Here are some of the regulatory developments of significance to broadcasters from the past week, with links to where you can go to find more information as to how these actions may affect your operations.
- The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau released an EEO Audit Notice targeting 400 radio and TV stations for review of their EEO programs. The FCC randomly audits approximately 5% of all broadcast stations each year regarding their EEO compliance. Audited stations and their station employment units (commonly owned stations serving the same area) must provide to the FCC their last two years of EEO Annual Public File Reports and documents showing that the stations followed the FCC’s EEO rules. Audited stations have until October 20 to upload their responses to their Online Public Inspection Files, except that questions addressing DEI issues must be emailed directly to FCC staff (see our article here about the FCC’s 2025 EEO audit that first included these questions that target DEI practices). The FCC staff will review the audit responses and ask for more information if they find that the response is incomplete, but they will not inform audited stations that their EEO performance was found satisfactory. See our article here for more detail on EEO audits and how seriously the FCC takes broadcasters’ EEO obligations.
- Earlier this week, on the FCC’s list of “items on circulation” (draft orders written by Commission staff that are being reviewed by the Commissioners for final approval), there appeared an item dealing with Lowest Unit Charges. In a filing with the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which is hearing an appeal by a group of Democratic candidates of the FCC Media Bureau’s Public Notice that extended Lowest Unit Rates to joint fundraising committees and federal political parties where their ads are authorized by federal candidates (see our notes here, here, and here), FCC lawyers identified this item on circulation as an action by the Commissioners that would deny the Democratic candidate’s Application for Review. That Application for Review had asked the full FCC to review the conclusions reached by the Media Bureau in the Public Notice. From the letter FCC counsel filed with the Court, it appears that the Application for Review will be denied on grounds similar to those used by the Bureau last week in denying the TVB petition for reconsideration of the Public Notice (see our note here discussing last week’s denial of the TVB petition) – that the Public Notice could not be reviewed as it did not take any action but just reminded broadcasters about existing policies, and that an application for review was not the proper mechanism to change existing FCC rules and policy. The FCC appears ready to argue that, by denying the Application for Review, the Court will no longer have jurisdiction to consider the Democratic candidates’ appeal of the Public Notice but that instead a new appeal of the denial of the Application for Review would need to be filed (postponing a decision until after the election), a contention that counsel for the Democratic candidates disputed. On our Broadcast Law Blog, we discussed these actions in more detail, warning broadcasters to watch for developments to determine how to treat ads from joint fundraising committees and political parties for LUC purposes. From the oral argument that was held by the Court two weeks ago, we believe that it is likely that the Court will rule on the challenge to the Public Notice soon, before the September 4 start of the Lowest Unit Charge window for this November’s election.
- Disney filed a lawsuit against the FCC in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia alleging that the agency violated the company’s First Amendment rights by a series of actions which were designed to convince its ABC television stations to change their programming to not be critical of the President. These actions are alleged to include calling for early license renewals of the ABC television stations (see our note here), investigating Disney’s employment practices for alleged discriminatory DEI practices through 4 letters of inquiry demanding documents that total of 13,000 pages, targeting the program The View with a review of whether the FCC staff’s 2002 determination that the program was a bona fide news interview program exempt from equal opportunities was correct (see our note here), and otherwise making critical statements about the company’s broadcasts. Disney requests that the Court block the FCC from taking any further retaliatory action against the ABC stations, including asking the Court to prohibit the FCC from issuing a Hearing Designation Order setting the renewals for hearing to determine whether to deny renewal of the station licenses.
- In a post on X, FCC Chairman Carr called Disney’s lawsuit “a meritless case based on their own campaign of disinformation,” and that “broadcasters made a deal with the American public—in exchange for free access to a valuable public resource (the airwaves) they agreed to meet their public interest obligations.”
- FCC Commissioner Gomez issued a statement that said that the lawsuit “should be a welcome sign for every broadcaster who has felt the weight of this overreaching government pressure in silence,” and that “it is time this administration understands that the Constitution does not bend to political convenience, and that the First Amendment protects the news and commentary Americans see on their screens even when those in power wish it didn’t.”
- The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau entered into a Consent Decree with a Texas TV station to resolve its investigation into the station’s purported violations of the FCC’s Emergency Alert Service (EAS) rules. In January 2025, the FCC proposed a $369,190 fine against that station for failing to properly participate in the 2018, 2019, and 2021 nationwide EAS tests and for submitting false or misleading EAS Test Reporting System reports. The station subsequently submitted documentation demonstrating its inability to pay the proposed fine. The Consent Decree requires that the station pay a reduced voluntary contribution to the U.S. Treasury of $27,000 and implement a compliance plan to ensure future EAS rule violations do not occur.
- The FCC announced through a publication in the Federal Register that public comments are due October 20 in response to the following AM stations’ proposed community of license changes: KWQQ(AM), from Hemet, CA, to Loma Linda, CA, and WTOC(AM), from Newton, NJ, to Boonton, NJ.
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