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Broadcast Localism: An informed public plays a vital role in helping stations serve local community needs

Broadcast Localism:
An informed public plays a vital role in
helping stations serve local community needs

For over 12 years, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been considering how the transition to digital television technology – and the increased capacity it offers TV broadcasters – should impact the compact between television stations and the communities they are licensed to serve. By law and FCC rules, these stations are licensed to serve the public interest, convenience and necessity. Over the years, this has meant different things, but the overriding mandate has been that stations must serve the interests of local communities, not the station owner’s own commercial interests.

In December, the FCC adopted new media ownership rules allowing newspapers to own television stations in their local markets. As part of these new rules, the FCC noted:

    “[T]he Commission has concurrently adopted a Localism Report and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking that addresses actions the Commission will take to ensure that broadcasters are meeting the needs of their local communities. With respect to other ideas raised in this proceeding, such as whether the agency should establish more specific minimum public interest requirements for licensees and how broadcasters could improve political candidates’ access to television, the Commission declines to take any further action at this time. We find the need to impose additional obligations premature in light of the Commission’s recent decision to require broadcasters to file enhanced disclosure reports about the programming they are providing to serve local communities’ interests and needs. Nevertheless, to the extent that circumstances change, we will revisit this decision and initiate proceedings as appropriate.”(1)

After much deliberation, the FCC has concluded that there needs to be improved communication between broadcasters and the communities they are licensed to serve. To facilitate improved communications, the FCC is asking for public comment on proposals to improve: 1) License Renewal Procedures and Processing Guidelines, 2) Renewal Application Announcements, 3) the Service Delivered to Underserved Audiences and 4) Remote Television Operation.

The FCC recently published the filing schedule for the new, proposed localism rules. Comments are due April 28, 2008 and Reply Comments are due June 11, 2008.

In addition, the FCC will be updating its 1999 publication The Public and Broadcasting,(2) to provide viewers more straightforward guidance on how they can participate in a station’s license renewal.


I. License Renewal Procedures and Processing Guidelines

The FCC has tentatively concluded that it should “reintroduce guidelines for the processing of renewal applications for stations based on their localism programming performance.” In reviewing applications for renewal, the FCC’s Media Bureau would, under a proposed plan, process applications filed by stations that have met or exceeded prescribed minimum percentages of locally-oriented programming, while the full FCC would consider applications by licensees had not met the prescribed minimum.

The FCC is asking for public input on:

  • Whether the FCC should give processing priority to stations that meet certain measurable standards;
  • Whether these minimums should be expressed as hours of programming per week, or, as in the past, percentages of overall programming;
  • Whether the guidelines should cover particular types of programming, such as local news, political, public affairs and entertainment, or simply generally reflect locally-oriented programming;
  • What the categories and amounts or percentages should be;
  • Whether guidelines should include breakdowns of the times of day local programming is shown; and
  • How local programming should be defined (i.e. must programming be locally produced).

II. Renewal Application Announcements

The FCC seeks comment on whether the existing rules governing so-called “pre-filing and post-filing announcements” that licensees must air in connection with their license renewal applications should be changed. Specifically, the FCC seeks comment on:

  • Whether the same information that is currently required for on-air announcements about soon-to-be-filed and pending renewal applications should be posted on a licensee’s website during the relevant months (i.e., the posting begins on the sixth month before the license is due to expire and remains in place until after the deadline for filing petitions to deny);
  • Whether to broaden the required language for these announcements, which currently provides the Commission’s mailing address as a source for information concerning the broadcast license renewal process, to include the agency’s website address and, where technically feasible, to provide a link directly to the FCC’s website.

III. Service Delivered to Underserved Audiences

The principle of localism requires broadcasters to take into account all significant groups within their communities when developing balanced, community-responsive programming, including those groups with specialized needs and interests. While the FCC has observed that each broadcast station is not necessarily required to provide service to all such groups, it has nonetheless recognized the concerns of some that programming – particularly network programming – often is not sufficiently culturally diverse.

The FCC has tentatively concluded that licensees should convene and consult with permanent advisory boards made up of leaders from the community of each broadcast station. In addition to informing broadcasters of issues of importance to their communities in general, such advisory boards should include representatives of all segments of the community, to ensure that those community elements have a continuing opportunity to communicate their group’s perceived needs and interests to their local broadcast station management.

