AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act Introduced Again

Posted on January 31st, 2025 by

Senator Ted Cruz has re-introduced the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act in the US Senate, the latest attempt to pass legislation mandating that car manufacturers include AM radio access in vehicles.  Despite bipartisan support, earlier attempts to pass the legislation have been hampered by other legislative priorities.

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TV Station Fined $369,190 for Failure to Participate in Nationwide EAS Tests

Posted on January 31st, 2025 by

The FCC has fined a Texas television station $369,190 for failing to properly participate in nationwide EAS tests in 2018, 2019 and 2021.  While the station had equipment installed, its employees were not familiar with the station’s obligations or how the EAS equipment functioned. In an attempt to show compliance, they created and aired their […]

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FCC Application Fees Jump 17%

Posted on January 31st, 2025 by

In an action mandated by Congress, the FCC published a January 7, 2025 order increasing FCC application fees based upon inflation and increases in the Consumer Price Index.  These adjustments are required every two years.  The application fee increase in 2022 was nearly 12%. For 2024, there is a 17% increase. The new fee increase […]

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FCC Publishes Seventh Report on Station Ownership

Posted on January 31st, 2025 by

The FCC published its 7th Report on Ownership of Broadcast Stations, compiling data from biennial ownership reports filed by all broadcast stations every two years.  The report reflects data on the gender, race, and ethnicity of broadcast station owners as of the 2023 biennial ownership report, and focuses on “attributable” and “majority” ownership interests.  The […]

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Dates to Remember 

Posted on December 31st, 2024 by

January 10, 2025 TV, Class A, AM & FM Stations (commercial & noncommercial): deadline to complete and upload to online public file the 4th Quarter 2024 issues/program lists and any foreign sponsorship identification reports Class A TV Stations Only: deadline to complete and post to your online public file the 4th Quarter 2024 certification of […]

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Best Wishes for 2025!

Posted on December 31st, 2024 by

Each of us at Hardy, Carey, Chautin & Balkin, LLP wish you a blessed, productive and prosperous 2025!  We look forward to the privilege of serving you in the year to come.

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Carr’s Deregulatory Leanings

Posted on December 31st, 2024 by

Jessica Rosenworcel’s tenure as Chairwoman was often marked by proposed new regulations for broadcasters and, in other cases, even reinstated regulations.  She will leave behind several unfinished rulemakings – i.e., regulation of artificial intelligence in political ads, new treatment of some LPTV stations as full-power television stations, application processing prioritization to promote localism – each […]

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Children’s Television Reporting Due in January

Posted on December 31st, 2024 by

The surest way for full power and Class A television stations to have issues with license renewals is to forget or incorrectly report compliance with the FCC’s children’s television rules.  The renewal application contains important certifications about station compliance with the rule limiting the amount of commercial matter during children’s programming targeting children 12 years […]

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New FM Booster Local Program Origination Rules Effective January 13th

Posted on December 31st, 2024 by

The FCC announced that the new FM Booster local program origination rules adopted in November 2024 will take effect January 13, 2025.  The new rules allow FM boosters to originate three minutes of each hour to programming different from the content of the primary station they are retransmitting.  Designed to hyper-localize content for groups of […]

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FCC Discontinues CDBS Database Search Function

Posted on December 31st, 2024 by

The FCC is sunsetting the ability to search for old broadcast applications in its CDBS database.  CDBS was used before LMS for a few decades for filing broadcast applications and contains significant application data and file numbers.  While most applications and some portions of the application information have been migrated to LMS station record files, […]

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