News
John Garziglia Examines Petitions to Deny Radio Station License Renewals in Radio Ink Column
Sep 13 2019
The first batch of radio license renewals since the process went on hiatus in 2014 is now under review. September 5 was the deadline for members of the public to file oppositions to renewal applications in Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. These states are the first to be considered in the new cycle of eight-year radio license renewals.
Womble Bond Dickinson attorney John Garziglia writes about the latest developments in a new Radio Ink column. Out of several hundred radio stations up for renewal in the Mid-Atlantic, the FCC received just eight adverse filings. Five of these involve Virginia Low-Power FM (LPFM) stations alleged to have worked cooperatively to sell ad time and duplicate programming in violation of FCC LPFM rules. The other three adverse filings are petitions to deny against two FM translators and one full-service NCE station.
“Within our industry, there was a concern prior to the commencement of this new round of radio license renewals that petitions to deny would be levied against numerous radio stations based upon materials now widely available in the FCC’s new Online Public File. As of March 2018, no longer does the public need visit a radio station’s main studio to view its public file materials,” Garziglia writes.
“Based upon these first several hundred radio license renewal applications, however, the worry of increased adverse filings appears to have been exaggerated.”
Click here to read “License Renewal Petitions To Deny” by John Garziglia in Radio Ink.
John Garziglia represents radio and television broadcasters, offering personalized assistance in all areas of communications and telecommunications law including transactional and contract negotiations for broadcast station mergers and acquisitions, the securing of financing, governmental auctions of new frequencies, license renewals, new stations applications, facility changes, facility upgrades, licensing, and compliance with FCC rules, regulations and policies.
Related sectors
