The FCC’s decision to shut down immediately after federal appropriations lapsed -- rather than continue operations, as it did during past shutdowns -- has created uncertainty for broadcasters, wrote Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorneys David Oxenford, David O’Connor and Keenan Adamchak in a blog post Friday. “In recent years, there was at least some time for broadcasters and others regulated by the FCC to get ready for the shutdown and get further guidance as to what would happen with respect to particular filing deadlines.” That isn’t so this time, the attorneys wrote. Although the agency has issued public notices on extending some deadlines, it's unclear how broadcasters should handle equal employment opportunity audit responses or major change applications, the blog post said. The FCC’s License Management System is offline during the shutdown, which means broadcasters also won’t be able to meet quarterly issues/programs list filing deadlines. “But will the FCC’s systems be able to handle a crush of filings due the first business day after the day that the government reopens?” the attorneys asked. “These are all questions that broadcasters should consider with their counsel.”

The regulatory structure that governs broadcasting “is an anachronism” and wouldn’t exist if it were a new technology introduced today, wrote Eric Fruits, a senior scholar for the International Center for Law & Economics, in a post Thursday for Truth on the Market. An emerging technology today wouldn't be subject to rules like retransmission consent, ownership caps and the public interest standard, he said. “The idea that a panel of three to five presidentially appointed FCC commissioners in Washington can better determine the ‘public interest’ than the public itself -- through its viewing choices in a competitive market -- is a relic of progressive-era central planning,” Fruits said. “In reality, the vague standard invites regulatory capture and rent seeking, where politically connected groups lobby the FCC to define the public interest in ways that benefit them, rather than the public at-large.”

Radio Communications Corp. (RCC) is seeking U.S. Supreme Court review of its challenge of the FCC’s implementation of the 2023 Low Power Protection Act (LPPA), which a U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit three-judge panel unanimously rejected in June (see 2506270043). The FCC’s LPPA order allowed low-power TV stations fulfilling certain criteria set by Congress to upgrade to Class A status. Though the FCC’s order used nearly identical language to the LPPA, RCC has repeatedly argued that the FCC mistook Congress’ intent. RCC had argued the LPPA's requirement that eligible stations operate in a designated market area (DMA) with not more than 95,000 TV households was misinterpreted by the FCC, and it actually meant the upgrades should be available based on the size of a station’s community of license. The D.C. Circuit disagreed. “Nowhere in the statute does Congress reference ‘community of license,’ nor are communities of license equivalent systems to DMAs,” said the June opinion. “RCC’s convoluted reading of these statutory provisions is plainly incorrect.” In its petition for certiorari, RCC said the D.C. Circuit opinion and FCC order gave NAB and full-power broadcasters “speculative third-party regulatory relief” by not letting more LPTV stations upgrade to Class A status. The D.C. Circuit opinion “twists the LPPA into knots, ignoring basic statutory interpretive rules, for the improper purpose of protecting NAB’s Full Power clients, the entities the LPPA seeks to constrain,” RCC said. The petition accuses the FCC of acting on NAB’s behalf, though the agency’s order implementing the LPPA stuck narrowly to the text of the statute. “Federal agencies are not alter egos for trade associations,” RCC said.

CPB announced Friday a grant of up to $57.9 million over five years to deliver interconnection services to public radio stations. The grant will go to Public Media Infrastructure (PMI), a newly created nonprofit formed by a coalition of public radio organizations, a release said. The group includes New York Public Radio, Station Resource Group, American Public Media Group and the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. Previous CPB grants for interconnection services had gone to the NPR-owned Public Radio Satellite Service, but PMI won out in a recent bidding process, a CPB spokesperson told us.

The FCC Media Bureau has set comment dates for several of Gray Television's proposed purchases of TV stations (see 2508010047) and indicated that the agency won’t oppose a court decision vacating the top-four Prohibition, according to a public notice Monday. “It is anticipated that the mandate for the vacatur of the Top-Four Prohibition will take effect on October 21,” the notice said. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the rule in July but delayed issuing the mandate to give the FCC additional time to file in opposition. Broadcast attorneys told us the language in Monday's notice suggests that the agency won’t do that. Comments on Gray’s proposed buys of stations from Sagamore Hill Broadcasting, Block Communications and Allen Media are due Oct. 22, the notice said. Opposition filings are due Nov. 6, replies Nov. 17.

The FCC Media Bureau is seeking comment on Kansas Public Telecommunications Service’s request to substitute channels for its station KPTS Hutchinson, Kansas, an NPRM said Tuesday. KPTS is currently on Channel *8 and seeks to switch to Channel *33. The FCC designates noncommercial channels with an asterisk. Comments will be due in docket 25-287 30 days after the NPRM is published in the Federal Register and replies 15 days later. The Media Bureau also granted a substitution request for theDove Media, which wanted to substitute Channel *24 for Channel *4 for a future noncommercial station in Jacksonville, Oregon.

The FCC Enforcement Bureau issued a pirate broadcasting notice to Tao and Persephone Lundolos of Booneville, Mississippi, about pirate radio broadcasts allegedly coming from property they own there. Hosting an unauthorized broadcast could result in a fine of up to $2.45 million for the property owners, the bureau said in a letter Friday.

The Enforcement Bureau has extended the deadline to Oct. 17 for responses to its 2025 equal employment opportunity audit letters and will allow stations targeted in the audit to keep their responses to questions about diversity practices private, said a public notice Friday. Responses had been due Sept. 22.

The FCC unanimously approved a $40,000 forfeiture against Wilner Baptiste for operating a pirate radio station in Spring Valley, New York. Baptiste operated “M-One Radio Live,” also known as “M-One Live Radio," according to the forfeiture order. Enforcement Bureau field agents traced Baptiste’s signal in February and June 2024, and the FCC issued a notice of apparent liability against him in September 2024 (see 2409260026).

The full FCC has voted to reject the Weather Alert Radio Network’s appeal of a 2024 Media Bureau decision rejecting 105 WARN applications for low-power FM stations in nine U.S. states and the U.S. Virgin Islands, said an order Thursday. WARN’s applications didn’t meet FCC requirements for a public safety radio service, and it didn’t provide any documentation that it had been in contact with state, local and national public safety entities, the order said. “Because WARN had not established that a public safety organization had officially authorized it to provide a public safety radio service on its behalf in the relevant proposed service area,” it didn’t meet the agency’s requirements that it have jurisdiction in its service area.