WEBVTT

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There's a folder sitting on the FCC's website

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right now with your station's name on it Anyone

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can open it right now from their couch at two

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o 'clock in the morning and if something is missing

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or late or filed wrong That's a problem that

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could cost your station tens of thousands of

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dollars before you even know that there's an

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investigation This is the Tyler Woodward project

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and today I'm talking about the FCC public file

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What it actually is why it's a compliance trap

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that even the big broadcast groups keep falling

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into and The specific parts of it that will get

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you in trouble if you're not paying attention

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So let me back up for people who don't usually

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deal with this directly. Every license broadcast

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station in the United States is required by the

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FCC to maintain what's called a public inspection

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file. The idea goes back decades. The FCC wanted

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the public to be able to walk into any radio

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station and see that it was actually serving

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the community. License applications, ownership

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records, how the station handles political advertising.

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The public has a right to that information. For

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most of radio's history, that meant a physical

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binder in a cabinet somewhere at the main studio.

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Sure, it was a little dusty, rarely opened, and

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in most cases it was either the chief engineer

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or the GM who knew where it was and vaguely knew

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what was supposed to be in it. That changed in

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2018. The FCC moved all radio stations to an

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online system called the Public Inspection File.

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Hosted at publicfiles .fcc .gov, big market commercial

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stations, they transitioned back in 2016. Everyone

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else had until March 1st of 2018. And here's

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what changed fundamentally. Everything in that

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file is now publicly searchable, permanently

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date stamped, and can be audited by anyone with

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an internet connection, a watchdog group, an

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opposing political campaign, an FCC staffer,

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a journalist, or your competitor down the street.

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The binder in the cabinet had a certain obscurity

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protecting it, the online file, it's got none

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of that. So what does the FCC expects you to

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have in there. It's more than most people think.

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Your license and applications, obviously. Ownership

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reports, contour maps, copies of any time brokerage

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or joint sales agreements, the FCC's own public

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and broadcast and manual, EEO reports, you know,

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the equal employment opportunity stuff. All of

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that's got to be filed annually. A list of donors

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for specific programs if you're a non -commercial

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station. And then there's two items that are

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responsible for the vast majority of fines in

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this space. The political file and the quarterly

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issues and programs list. I'll get to both of

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those. But first, a word about the online public

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inspection file portal itself. Well, because

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it deserves its own moment. acknowledgement.

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The portal, it's not great. It's gone down during

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election seasons, which is exactly when you can't

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afford for it to go down. There was a significant

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outage in late October in early November of 2022,

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right before the midterms, when stations were

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trying to upload political ad documentation.

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The FCC acknowledged the problem, they extended

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the fourth quarter deadline that year because

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the system had quote intermittent operation the

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login system requires fcc registration credentials

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and now two -factor authentication every upload

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is time stamped there's no automated reminders

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for anything if the system goes down and your

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upload is late that's still your problem You

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have to document it and you have to defend why

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it was late One broadcast attorney put it really

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well. He said the date and timestamp on every

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upload is Well, essentially a built -in truth

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serum You cannot fudge when something was filed

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the record It's right there So let's talk about

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the political file This is the part of the public

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file that has produced the biggest enforcement

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actions in radio history. And I want to explain

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why. Because it's not just about keep records

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of political ads. It's a little more complicated

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than that. Under FCC rules, anytime a legally

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qualified candidate or anyone running an ad that

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touches on a political matter of national importance,

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who purchases time on your station, you have

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to document it. and not just document it, you

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have to upload it to the online public inspection

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file as soon as possible. The FCC's interpretation

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of that phrase is, well, within 24 hours or the

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next business day. And you don't just log the

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ad buy, you have to record who purchased it,

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what they paid, which rate class it was, which

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candidate or issues it references, and if it's

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a non - candidate, organization, a pact, an advocacy

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group, you need the names of their officers or

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board members. Then there's a category that catches

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people off guard, which is ads that relate to

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a political matter of national importance. The

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FCC expanded that definition in 2019 to essentially

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mean any widely debated national issue. Not just

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elections and add about gun policy about health

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care about Climate if it touches something being

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argued about at the national level it potentially

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triggers political file requirements David Oxenford

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who runs the broadcast law blog and is well one

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of the most read broadcast attorneys in the industry

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laid out a hypothetical a few years back about

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a shooting range. The ad is about local zoning.

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But is there a national gun issue underneath

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it? Does that pull it into the political file?

