Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 23, 2011

Yesterday, FCC Chairman Genachowski issued a press release stating that the FCC was abolishing the Fairness Doctrine as part of its clearing of its book of 83 obsolete media rules. What should the reaction of broadcasters be now that the Fairness Doctrine has been officially abolished? Probably, a collective yawn. In 1987 - almost 25 years ago - the FCC felt that it could not enforce the doctrine as it was an unconstitutional restriction on the freedom of speech of broadcasters.

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The Paralegal Resource

AUGUST 17, 2011

"What we talk about when we talk about communication" was the title of the 2011 Annual Symposium of the Bernard Schwartz Communication Institute of Baruch College/CUNY held on May 6th. I am fortunate to be among the invitees who were treated to a full day of keynotes, small group discussions and informal talk at meals.

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 29, 2011

The FCC just issued a public notice extending the comment deadline in its proceeding to determine how to process the FM translator applications pending from the 2003 FM translator window so as to not unduly preempt opportunities for new LPFM stations. Comments were originally due to be filed today, but the deadline has now been extended to September 6 , based on transportation and communications concerns in light of the disruptions caused by Hurricane Irene.

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 15, 2011

Advertising from Stephen Colbert's Super PAC was rejected by Des Moines television station WOI-TV, based on its belief that these commercials would be confusing to Iowa voters. Colbert, the host of Comedy Central's the Colbert Report, has formed his own Political Action Committee to run ads during the upcoming Presidential election. The first ads ran in Iowa this past week - making fun of the amount of third party money that was being spent on political advertising in Iowa and urging voters to v

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 1, 2011

What does SoundExchange do when it collects royalties from an Internet radio operator, but the operator doesn't provide complete information about the songs that were played? That question was raised by the Copyright Royalty Board in a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on a proposal by SoundExchange for the distribution of such royalties, about which we wrote here.

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 29, 2011

How do you secure a loan to an FCC broadcast licensee ? This was the issue discussed by a case released by the Commission last week – addressing the FCC’s policies prohibiting a station creditor from foreclosing on a broadcast license and also restricting the sale of a “bare license.” While this case involved an action for collection by a judgment creditor, it is instructive as to how any broadcast creditor, including a lender to a broadcast licensee, should act to secure

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 23, 2011

In 2009, the FCC adopted a uniform deadline for all commercial broadcast licensees to file an FCC Form 323 Biennial Ownership Report. The due date for that report was supposed to be November 1 of that year, but was postponed until July of 2010 when problems popped up with the new forms. The next Biennial Ownership reporting date was scheduled to be November 1 of this year (two years after the originally scheduled date for the first report to use the new form) - but the FCC today issued a Public

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 22, 2011

The FCC today froze all applications for TV channel 51 by both applicants for full-power and low power facilities. Channel 51 is immediately adjacent to the parts of the television bands that were reclaimed for wireless uses during the DTV transition. Wireless users, including CTIA and the Rural Cellular Association, have sought to restrict use of Channel 51 because of the potential for interference to the wireless users in these new wireless frequencies.

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 17, 2011

The FCC has now released its Public Notice formally announcing the payment deadline for the 2011 Annual Regulatory Fees , which will be due by 11:59 pm E.T. on September 14, 2011. The fees must be processed electronically using the FCC's Fee Filer website , which can be accessed here. That site is now ready to accept the payment of the 2011 Regulatory Fees, and licensees must log-on to the Fee Filer website using their FRN (FCC Registration Number) and password to review the fees that have been

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 16, 2011

Microwave frequencies used by television stations for their TV Pick-Ups for the transport of programming, and by cable systems for their CARS relays, were the subject of an FCC order last week looking to repurpose these frequencies to provide backhaul for wireless broadband and other telecommunications uses. The Commission's order sets out to protect existing users, but to allow these frequencies to be used by wireless users in rural areas where there will not be interference to licensed broadca

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 2, 2011

Another EEO audit was announced by the FCC today - hitting about 100 radio stations this time around. The Commission has pledged to audit 5% of all broadcast stations and cable systems each year to assure their compliance with the Commission's EEO rules - requiring wide dissemination of information about job openings and supplemental efforts to educate their communities about job opportunities in the media industry.

