Differing Perspectives on Deregulation – Looking at Comments on FCC’s Proposal to Modify Rules on Public Notice of Broadcast Applications

While some might think that the business of deregulation is easy, that usually is not the case, as comments on the Federal Communications Commission’s proposals to modify the public notice requirements for broadcast applications make clear. In a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, as part of its initiative on the Modernization of Media Regulation, the FCC looked to modify the rules governing public notice that broadcasters must give when they file certain types of broadcast applications – particularly license renewals and applications for the assignment or transfer of broadcast stations.

While this proposal seems very straightforward, and many of the comments took the sides that one would expect, there were numerous comments that range from support for continued newspaper publication (principally from the newspaper industry), to calls for more detailed on air-announcements from certain public interest groups, to suggestions that the on-air notice be more abbreviated and used to direct listeners and viewers to a more detailed online disclosure.