Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 3, 2010

Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed the CALM Act, directing the Federal Communications Commission to adopt regulations controlling the volume of commercials on television broadcast stations, cable systems, satellite, and other multichannel video programming providers. This bill was passed by the Senate in September. Once signed by the President, the Federal Communications Commission will be required to adopt a rule to implement the legislation within one year, and the rule is to becom

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The Paralegal Resource

DECEMBER 21, 2010

IntroductionPeople who search the Internet for free legal forms often find the experience to be a bit frustrating. While there are some legal forms available, often the search engine results for a search for a "free legal form" lead to a site which sells forms. Even when a free or sample form is provided, it may not fit the needs of the person seeking the form, or may be written for the laws of a different state.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 14, 2010

The Copyright Royalty Board today released its Determination of Rates for noninteractive webcasting services for the period from 2011-2015. These rates will form the default rates for webcasters who have not opted into one of the many voluntary agreements negotiated last year under the Webcaster Settlement Act (see our summaries of the Pureplay webcaster deal here , the Broadcasters settlement here , the Small Webcasters or "microcaster" settlement here , the noncommercial webcasters s

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 2, 2010

A recent FCC decision fining a station $10,000 for having an unattended main studio provides a good explanation of the staffing requirements for the main studio of broadcast stations. While the fine in this case was evident - FCC inspectors having twice visited the main studio of a station to find no one there, and a representative of the licensee admitting to the FCC that the studio was not regularly manned as the licensee did not know that there was such a requirement - the decision explains t

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 3, 2010

Applications to participate in the auction of 144 new FM channels are to be filed at the FCC between January 31 and February 10, 2011. The FCC today released a Public Notice setting out the dates and procedures to be used in the auction. Upfront payments of the minimum bids for channels in the auction will be due on March 21. The auction itself will begin on April 27 - a postponement of about a month from the dates originally proposed as the initially scheduled dates could have resulted in the a

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The Copyright Office today announced an extension of time for the fling of comments in its inquiry into the possibe extension of Federal Copyright protection to pre-1972 sound recordings. We provided a details of that proceeding here. Internet radio operators and other digital music services that play significant numbers of pre-1972 sound recordings (particularly recordings first made in the United States), may want to comment in this proceeding, as the statutory royalty paid to SoundExchange cu

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 12, 2010

In recent years, the FCC has been to aggressively enforcing a policy requiring broadcasters to announce all material rules of a contest on the air enough times for a reasonable listener to hear the announcements. This past week, there was yet another case where this policy was enforced, resulting in a $4000 fine to a broadcaster. While the FCC continues to enforce this policy, at least one broadcaster has reportedly decided that a fine for not having broadcast of the material rules of a contest

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 20, 2010

The Local Community Radio Act has been pending in Congress, ready to be approved for many months, but held up by the Senate. This weekend, as the Congressional term was drawing to a close, both the House and the Senate approved a bill modifying the interference standards for Low Power FM radio stations, opening the possibility that more channels will be available for LPFM use when the next window for filing new LPFM applications opens.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 8, 2010

In three cases released in the last week, the FCC grappled with the issue of when the amount of a fine (or a "forfeiture" as the FCC refers to it) imposed on a broadcaster for a violation of an FCC rule is too much to be sustained. Clearly, the FCC wants a fine for a violation of its rules to be meaningful, so as to discourage bad behavior.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I conducted a webinar on the FCC's EEO rules for the Texas Association of Broadcasters on November 30, 2010. In conducting the webinar, I reminded broadcasters of the many ways that their EEO compliance can be monitored by the FCC - either through EEO random audits , through mid-term EEO Reports on FCC Form 397 (which were filed by Texas TV stations this past April), or through the filings that are made at license renewal time (which comes up in April 2013 for Texas radio, and April 2014 for Tex

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 7, 2010

In a speech given last week, FCC Commissioner Michael Copps called for a new regime to review the public interest performance of broadcasters - suggesting that license renewal become a more rigorous exercise for radio and television operators. In his address called " Getting Media Right, A Call to Action ", given to the Columbia University School of Journalism, Copps specifically suggested a "Public Value Test" for broadcasters when they file their license renewals.

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