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 30, 2011

The FCC just issued a Report to Congress concerning the access of television viewers to in-state television stations. This report was requested by Congress as part of STELA (the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act ), which extended the compulsory license for direct to home satellite television operators (DISH and DirecTV) - a license which gives them copyright clearances to retransmit all the programming transmitted by the broadcast television stations that they make available as par

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 26, 2011

Yesterday, the FCC released its Report and Order (available here ) reinstating its “video description” rules, which require that certain broadcast stations and nonbroadcast networks provide audio narration of the action depicted in the video portion of the television programming. The Commission originally adopted such rules back in 2000, but they were subsequently vacated by the D.C.

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 5, 2011

Noncommercial broadcasters get no breaks when dealing with proposed FCC fines , said the Commission's Media Bureau in two cases released this week. While many noncommercial broadcasters may yearn for a day when they were treated leniently if violations were discovered - getting off with perhaps an admonishment letter - those days are over, as they have been for some time.

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 18, 2011

The debate over repurposing some of the television spectrum for wireless broadband have been raging over the normally quiet Washington summer, as issues as diverse as the budget negotiations, the tenth anniversary of 9-11 and international treaties all play their part in the discussions. Whatever changes are made could have a profound impact on TV broadcasters nationwide, not just those in the congested metropolitan markets where everyone acknowledges that any spectrum crunch that may exist woul

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 2, 2011

The failure to follow FCC filing rules when a station finished construction of new facilities under a construction permit will apparently cost a radio station $7000 according to a recent Notice of Apparent Liability released by the Commission's Media Bureau. Before a broadcast station can make most changes to its technical facilities, it must apply to the FCC for approval, which the FCC grants by way of a construction permit.

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 30, 2011

Changing the city of license of a broadcast station was made more difficult by the FCC's rural radio order. That order, about which we wrote here , imposed substantial obstacles on broadcasters attempting to move their stations from rural areas into urbanized areas - making such moves difficult if not impossible in many cases. However, in two recent cases, the FCC clarified that decision so as to permit some changes to be made without the substantial new showings.

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The Paralegal Resource

AUGUST 12, 2011

Using the Internet, information on legal issues can be easily obtained. There are currently numerous excellent websites with the most updated and accurate legal information made available to the public. In the past, to obtain legal cases or statues, one will have to spend time going through legal books one at a time. Using search engines to search the Internet electronically, one will be able to find all legal cases or statues at once, cutting down on the time needed to gather information.

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The Paralegal Resource

AUGUST 12, 2011

One thing common to any law office is the tons of documents that it regularly prints out for various entities, such as contracts, case pleadings, affidavits, to name a few. Every little cubicle can be a memo mausoleum of some sort, where all dead trees go. For modern hotshot legal firms, this does not have to be the case for there are a number of very useful legal apps that can make things easier and are environment friendly as well.

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The Paralegal Resource

AUGUST 12, 2011

Lawyers often don't use all of the advertising available to them, and social media marketing is underused as a tool. It can be a great way to connect you to the public and give you better traffic to your websites when you use them.

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The Paralegal Resource

AUGUST 12, 2011

What does it mean to make yourself marketable or sellable? Does it require that you quit your job, completely change careers or go back to school. Perhaps, but for this article it simply means making the most of your skills and abilities and continually looking for ways to improve.

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 8, 2011

US broadcasters often complain about FCC regulations on programming, but they don't realize how easy they have it compared to much of the rest of the world. I recently spent several days in one of the former Soviet Republics discussing broadcast regulation with broadcaster representatives, employees of the country's regulatory agency, and members of citizen advocacy groups.

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 4, 2011

When a problem arises with a station that could give rise to a fine, how long does the FCC have to act on that complaint and issue a fine ? How long must a licensee worry about that problem and whether it will result in a fine? Does a sale cut off liability for a problem when the seller was the licensee? Two cases released yesterday, one resulting in a fine and the other where one was canceled, help explain the Commission's policy.

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 25, 2011

There has been much focus on emergency communications recently, with the East Coast earthquake re-igniting the debate over FM-enabled mobile phones , and with Hurricane Irene forcing stations to gear up for emergency coverage in the coming days. But even without these unusual events, the emergency communications world has been much in the news, given the current requirement for broadcast stations to be ready for the new Common Alerting Protocol ("CAP"), an Internet-based alerting syste

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 24, 2011

We wrote about FCC Chairman Genachowski's announcement of the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine as part of the FCC's repeal of 83 media related rules. Well, the full text of the repeal was released today , and the Fairness Doctrine really was the only real headline. For broadcasters, all of the other deleted rules were even less relevant than the Fairness Doctrine (which had been effectively dead for almost 25 years before it was repealed). 10 of the 83 deleted rules dealt with the "broadcast

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