David Oxenford

By: David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer

It is time for our look at September’s regulatory dates and deadlines to which broadcasters should be paying attention – and the deadline that probably is most important to all commercial broadcasters is not yet known.  That, of course, is the deadline for the payment of annual regulatory fees – which must be made before the federal government’s October 1 start of the new fiscal year.  We expect an announcement of the final decision on the amount of those fees for various broadcasters, and the deadlines for payment, in the next few days.  Keep on the alert for that announcement.

Below is our summary of the other dates affecting broadcasters this September, including the effective date of the Emergency Alert System’s (“EAS”) new Missing and Endangered Persons event code, comment and other pleading deadlines in several FCC proceedings, the deadline for affected broadcasters to file their responses to the FCC’s August 2025 EEO Audit Letter, in addition to several political file window dates.

September 8 is the effective date of the new EAS Missing and Endangered Persons event code to be used by all EAS Participants, including broadcast stations.  In August 2024, the FCC adopted a Report and Order creating a new EAS event code for persons over the age of 17 who are missing or abducted from states, territories, or tribal communities (known as Ashanti Alerts), but delayed its effective date to provide EAS Participants with enough time to update their EAS systems to use the code.

September 9 is the deadline for comments responding to the FCC’s Direct Final Rule repealing 98 broadcast rules that the FCC identified in the Delete, Delete, Delete proceeding as obsolete, outdated, or unnecessary.  The deleted rules will become effective on October 20 unless substantive comments objecting to the deletions are filed, in which case the FCC will provide additional notice of the changes and ask for and consider public comment before the deletions take effect.  The deleted rules include over-the-air subscription TV approval procedures, the requirement that radio and TV stations be equipped with specific instruments for determining station power levels, several international broadcast station technical requirements, rules mandating specific station operating power calculation methods, and certain rules that simply provide references to FCC policies (the underlying policies are not affected by the deletion of the references).

September 18 is the deadline for comments responding to the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking proposing significant revisions to the FCC’s procedures under the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act.  The proposed changes are aimed at streamlining the process for determining if constructing communications facilities, including broadcast towers, will affect the environment and historical sites.  Reply comments are due October 3.

September 22 is the deadline for the 300 radio and TV stations identified in the FCC Enforcement Bureau’s 2025 EEO audit notice to upload their responses to their Online Public Inspection Files.  The FCC randomly audits approximately 5% of all broadcast stations each year regarding their EEO compliance.  Audited stations and their station employment units – which are commonly owned stations serving the same area – must provide to the FCC their last two years of EEO Annual Public File Reports and documentation demonstrating that the stations complied with the FCC’s EEO rules.  As with previous FCC audits, the FCC staff will review the audit responses and ask for additional information if they find the public file documentation to be incomplete, but they will not inform audited stations that their EEO performance was found satisfactory.  As we discussed here, the FCC’s EEO audits now seem to be partially used to seek out the types of “invidious” DEI programs (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) that the current administration has labeled as discriminatory in and of themselves, adding several new questions in an effort to investigate the use of these programs by audited broadcast stations.

September 25 is the deadline for comments responding to the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking seeking to reexamine the EAS and the Wireless Emergency Alerts system.  For EAS, the FCC seeks comment on the system’s effectiveness, how it could be modernized, and other issues.  Reply comments are due October 10.

Broadcasters located in California, Colorado, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington should also be aware of the opening of the following political windows tied to state and local elections occurring in November– meaning that Lowest Unit Rates apply to advertising sales to candidates and their authorized committees (see our article here on the basics of computing LUR).  These windows apply to important November elections with national significance, including those for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, and for mayor in New York City:

As a refresher, in the 45 days before a primary election, and 60 days before a general or special election, broadcasters must extend to legally qualified candidates their lowest unit rate and continue to follow all other applicable political broadcasting rules.  For a deeper dive on how to prepare for the 2025 elections, see our post here, which also includes a link to our comprehensive Political Broadcasting Guide.  Also, take a look at our 2025 Broadcasters’ Calendar to see if your state has any upcoming primary, general, or special election (though confirm these dates locally as some dates have changed since the calendar was prepared).

Looking ahead to some of the more important dates and deadlines in October, all stations will have to file ETRS Form One by October 3, providing general information about their EAS equipment and monitoring.  The filing of this form is required for all EAS participants even though there is no Nationwide EAS test scheduled for this year.

October 1 is the deadline for radio and television station employment units in Alaska, American Samoa, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Iowa, Missouri, Northern Mariana Islands, Oregon, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, and Washington with five or more full-time employees to upload their Annual EEO Public File Report to their stations’ Online Public Inspection Files.  A station employment unit is a station or cluster of commonly controlled stations serving the same general geographic area having at least one common employee.  For employment units with five or more full-time employees, the annual report covers hiring and employment outreach activities for the prior year.  A link to the uploaded report must also be included on the home page of each station’s website, if the station has a website.  Be timely getting these reports into your station’s OPIF, as even a single late report has in the past lead to significant FCC fines (see our article here about a recent $26,000 fine for a single late EEO report).

And October 10 is the deadline by which all full-power radio and TV stations (as well as Class A television stations), both commercial and noncommercial, must upload to their online public inspection files their Quarterly Issues/Program lists for the third quarter of 2025.  The lists should identify the issues of importance to the station’s community and the programs that the station aired between July 1 and September 30, 2025 that addressed those issues.  It is important that these be timely uploaded to your public file, as the untimely uploads of these documents probably have resulted in more fines in the last decade than for any other violation of the FCC’s rules.  As you finalize your lists, do so carefully and accurately, as they are the only official records of how your station is serving the public and addressing the needs and interests of its community.  See our article here for more on the importance of the Quarterly Issues/Programs list obligation.

As always, consult your own legal and technical advisors for other dates of importance that might apply to your stations in the upcoming month.