The Radio Advertising Bureau, BMI, and the Mentoring and Inspiring Women in Radio Group will present the seventh annual "Rising Through the Ranks? seminar, August 27-28, at the BMI headquarters in Nashville. BMI is offering 20 scholarships for the program to cover the cost of the course. The deadline to apply is Wednesday. Go to http://www.rab.com/ for more details. Scholarship recipients will be notified of their selection by Thursday, June 26.
7-15-13
Since April 1, the Enforcement Bureau has been seeking comment on whether the FCC should make changes to its indecency policies or maintain them as they are. The deadline for comments was extended from June 19 to July 18 and now it's being extended again, until August 2. College Broadcasters, Inc (CBI) filed the request to extend the deadline, citing "the scope and complexity of the notice," and the commission granted the request this past Friday.
7-8-13
The has extended the deadline for its $399 tuition for the 2013 Learning Conference through today. Executive Director Bob Shannon, ?We received many inquiries regarding the June 30th tuition deadline, asking for it to be moved into July. Because we want as many industry professionals, students and teachers interested in attending to be here, it was an easy call to make." After today the price goes up to $499.
The 38th Annual Conclave Learning Conference is July 17-19, 2013 at the Doubletree Park Place Hotel in Minneapolis. For more on the 2013 Learning Conference, click on http://www.theconclave.com/.
5-13-13
The request to extend the deadline for filing public comment about indecency policy came from the NAB. The NAB said more time was needed to ?respond fully to the complex policy, legal and constitutional questions raised in this proceeding.? The NAB also wants to get feedback from the membership on any proposed changes. The original deadline of May 20th has been extended to June 20th.
2-4-13
The Mentoring & Inspiring Women in Radio Group has extended the deadline for applications for the 2013 Mildred Carter Mentoring Program to February 14. This is the 12th year of the mentoring program, which matches up-and-coming women in the radio industry with female professionals who are leaders in all aspects of radio. Three candidates from radio will be selected for the 2013 program. Go HERE for more details.
The program is named in memory of Mildred Carter, who, along with her husband, Andrew "Skip" Carter, founded the first African-American-owned radio station in the U.S. in 1950, when they turned on KPRS Kansas City, Missouri. Mrs. Carter ran the Carter Broadcast Group for many years after the death of Skip Carter, before turning over control of the company to her grandson, Michael Carter in 1987.
8-10-12
In a Thursday SEC filing, Emmis Communications reported that the August 8 deadline for Grupo Radio Centro's "qualified designees" to buy KXOS/Los Angeles for $85 million had passed, meaning the price of the station automatically reverts to $110 million, per an earlier put and call agreement.
KXOS is operated by Mexico City-based GRC under an LMA; that MA and the other provisions of the 2009 agreement remain in effect.
However, Emmis and GRC are talking about a possible further amendment to the agreement; according to the filing, the "qualified designees' banks have informed the parties that the financing process has been delayed but continues to move forward."
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7-19-2012
The RAB says the deadline for the Radio Mercury Awards has been extended to Monday, July 30. Spots can be entered in English, Spanish or a combination, broadcast or streamed. You can also enter spots and campaigns into more than one eligible category and double your chances to win. 2012 awards include $5,000 Radio Campaign, $5,000 Radio Innovation, $5,000 and $2,500 Agency spots, $10,000 Integrated Radio Campaign, $5,000 Spanish Language, $5,000 PSA and the $50,000 Best of Show.
Enter the 2012 Radio Mercury Awards online HERE
1-20=2012
by David Oxenford
The FCC' Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in its Quadrennial Review of the Multiple Ownership Rules was published in the Federal Register yesterday, setting the deadline of March 5 for initial comments in that proceeding. Reply comments are due on April 3. We summarized the FCC's tentative conclusions on changes to the ownership rules when the Commission first released its NPRM in late December.
The issues to be considered include changes to the broadcast newspaper cross ownership restrictions, the possible elimination of rules restricting the ownership of radio and TV in the same market, the potential attribution of TV shared services agreements (i.e. potentially making a shared services agreement "count" as an ownership interest in a multiple ownership analysis), and other possible revisions to the local radio and TV ownership limitations (or exceptions that would allow for waivers of the limits in defined circumstances). The Commission is also looking for suggestions on how these rules can be used to promote the minority ownership of broadcast stations.
As we wrote in December, this is but one more step in a long process before any new rules will be adopted. After the filing of the comments, there are bound to be many groups informally discussing proposed changes with FCC Commissioners and staffs, and much consideration before any final rules are adopted. Even these tentative conclusions took the FCC over a year and a half to produce from the date of the initial Notice of Inquiry in this proceeding.
Given the upcoming elections, and the potential for just about anything to become a campaign issue, a decision like this, that may contain controversial elements, will most likely be postponed until some time after election day. And even when decided, these rules are often debated for years afterward, as this NPRM is reviewing issues that Courts have rejected from previous ownership review orders reached in 2003 and 2007. Nevertheless, look for much more debate on these issues in the coming months.
David Oxenford is a partner in Davis Wright Tremaine's Washington, DC office. He has represented broadcasters for over 25 years on a wide array of matters from purchases and sales of broadcast properties and the negotiation of programming agreements to regulatory matters. Visit his website HERE Send him and e-mail HERE
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by David Oxenford
All commercial broadcasters have to file their Biennial Ownership Reports today, beginning a very busy month in the broadcaster's regulatory world. December 1 is also the deadline for noncommercial ownership reports to be filed by noncommercial radio stations in Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. Annual EEO Public File reports are also due to be in station files for stations in all of the states where noncommercial stations have ownership filings.
License renewals for radio broadcasters in Georgia and Alabama are also due on that date. And all full-power broadcasters need to file their reports on the results of the recent Nationwide EAS Test by December 27.
December also brings a Commission meeting, at which the CALM Act rules will be adopted according to the tentative agenda for the December 12 meeting. The CALM Act is intended to eliminate loud commercials. These rules are required by statute to be adopted in December. Comments on a number of other FCC proposals in rulemaking proceedings are also due. The FCC just announced that comments in the proceeding to determine if FM digital operations using the IBOC technology (so-called HD Radio) can operate with different power levels on each side of the main channel are due by December 19.
Radio broadcasters may be using December to prepare applications for the next auction of new FM channels, with an FCC filing window that opens on January 3. We also expect, based on press reports, to see a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on the FCC's multiple ownership rules.
About the only recent deadline that we?ve recently written about that won?t go into effect in December, is one that is not an FCC deadline, but one from the National Labor Relations Board, which had required virtually all companies across the country to begin posting at their businesses a statement about employee rights under Federal labor laws. This was supposed to have been done by November 14 but, due to objections by certain business groups to the NRLB?s power to require this notice, the date has been extended to January 31.
So get your regulatory hat on, and find time to take care of all of your legal obligations this month ? between your holiday shopping.
David Oxenford is a partner in Davis Wright Tremaine's Washington, DC office. He has represented broadcasters for over 25 years on a wide array of matters from purchases and sales of broadcast properties and the negotiation of programming agreements to regulatory matters.
Visit his website HERE
Send him and e-mail HERE
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