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His answer was, who knows? That's the state of

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the rule. Even experts are shrugging. And then

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there's the 2020 sweep. In July of that year,

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the FCC went after six of the biggest radio companies

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in the country all at once. iHeart, Cumulus,

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Intercom, Salem, Alpha, Beasley. Together, those

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groups covered somewhere between 1 ,800 and 1

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,900 stations. All of them had political file

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problems. The FCC didn't actually find them.

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They cited the pandemic and the fact that the

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groups did come forward voluntarily, but the

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compliance plans, the designated officers, the

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multi -year reporting requirements, that's not

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nothing. That's a significant ongoing operational

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weight and requirement. And for companies that

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Didn't get the same grace. Cumulus paid $540

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,000 in 2016 for a sponsorship ID failure on

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a single station in New Hampshire. Half a million

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dollars. One station. Ads that ran without proper

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identification. Town Square paid $500 ,000. in

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January of 2024 for KIDO and KLIX, two Idaho

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talk stations that aired what was essentially

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a paid political program from the state Republican

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party without disclosing that it was paid content.

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and without public file uploads. That violation

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ran from October 2021 through March of 2023,

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a year and a half. That complaint wasn't even

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from the FCC doing some random audit. It was

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triggered by a local news outlet that noticed

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the program and started asking questions. Which

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brings me back to the point about the public

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file being public. You're not just accountable

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to the FCC, you're accountable to anybody paying

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attention. If the political file is the most

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dangerous folder, the quarterly issues and programs

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list is the most consistently fined. Four times

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a year, January 10th, April 10th, July 10th,

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October 10th, every commercial and non -commercial

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station has to upload a narrative description

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of the most significant ways it addressed community

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issues during the prior quarter. What issues

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came up? What programs dealt with them? There's

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no form. There's no template. The FCC doesn't

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tell you how many issues to list, what formats

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to use, or what significant even means. There's

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an old pre -1980 rule that implied 5 to 10 issues

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per quarter. And most broadcast attorneys now

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use that as a safe, you know, soft, safe harbor.

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But the FCC has never formally said that's the

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standard. The issues list is probably the most

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fined public file item over the past decade,

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according to multiple broadcast law firms that

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track enforcement. And the reason is almost always

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the same. The station forgot. or was short -staffed

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or nobody had clear ownership of it and they

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missed a quarter or several quarters and then

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the license renewal came around they look at

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the file and there's gaps and here's what makes

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this worse when you file your license renewal

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you certify that your public file is complete.

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If it's not, and you certified that it is, that's

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a separate violation. The FCC can fine you for

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the missing list AND fine you for the false certification.

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A station in Virginia paid $15 ,000 and got a

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two -year short -term renewal because the owner,

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a 92 -year -old man, had never filed a quarterly

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issues list in the entire licensed term. The

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FCC's response to the age argument was that age

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was not an excuse for noncompliance, and that's

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a direct quote. A cluster of four stations in

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Washington state paid $46 ,000 total across the

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group and got four years rather than the 8 year

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renewals because they were missing between 12

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and 26 quarters of issues per station. The fix

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isn't complicated. You just have to actually

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do it every quarter within 10 days of the quarter

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ending. The content doesn't have to be elaborate.

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It needs to be honest and it needs to be specific

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enough to demonstrate that the station was thinking

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about its community. But it has to be there,

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and it has to be uploaded on time. None of the

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rules that I've described here are new. The issues

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list, obligation, that's been around since the

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early 1980s. The political file has existed in

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some form for decades. What changed in 2018 is

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that the compliance record it became permanent

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public and searchable by anyone on the internet

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You know the binder in the cabinet had a It sort

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of had a forgiveness You know built in but You

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know if a quarter get missed it might not come

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up until you know the renewal if a political

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ad get filed a day late Maybe nobody noticed

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That time is gone. The online file has turned

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routine paperwork into ongoing legal exposure.

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Not because the rules get harder, but because

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transparency got higher. If you work at a radio

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station in any capacity, you're the engineer,

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program director, general manager, ownership,

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and you don't know exactly what's in your public

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file, and when it was last updated, you should

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probably go check on that. Not because the FCC

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is knocking on your door tomorrow, but because

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the clock on the next license renewal is always

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ticking, and the timestamp on every upload is

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already on the record. That's it for this one.

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I'm Tyler Woodward, this is the Tyler Woodward

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Project. Follow me on Instagram, threads, and

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bluesky at tylerwoodward .me and you can find

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more at tylerwoodward .me. I'll catch you next

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week.