As we have stated in the past, the FCC is imposing significant fines on stations for late-filed quarterly issues programs reports. This fact was observed by noted FCC attorney David Oxenford in his broadcast blog:
“In the last two license renewal cycles, more fines have been issued for full-power stations violating the requirement that they quarterly add to their public inspection files a list of the most important issues facing their communities and the programming that they aired in that quarter to address these issues. This week, the Media Bureau proposed another such fine, proposing to fine a Florida full power television station $9,000 for allegedly failing to timely upload 10 quarterly issues/programs lists to its online public inspection file during the last renewal cycle. The station offered no explanation for that failure. See our Broadcast Law Blog article here for more on the importance of the Quarterly Issues/Programs list obligation.”
With the online public filing system, the FCC can now observe when you file these reports. So do not be late.
You can see the Media Bureau’s most recent fine here.
You can find a more thorough discussion of this issue by David Oxenford here.