At the request of KTBS-TV, Shreveport, Louisiana, the FCC has partially waived Section 73.3526 (and 73.3527 for noncommercial stations) of its rules with respect to the requirement to maintain quarterly issues/programs lists on the Commission's website. Effective August 2, 2012, all television stations were to upload to the agency's publicly accessible website all of the materials required to be in their public inspection files on a current basis (except for documents otherwise already on file with the Commission and publicly available online). Stations were given an additional six months, until February 2, 2013, in which to complete uploading older documents required to be in the file prior to August 2. (Because February 2 falls on a Saturday, the deadline is moved forward to February 4.)
This mandate to upload included the quarterly issues/programs lists. The rule requires those lists to be maintained in the public inspection file for the entire license term and until the next license renewal application has been granted with finality. Occasionally, license renewal applications remain pending for considerable periods of time – sometimes even until the end of the next eight-year license term. In such a situation, a station would be required to maintain all of the issues-program lists for two complete license terms – 16 years.
KTBS-TV is presently in this circumstance. It's renewal application filed in 2005 has not been acted upon and it is now time to file another application in early 2013. KTBS-TV asked the Commission to waive the requirement to upload to the FCC's website all of the issues/programs lists from the earlier license term (1997-2005), asserting that that task was an unwieldy burden. KTBS-TV committed to maintain those lists for public review at the station until the 2005 application is granted.
The Commission granted KTBS-TV's waiver request in a Memorandum Opinion and Order in Docket 00-168, and extended it to all similarly situated television stations with an unresolved license renewal application from a previous license term – but with certain conditions. Those conditions include the following:
- The old pending license renewal application must be unopposed by any member of the public.
- Deferral of action on the pending application must be due to enforcement matters unrelated to the station's obligation to air programming responsive to the needs and interests of its community or the related recordkeeping.
- All issues/programs lists from the prior term for which the old application is pending must be maintained at the station for public inspection until the renewal application is granted.
The waiver does not cover any other documents required to be in the public file from the prior license term. Those must be uploaded to the FCC's website.
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