CRTC-required contents
Canadian stations must keep the following materials in their public inspection file:
 | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2008) |
A public file (or public inspection file) is a collection of documents required by a broadcasting authority to be maintained by all broadcast stations under its jurisdiction.
Such a file is required by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States, and by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The public inspection file must be maintained at the station's main studio and it must be accessible to anyone during business hours. Stations are required to provide copies at the requester's expense, or if the facility is outside of the community of license, provide copies via mail at their own expense. As of November 2007, the FCC required public inspection files must also be maintained on the station's website, [1] [2] [3] and are optionally distributed to public libraries in the station's broadcast area for the sake of convenience. In these cases, public correspondence from viewers and political reports are usually left out due to cost concerns or misuse of the information provided. The FCC itself began to maintain a site in 2014 where a station can upload their public file components, allowing the public full access to the materials contained within without the restrictions of business hours or a studio visit. The latter move to website access allowed stations to easily close their studios to public access during the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent possible cross-contamination to station employees unknowingly from the public.
All or part of the file may be maintained in digital format as long as it is accessible at the time of inspection.
U.S. stations must keep the following materials in their public inspection file:
The instrument of authorization shows the station's frequency, call letters, operating power, transmitter location, etc., as well as any special conditions imposed by the FCC on the station's operation. The license also shows when it was issued and when it will expire. https://uc707a8e6de25fcdc4ee0cb7e049.dl.dropboxusercontent.com/cd/0/get/B4ijO7TDI2rFu9kjGQqAiD-dnwkmpCTIRnOyUCFh3HeW9rRpmCiKKuiZGcU1aIHSEeXHJD5CslNpZC1LjLcNz5-IiFo_ZojmHjxJs_XNrK24rGnHAq5wpqUE4JnbsE_Od8yxipES5TKbB3gxRb53uqQorhZ7z0wn2j-infk5_P6OIFZ-Mp-hYeNC0JZuzBCzlzw/file
The public file must contain copies of all applications filed with the FCC that are still pending before either the FCC or the courts. These include applications to sell the station or to modify its facilities (for example, to increase power, change the antenna system, or change the transmitter location). Also, the station must keep copies of any construction or sales application whose grant required us[ who? ] to waive our[ who? ] rules.
Stations must keep a copy of any written agreements they make with local viewers or listeners. These "citizen agreements" deal with programming, employment, or other issues of community concern. The station must keep these agreements in the public file for as long as they are in effect.
The public file must contain copies of any service contour maps or other information submitted with any application filed with the FCC that reflects the station's service contours and/or its main studio and transmitter location, if there are any, as not all stations are required to have contour maps.
Per Section 73.1943 , licensees are required to document each political candidate's broadcasts.
Stations must keep material relating to any matter that is the subject of an FCC investigation or complaint.
Per Section 73.2080 , licensees are required to keep records related to equal opportunity employment (EEO).
The FCC has a publication entitled The Public and Broadcasting , which must be kept in the file.
All correspondence from the public must be filed.
All broadcast facilities must keep a list of program material aired for the betterment of the local community. TV stations must have records concerning commercial limits and children's programming, along with their compliance with the E/I rule.
Upon filing for license renewal, section 73.3580 states broadcast facilities must make public announcements of their intention to continue broadcasting and notify the community that they may comment on the performance of the licensee. Dates and times of these broadcasts must be maintained in the public file.
For commercial facilities, a copy of every contract or agreement for brokered time must be available. Local marketing agreements (LMAs) are also included.
Class A television stations are required to document any agreements regarding must-carry or retransmission consent which they have with local cable TV systems.
The public file must contain a copy of the most recent, complete Ownership Report filed for the station. This report has the names of the owners of the station and their ownership interests, lists any contracts related to the station that are required to be filed with the FCC, and identifies any interest held by the station licensee in other broadcast stations.
Stations have to keep either a copy of all the contracts or an up-to-date list identifying all such contracts they have on file with the FCC.
For commercial facilities, any joint sales between the two must be documented.
Per Section 73.6001 , class A television stations must keep copies of their continued eligibility.
Canadian stations must keep the following materials in their public inspection file:
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2008) |
The official rules from the FCC are contained in Title 47 CFR Part 73:
Sections 73.3526 and 73.3527 are not applicable to low-power FM and TV stations and applicants.
Low-power broadcasting is broadcasting by a broadcast station at a low transmitter power output to a smaller service area than "full power" stations within the same region. It is often distinguished from "micropower broadcasting" and broadcast translators. LPAM, LPFM and LPTV are in various levels of use across the world, varying widely based on the laws and their enforcement.
In U.S., Canadian, and Mexican broadcasting, a city of license or community of license is the community that a radio station or television station is officially licensed to serve by that country's broadcast regulator.
Station identification is the practice of radio and television stations and networks identifying themselves on-air, typically by means of a call sign or brand name. This may be to satisfy requirements of licensing authorities, a form of branding, or a combination of both. As such, it is closely related to production logos, used in television and cinema alike.
