Twenty-three months after it initially issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) recommending the elimination of newspaper notice for broadcast license applications, FCC last week issued a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) reiterating its original recommendation and offering additional details about how it proposes to revise broadcasters’ public notice obligations.
PNRC filed comments in 2017 opposing the recommendation in the original NPRM and 35 press associations signed onto the comments. PNRC and the National Newspaper Association also met with FCC staff last fall to oppose the changes.
A few observations about the FCC’s new proposal: