the effective date, and the FCC will announce the date in a public notice. We’ll be sure to cover that in future newsletters.