FCC Announces Effective Date of Modernized Low Power FM Public Notice Rules, But Other Changes Remain On Hold
On June 19, 2020, the Media Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a Public Notice (PN) announcing that certain limited changes to the rules governing the way that broadcasters must provide the public with notice of a variety of applications will become effective on July 20, 2020. As we previously explained, the FCC issued an order in May that substantially altered the public notice rules, eliminating the requirement that broadcasters provide public notice of covered applications in a newspaper, substituting an online written public notice requirement in place of the decades-old newspaper publication mandate, and streamlining the content of on-air public notice announcements.
However, only the rule changes governing low power FM (LPFM) station announcements will go into effect on July 20. The remainder of the rule changes – including those governing announcements by full power broadcast stations – will not become effective until after the Office of Management and Budget approves them pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act. The Media Bureau will issue a future announcement following such approval.
Stations need not, however, make pre-filing announcements for broadcast renewal applications, as the waiver granted for the 2019-2023 renewal cycle remains in effect.
