New Public Notice Rules Effective October 30, 2020

Broadcasters have complained for many years that FCC public notice requirements are outdated, expensive and unnecessary. Newspaper publication, it is argued, generally goes unnoticed while broadcast notices are sufficient and better at reaching listeners who have views on station performance. In May of this year, the Commission finally acted on its proposals to eliminate the newspaper public notice. Applicants must now provide online public notice with links directly to the station’s FCC-hosted online public inspection file or its application databases, or through on-air announcements that direct viewers and listeners to those application resources.

Background:

Section 311 of the Communications Act requires applicants to give notice of application filings in the principal area served or to be served by the station. The Commission implements this mandate in Section 73.3580 of its Rules. Agreeing with broadcasters that the rule “has become increasingly complex, creating compliance difficulties,” it revised the on-air public notice announcements to make them simpler, less frequent, and more effective at referring viewers and listeners to the Commission-hosted online public inspection file (OPIF) where they can make their views known.

Under the new rule, public notices in newspapers are no longer required, replaced by online public notices. Each notice must be posted on a publicly accessible website for 30 days, but there is a rub. The notice period must begin within five days of FCC acceptance of the application for filing, instead of with the filing date. This poses a problem for broadcasters. Careful monitoring of the FCC daily public notices will be needed to determine the date of acceptance, which is not always a predictable number of days from filing. While some new service may make that task easier in the future, for now it will require scouring FCC releases for a period following the filing of an application.

The requirement to post the notice text on a station's homepage has also been changed. Broadcasters are now be required to include a conspicuous “FCC Applications” link or tab on the website home page. The link must lead to a separate page containing the full notice text.

The online notice text has also been changed to mirror the on-air announcements and to indicate where members of the public may obtain information to file comments on the applications. The Commission has committed to provide links on its OPIF and LMS Landing pages to a new fcc.gov page detailing how members of the public can comment on an application.

Since some broadcasters have multiple websites and some do not have even one, the Commission adopted a posting priority system, in the order of availability. The website priority postings, in order, is as follows: (1) the applicant station; (2) the station licensee; (3) the parent entity or, if there is no applicant-affiliated website (4) on a locally targeted website that is publicly accessible and free to access without charge or exposing personal details. Examples of the fourth priority include a local government website, local community bulletin board website, local newspaper website or a state broadcasters’ association website. The licensee applicant must also post a tab or link on its home page conspicuously labeled “FCC applications,” that will link to a separate page containing the text of the notices.

As with the contest rules, the link or tab must be “conspicuous.” That means that the link or tab must be displayed in such size, color, contrast, and/or location on the home page so that it is readily readable, understandable, and locatable by visitors to that page. Even if there are no pending applications requiring online public notice, the station must still have the link and it should direct to a page that indicates there are no pending applications subject to the posting requirement. The page must also indicate when it was last updated.

Despite the growing use of “APPS” by stations, the Commission specifically retained the World Wide Web as the locus of the online public notice.

The Revised Broadcast Public Notice

The FCC also adopted a new standardized and simplified on-air announcement it characterized as “streamlined.” The new script directs viewers and listeners to the application Online Public File or the Commission database. Broadcasters may now air the notice anytime from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM local time Monday through Friday, rather than in specific dayparts. The total number of required on-air announcements is increased from 4 to 6, and they must be aired at least once per week for four consecutive weeks. As noted above, they must commence no later than five days after release of the public notice announcing the acceptance for filing. Since six announcements in four weeks will require that some weeks have more than one announcement, announcements broadcast in the same week may not be aired on the same day. Notably, all pre-filing announcements have been eliminated. Since the commencement period was changed from five “calendar” to five “business” days following the notice of acceptance, notices will not be aired on weekends.

Requiring that the announcements air at any time 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM local time, brings uniformity to the current rule, which has different announcement requirements based on the applicant, type of application and service.