In North American broadcasting, a local marketing agreement (LMA), or local management agreement, is a contract in which one company agrees to operate a radio or television station owned by another party. In essence, it is a sort of lease or time-buy.
In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system.
A broadcast license is a type of spectrum license granting the licensee permission to use a portion of the radio frequency spectrum in a given geographical area for broadcasting purposes. The licenses generally include restrictions, which vary from band to band.
KRCW-TV is a television station licensed to Salem, Oregon, United States, serving as the CW outlet for the Portland area. It is owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group alongside CBS affiliate KOIN. Both stations share studios in the basement of the KOIN Center skyscraper on Southwest Columbia Street in downtown Portland, while KRCW-TV's transmitter is located in the Sylvan-Highlands neighborhood of the city.
KUNP is a television station licensed to La Grande, Oregon, United States, affiliated with the Spanish-language Univision network. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Portland-based ABC affiliate KATU. Both stations share studios on NE Sandy Boulevard in Portland, while KUNP's transmitter is located east of Cove atop Mount Fanny, within eastern Oregon's Wallowa–Whitman National Forest.
WNDT-CD, is a class A low–power, First Nations Experience-affiliated television station, licensed to New York, New York. Owned by The WNET Group, it is sister to the city's two PBS member stations—Newark, New Jersey-licensed WNET and Garden City, New York-licensed WLIW —and Class A station WMBQ-CD.
KUTF is a religious television station licensed to Logan, Utah, United States, serving the Salt Lake City area as an owned-and-operated station of the Daystar Television Network. The station's transmitter is located on Cal Mountain near Tremonton, Utah.
The General Radiotelephone Operator License (GROL) is a license granted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that is required to operate certain radio equipment. It is required for any person who adjusts, maintains, or internally repairs FCC licensed radiotelephone transmitters in the aviation, maritime, and international fixed public radio services. It is also required to operate any compulsorily equipped ship radiotelephone station with more than 1,500 watts of peak envelope power, a voluntarily equipped ship, or an aeronautical station with more than 1,000 watts of peak envelope power. The GROL is not required for engineering jobs in radio and television broadcasting. It is obtained by taking a test demonstrating an adequate knowledge of the technical and legal aspects of safe radio operation.
The United States Federal Communications Commission uses the term instrument of authorization with its broadcast licensees. It may refer to:
WSOX is a commercial FM radio station licensed to serve Red Lion, Pennsylvania. The station is owned by Cumulus Media through licensee Radio License Holding SRC, LLC and broadcasts a classic hits format. The station's service contour includes the metro areas of York, Harrisburg, Lebanon, Gettysburg and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, as well as the northern suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. Its broadcast tower is located near Red Lion at.
In the broadcasting industry, a dark television station or silent radio station is one that has gone off the air for an indefinite period of time. Usually unlike dead air, a station that is dark or silent does not even transmit a carrier signal.
A broadcast relay station, also known as a satellite station, relay transmitter, broadcast translator (U.S.), re-broadcaster (Canada), repeater or complementary station (Mexico), is a broadcast transmitter which repeats the signal of a radio or television station to an area not covered by the originating station. It expands the broadcast range of a television or radio station beyond the primary signal's original coverage or improves service in the original coverage area. The stations may be used to create a single-frequency network. They may also be used by an AM or FM radio station to establish a presence on the other band.
KJIB-LP, VHF analog channel 6, was a low-powered television station licensed to Houston, Texas, United States. The station was owned by Roy Henderson. The station has minimal video modulation, with an offset of its audio modulation to 87.89 MHz. This allows individuals to listen to the TV channel at the lower end of the FM radio dial.
WPHA-CD, UHF, is a low-powered, Class A television station licensed to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Its transmitter is located in the Roxborough, Philadelphia antenna farm. The station is owned by D.T.V. LLC of Cheyenne, Wyoming.
Special Temporary Authority (STA) 74 CFR 73.1635 in U.S. broadcast law is a type of broadcast license which temporarily allows a broadcast station to operate outside of its normal technical or legal parameters. In the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) station database (CDBS), broadcast STA applications have a prefix of BSTA (general), BLSTA (legal), BESTA (engineering), or BLESTA (both). STAs can also be issued for other telecommunication services under FCC regulation. Often an STA is necessary due to an unforeseen event. A station operator must exhibit why the STA is necessary and serves the public good.
Radioactive waste is generated from the nuclear weapons program, commercial nuclear power, medical applications, and corporate and university-based research programs. Some of the materials LLW consists of are: "gloves and other protective clothing, glass and plastic laboratory supplies, machine parts and tools, and disposable medical items that have come in contact with radioactive materials". Waste is generally categorized as high level waste (HLW) and low-level waste (LLW). LLW contains materials such as irradiated tools, lab clothing, ion exchanger resins, animal carcasses, and trash from defense, commercial nuclear power, medical, and research activities. These materials usually have radioactivity that have short half lives—from ranges of multiple days to several hundred years. In 1990, 1.1 million cubic feet of LLW was produced. Currently, U.S. reactors generate about 40,000 cubic meters of low-level radioactive waste per year, including contaminated components and materials resulting from reactor decommissioning.