April 10, 2011 Deadline For
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REMINDER: First Quarter 2011 List Must Be Placed In the
Public Inspection File By April 10, 2011 The
FCC requires that within ten days after the end of each calendar quarter,
each commercial and non-commercial AM and FM station must prepare and
place in its local public inspection file a list of the programs that have
provided the most significant treatment of community issues during the
preceding three-month period. The list should include a brief narrative
statement that identifies the issues that were given significant treatment,
and describes the programs in which the issues were addressed. The
program descriptions must include, but are not limited to, the date,
time and title of each program, and the duration of each
responsive programming segment. You
should keep in mind several things as you compile the quarterly
issue-responsive programming list. First, care should be taken
to list only those programs that actually represent the “most significant
programming treatment of community issues.” Second, the FCC has
indicated that licensees who document significant programming directed to
five to ten community issues during each quarter are, as a general matter,
likely to be able to demonstrate compliance with the issue-responsive
programming obligation. Third, in the event that a station is
required to demonstrate compliance with the FCC requirements, it will be
permitted to rely only upon listed and unlisted programming that is supported
by documentation prepared “reasonably contemporaneously” with the subject
programming. The FCC will not consider “unsupported
recollection.” Thus, as described below, all issue-responsive
programming should be documented even if it is not included in the quarterly
listing. Records
pertaining to all unlisted programming should be maintained separately from
the station’s quarterly issue-responsive programming list and should not
be placed in the public file. Additional supporting records (such as
ascertainment methodology and results) relating to issue-responsive programming,
although not required to be kept by a licensee, could be extremely useful in
the event that questions are raised about the adequacy of the station’s
performance. For this reason, we highly recommend that stations
maintain such records. Finally, each radio station is required to retain the
issue-responsive programming lists in its public inspection file until the
FCC’s final grant of the station’s next license renewal application
(that is, until the grant of the renewal application filed at the end of the
term during which the documents were placed in the file). The
maintenance of the issue-responsive program lists throughout the license term
(and beyond, if subsequent renewal is delayed for any reason) is required
under the Commission’s public inspection file rule. When a radio
station licensee files its license renewal application with the FCC, the
licensee must certify that it placed all required documents, including all
quarterly reports, in its public inspection file on a timely basis.
A licensee cannot truthfully make this certification if the station did not
prepare an issue-responsive programming list for each quarter and place it in
the public inspection file by the designated deadline. Fines of up to
$10,000 have been assessed when a licensee admits in its renewal application
that one or more required quarterly reports were not prepared and placed in
the public file, as required, or that one or more reports have been misplaced
and are no longer available in the public file. Therefore, great care should
be taken to ensure your station complies with this quarterly requirement. Please
do not hesitate to call us with any questions about this quarterly listing
obligation. March 17, 2011 |
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This memorandum is intended only as a general discussion of these issues and should not be regarded as legal advice. We would be pleased to provide additional details or advice about specific situations if desired. Copyright © 2011, Lerman Senter PLLC 2000 K Street NW,
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