July 10, 2011 Deadline For
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REMINDER: Second Quarter 2011 List Must Be Placed In the
Public Inspection File By July 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. June 8, 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 © 2010, Lerman Senter PLLC 2000 K Street NW,
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