FCC License Renewal and Your Station
By Allen Myers, IBS Vice
President FCC & Member Relations
Beginning on December 1, 2011, license renewal
applications for radio stations must be filed with the Commission. To renew your stationÕs license is as
simple as going to the CommissionÕs website and filling out the renewal
application – right? Well,
not exactly. The CommissionÕs
renewal process can be fraught with difficulty if licensees do not comply with
all the steps in the process. So,
lets get started and look at the problems you might encounter.
Perhaps the most common mistake a student-run
station can make is to have a student to sign the renewal application. This application, like all Commission
applications, must be signed by an officer or director of the licensee. However, if the governing body of your
school has authorized someone to sign applications on its behalf, the renewal
application should contain an attachment reflecting this authorization. An application with an incorrect
signature must be amended and this will delay the Commission staff from
granting your renewal.
Radio station licenses expire on different dates
depending on the state in which the station is located. Applications for renewal of the station
license are due 120 days before that date.
A complete list of these dates is found on the FCC page of the IBS
website. Please refer to it so that
you know when you must file the renewal application for your station. For full-service FM stations, if your
license renewal application is more than thirty days late-filed, you can expect
the Commission to issue a fine of $1,500.00 to your licensee. If the renewal application is received
after the license has expired, the fine is increased to $3,000.00. And if the station has continued to
broadcast after the expiration of the license, an additional $4,000.00 is
added. [For LPFM and FM translator stations, the fine for a late-filed
application is $250.00 and additional $250.00 if the station continued to
operate beyond the expiration of its license.] If your station finds itself in
the last of these situations, you should immediately cease broadcasting and,
simultaneously with your renewal application, submit a request for ÒSpecial
Temporary AuthorizationÓ to resume broadcasting if you desire to continue
broadcasting while the Commission acts on your stationÕs renewal. Do not resume broadcasting until the STA
is granted.
At some point after your license has expired, if
the Commission has not received a renewal application, the station license will
be Òcancelled.Ó This action will
appear on a Commission Public Notice.
If a licensee desires to seek reconsideration of this action, it must do
so and submit a license renewal application within thirty days of the Public
Notice announcing the license cancellation. The station may not resume broadcasting
until the Commission reinstates the station license and grants the renewal
application.
Applicants for renewal of license must complete
pre-filing and post-filing announcements in accordance with Section 73.3580 of
the CommissionÕs rules (see the rule for the content of these
announcements). Pre-filing
announcements begin six months prior to license expiration and are made on the
1st and 16th of each month until the renewal application
is filed. Post-filing announcements
follow the same schedule form when the application is filed and end on the 16th
of the month prior to license expiration [i.e. if your license expires on
January 1, 2012, your last post-filing announcement will be made on the 16th
of December 2011. If your station
is not on the air when an announcement is due to be aired – such as
during summer vacation – the announcement should be placed in a
newspaper. If you do not complete
all of the announcements, you should make arrangements with the Commission
staff for their completion. While
you will not be fined for this, your renewal will be deferred until all the
announcements are completed.
The final pitfall in the renewal process involves
the stationÕs Public File as required by Section 73.3526 of the CommissionÕs
rules – specifically the community issues and program list that all
stations, other than Class D and LPFM stations, are required to place quarterly
in the Public File. You are
required to certify on the renewal application that this has been done. If you cannot make this certification,
you are requested to explain the failure.
There is no was to rectify this Òsin of omissionÓ with the Commission
and you may expect to receive a fine for non-compliance. Treat it as a Òteachable momentÓ and
resolve to do better during the next renewal cycle.
As lengthy as this article is, I have not been
able to cover every situation in which you may find yourself during the renewal
process. Please feel free to
contact me via the IBS website if you have questions.