The FCC seeks comment on a number of issues arising from this proposal, including under what circumstances a licensee with formal groups in place should be deemed to have satisfied this requirement. Specifically, the FCC asks:

  • Will such community advisory boards be able to alert each broadcaster to issues that are important to its community of license?
  • How should members of the advisory boards be selected or elected?
  • Should the former ascertainment guidelines be a starting point to identify those various segments in the community with whom the licensees should consult?
  • How can the advisory boards be composed so as to ensure that all segments of the community, including minority or underserved members of the community, would also have an opportunity to voice their concerns about local issues facing the area?
  • How frequently should licensees be required to meet with these advisory boards?

IV. Remote Television Operation

The FCC is concerned about the prevalence of automated broadcast operations, which allow the operation of stations without a local presence, and the negative impact that such remote operation may have on licensees’ ability to determine and serve local needs. The FCC seeks comment on whether television licensees should be required to maintain a physical presence at their broadcasting facilities during all hours of operation.

V. You and Localism

When the FCC launched this proceeding, Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein said, "[O]ne can't help but regard the prospects for quick implementation with a healthy degree of skepticism. If history is any guide, the odds are that the Commission will either neglect to finalize these proposals, or when it comes time to finalize them, they may be so diluted as to render them meaningless." He added, "We need to put the meat in the sandwich we promised to deliver. It is high time we put this notice out for comment, but we should have actually implemented improvements to localism before we completed the media ownership item. Now that the Commission has acted to loosen the media ownership rules, it is all the more imperative we move immediately to implement some of the useful ideas broached here and others that we learn about in the comment period. We are already too late to have done this right."

The "meat" Commissioner Adelstein will likely come from the comments of public interest organizations and the general public. In testimony delivered before the FCC in 2007, Media Access Project President Andrew Schwartzman called on the FCC to:

  • Develop a meaningful and much more transparent license renewal process based on much more detailed information about broadcasters’ actual program practices.
  • Reduce the term of broadcast licenses to three years.
  • Require every single licensee to carry minimum amounts of locally originated, licensee produced, programming designed to address local needs, tastes and interests.
  • Expand the number of low power FM stations.
  • Develop meaningful programs to double the number of minority and female owned broadcast stations within the next five years.
  • Deny must-carry privileges to over the air TV stations which devote more than 12 hours per day to home shopping presentations.

Mr Schwartzman also stressed that effective local service requires "institutional and personal attachments to the community. It requires a diverse workforce that is capable of conveying the many different perspectives found in each community. There is no way to document the qualitative impact of having a station operated locally by individuals citizens who live in the community and expect to remain there."

Thousands of people have already told the FCC that they feel some broadcasters are failing on their localism mandate. To ensure meaningful localism rules, it may take the collective voice of thousands to compel the FCC to act.

Interested parties may file comments on or before Friday, March 14, 2008 and reply comments on or before Monday, April 14, 2008. Comments may be filed using: 1) the Commission's Electronic Comment Filing System http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/ecfs/ or 2) by filing paper copies. (For more info see http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-07-218A1.doc)

1) In the Matter of 2006 Quadrennial Regulatory Review – Review of the Commission’s Broadcast Ownership Rules and Other Rules Adopted Pursuant to Section 202 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996; 2002 Biennial Regulatory Review – Review of the Commission’s Broadcast Ownership Rules and Other Rules Adopted Pursuant to Section 202 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996; Cross-Ownership of Broadcast Stations and Newspapers; Rules and Policies Concerning Multiple Ownership of Radio Broadcast Stations in Local Markets; Definition of Radio Markets; Ways to Further Section 257 Mandate and To Build on Earlier Studies; Public Interest Obligations of TV Broadcast Licensees (MB Docket No. 06-121; MB Docket No. 02-277; MM Docket No. 01-235; MM Docket No. 01-317; MM Docket No. 00-244; MB Docket No. 04-228; MM Docket No. 99-360) @ ¶ 145.

2) This manual provides a brief overview of the regulation of broadcast radio and television. It describes the FCC, the federal agency authorized by Congress to regulate broadcasting. It also discusses how broadcast stations are licensed, their obligation to serve their local communities, and other requirements relating to broadcast programming and advertising. This manual also describes the public inspection file, which contains documents relevant to the station's operation. This file is maintained and made available to the public by all radio and TV stations. This manual's purpose is to provide information to help you encourage stations to provide high quality broadcasting service. The FCC wants you to become involved by contacting your local stations and the FCC regarding your concerns about their programming or other matters related to the stations.