Legislative Update
June Regulatory Dates for Broadcasters: TV Renewals, EEO Public File Reports, Comments on Zonecasting, Start of Channel 6 FM Rulemaking and More
By: David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP With the traditional beginning of summer upon us, there is no vacation from the regulatory actions of importance to broadcasters. Let’s start with the routine actions for the upcoming month. With the radio license renewal cycle having ended with the filing of the last set of renewal applications…
Read MoreThis Week in Regulation for Broadcasters
By: David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the last week (5/14-20), with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations. The FCC issued a draft Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to be considered…
Read MoreDoes the FCC Regulate Internet Content and Companies?
By: David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP In our summary of last week’s regulatory actions, I was struck by a common thread in comments made by several FCC Commissioners in different contexts – the thread being the FCC’s role in regulating Internet content companies. As we noted in our summary, both Republican commissioners issued statements last…
Read MoreLandowners Warned of Potential Liability of Up to $2,000,000 for Pirate Radio Operations on Their Property
By: David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP The FCC (5/4/22) made public four letters to landowners warning them that there were unlicensed FM radio operations coming from their properties and warning that, if the transmissions continued past the 10-business day response period, the landowners could be held liable for penalties up to $2,000,000 for the unlicensed operations coming from their…
Read MoreMore FCC Broadcast Applications Moving to LMS – Including Requests for STAs
By: David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP The FCC this week released a Public Notice (that we mentioned in our update on regulatory dates for May) announcing that, on May 17, many new applications and other filings will be migrating to the FCC’s newer LMS filing platform. These include many of the documents that had been, until recently, filed in the…
Read MoreGovernor Whitmer Signs Legislation Expanding Open Meetings Act
On May 2, Governor Whitmer signed House Bill 4705, which expands the Open Meetings Act to require certain state public bodies to create and maintain audio recordings of their meetings, expanding transparency and accountability. This brings the total of bipartisan bills signed to 811. “Transparency and accessibility are critical to ensuring people trust their state…
Read MoreThis Week in Regulation for Broadcasters
By: David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the last week (4/16-22), with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations. The FCC this week released a Public Notice announcing that it is…
Read MoreMSU Students Help With MAB’s Capitol Day
The Michigan Association of Broadcasters works hard to establish strong relationships with lawmakers in our state to ensure policies allow broadcasting in Michigan to stay impactful and to protect us against those that may hinder us from doing our jobs effectively. On May 12, the Michigan Association of Broadcasters is hosting our annual Capitol Day…
Read MoreReasonable Access and the Problem Candidate – FCC Declares a Write-In Candidate Not Entitled to Buy Radio Spots, But That May Not Be the End of the Story
By: David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP Last week, much was made of an FCC Media Bureau decision rejecting the “reasonable access” claim of a write-in candidate for a Congressional seat in Ohio against radio stations which, after initially running his spots, decided to pull those spots because he had not made a “substantial showing” of his…
Read MoreThis Week in Regulation For Broadcasters
By: David Oxenford, Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the last week (April 2-8), with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations. Broadcast operations that use uninterruptable power supply (UPS) devices as either…
Read More