The Announcement Script

Here is the new FCC-required announcement script:

On [DATE], [APPLICANT NAME], licensee of [STATION CALL SIGN], [STATION FREQUENCY], [STATION COMMUNITY OF LICENSE], filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for [TYPE OF APPLICATION]. Members of the public wishing to view this application or obtain information about how to file comments and petitions on the application can visit publicfiles.fcc.gov and search in [STATION CALL SIGN’S] public file.

For stations without an OPIF:

On [DATE], [APPLICANT NAME], licensee of [STATION CALL SIGN], [STATION FREQUENCY], [STATION COMMUNITY OF LICENSE], filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for [TYPE OF APPLICATION]. Members of the public wishing to view this application or obtain information about how to file comments and petitions can visit www.fcc.gov/searchlms, and search in the list of [STATION CALL SIGN’S] filed applications.

The Online Public Notice

The text for the online public notices is slightly different:

For authorized stations (with a granted construction permit or license):

On [DATE], [APPLICANT NAME], [PERMITTEE / LICENSEE] of [STATION CALL SIGN], [STATION FREQUENCY], [STATION COMMUNITY OF LICENSE OR, FOR INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST STATIONS, COMMUNITY WHERE THE STATION’S TRANSMISSION FACILITIES ARE LOCATED], filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for [TYPE OF APPLICATION]. Members of the public wishing to view this application or obtain information about how to file comments and petitions on the application can visit [INSERT HYPERLINK TO APPLICATION LINK IN APPLICANT’S ONLINE PUBLIC INSPECTION FILE (OPIF) OR, IF THE STATION HAS NO OPIF, TO APPLICATION LOCATION IN THE MEDIA BUREAU’S LICENSING AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; IF AN INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST STATION, TO APPLICATION LOCATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL BUREAU’S MYIBFS DATABASE].

For proposed stations that have not yet been authorized:

On [DATE], [APPLICANT NAME], [APPLICANT FOR] [A NEW (STATION TYPE) STATION ON] [STATION FREQUENCY], [STATION COMMUNITY OF LICENSE OR, FOR INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST STATIONS, COMMUNITY WHERE THE STATION’S TRANSMISSION FACILITIES ARE TO BE LOCATED], filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission for [TYPE OF APPLICATION]. Members of the public wishing to view this application or obtain information about how to file comments and petitions on the application can visit [INSERT HYPERLINK TO APPLICATION LOCATION IN THE MEDIA BUREAU’S LICENSING AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM; IF AN INTERNATIONAL BROADCAST STATION, TO APPLICATION LOCATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL BUREAU’S MYIBFS DATABASE].

The online notice must be posted for thirty continuous days, beginning no earlier than five business days after application acceptance.

NCE Stations

NCE stations may continue to fulfill their local notice requirements solely through on-air announcements, where possible, unless they are not broadcasting during the part of the year when on-air announcements are required. Applicants for initial NCE construction permits need only to comply only with the online notice requirements, as they are unable to broadcast on-air announcements.

Only Station Exemption:

Where the applicant is the only operating station in its broadcast service in the community the former rule had exempted it from the written notice requirement. This exemption is revoked in the new rule. The Commission concluded that the proliferation of outlets in today’s media landscape no longer guarantees that a notice will be viewed or heard merely because it airs over the only station licensed at a given community

Silent Stations

When a station is not broadcasting during the period when the on- air announcements are required, it must then comply with the online notice requirements during the period when it is not broadcasting. Once the silent station returns to the air, the station must resume on-air announcements.

Channel Sharing and Multicasting

Television broadcasters will now be required to display on screen the full text of the on-air announcement during the verbal broadcast of the announcement. The rule does not require visual text beyond the announcement nor television text crawls containing the text of the on-air notice.

Each television station in a channel sharing arrangement must broadcast appropriate on-air announcements on its own program stream. In multicasting situations, however, the Commission said it will interpret Section 311 of the Act to require on-air notice only on the digital TV or digital radio station’s primary over-the-air programming stream.

This column is provided for general information purposes only and should not be relied upon as legal advice pertaining to any specific factual situation. Legal decisions should be made only after proper consultation with a legal professional of your choosing.