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Broadcast Station Update
-
Annual EEO Public File Report Deadline—June
1
- Mid-Term
EEO Report for Certain Radio Stations in DC, MD, VA, and WV
Deadline—June
1
Affected States:
Arizona, District of Columbia, Idaho, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada,
New Mexico, Ohio, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming
Published by DWT's
Broadcast Group
[May 2007]
On June 1, 2007, radio and television Station Employment Units
in the listed states must place in their Public Inspection File
and post on their website, if they have a website, their FCC
Annual EEO Public File Report. A Station Employment Unit (SEU)
is a group of stations, under common control, serving a common
area, and sharing at least one employee. If an SEU includes
stations in different states with different filing deadlines,
the SEU can select which filing deadline it will use. Once selected,
the Annual Report filing deadline should be consistently applied
for all future EEO Annual Reports. The states with the June
1 filing deadline are: Arizona, District of Columbia, Idaho,
Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Utah, Virginia,
West Virginia, and Wyoming.
| SPECIAL NOTE: MID-TERM EEO REPORT ON FCC FORM
397 REQUIRED JUNE 1 FOR CERTAIN RADIO STATIONS IN DC, MD,
VA, and WV In addition to preparing the Annual
EEO Public File Report by June 1, larger radio stations
in Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia
must also prepare and file with the Commission an FCC
Form 397 Mid-Term EEO Report. Please note, only Station
Employment Units located in these four jurisdictions with
11 or more full-time employees are required to file an
FCC Form 397 by June 1, 2007. The Form 397 provides
the FCC with copies of the Station Employment Unit’s
two most recent Annual EEO Public File Reports (the reports
from this year and last year), and is an important part
of both the station’s compliance with the EEO rules
and the Commission’s monitoring procedures. While
normally the Annual EEO Public File Report is simply prepared
and placed in the station’s public file and on its
website (if it has one), at the mid-term of the license
term and again at the time the station’s license
renewal application is filed, stations must actually provide
the FCC with its two most recent Public File Reports.
This allows the FCC and the public to review the station’s
compliance with the EEO rules. June 1, 2007 is the first
time that the Mid-Term EEO Report will be filed by any
group of stations, and marks the mid-point in the license
term for radio stations in DC, Maryland, Virginia, and
West Virginia. Television stations in these states will
file a Mid-Term EEO Report this time next year.
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Background on EEO requirements
The FCC's EEO rule requires all radio and television SEUs,
regardless of staff size, to afford equal employment opportunity
to all qualified persons and to practice nondiscrimination in
employment. The Annual EEO Public File Report summarizes the
activities of SEUs with five or more full-time employees ("Nonexempt
SEUs") that demonstrate compliance with the FCC's three-prong
outreach requirements. All Nonexempt SEUs must comply with the
following “prongs” of the EEO outreach requirements:
(1) broadly and inclusively disseminate information about every
full-time job opening except in exigent circumstances (commonly
referred to as the requirement for “ Wide Dissemination”);
(2) send notifications of full-time job vacancies to recruitment
organizations that have requested notice; and (3) participate
in a specified number of outreach initiatives (so-called “Supplemental
Efforts”) from the FCC's menu of such options during each
of the four, two-year segments that comprise a station's eight-year
license term. The Supplemental Efforts must be conducted even
if a station has had no job openings in the prior year in an
effort to educate the community as to the types of jobs available
at broadcast stations, the training and qualifications required
for such jobs, and the way in which people can find out about
and apply for broadcast openings.
The specifics of these rules are complex, and the requirements
must be carefully observed, as the FCC has recently fined stations
who have overlooked their obligations. A primer on the EEO requirements,
summarizing these requirements in greater detail, can be found
on our website.
Annual EEO Public File Report deadline, contents
By June 1, 2007, all Nonexempt SEUs of radio and television
stations, including Class A television stations and LPTV stations,
licensed to communities in the states listed above, must: (1)
place their Annual EEO Public File Report in the public inspection
files of all stations comprising the SEU; and (2) post the Report
on the websites, if any station in the SEU has a website.
The Annual EEO Public File Report summarizes the Nonexempt
SEU's EEO activities during the previous 12 months, and it must
include the following:
- A list of all full-time vacancies filled during the preceding
year, identified by job title;
- A list of the recruitment source(s) used to fill each of
those vacancies (including organizations that specifically
requested notification of all job vacancies pursuant to Prong
2 of the EEO outreach rules), including the address, contact
person, and telephone number for each source. Prong 2 sources
should be specifically identified;
- An identification of the recruitment source that referred
the person hired for each full-time vacancy;
- Data reflecting the total number of persons interviewed
for full-time vacancies during the preceding year, and the
total number of interviewees referred by each recruitment
source during the year (be careful to insure that the number
of interviewees broken down by recruitment source equals the
number you give for the total number of interviewees during
the preceding year); and
- A list and brief description of Prong 3 menu options implemented
during the preceding year. The list should be sufficiently
detailed so as to demonstrate that each activity involved
a substantial and meaningful commitment of staff time to the
particular activity by SEU employees.
There is no FCC form for the Annual EEO Public File Report.
Nonexempt SEUs may use any format that clearly provides the
required information. For example, if a Nonexempt SEU used the
same recruitment sources for all its vacancies, it may maintain
a single list of those sources which indicates that they were
used for all vacancies. If a Nonexempt SEU used different sources
for different vacancies, it may maintain a master list of all
its sources and use a cross-reference system to show which sources
were used for which vacancies. A model Public Inspection File
Report, which can be tailored by your station to reflect your
station practices, is attached as Appendix
A.
According to the FCC rules, the Annual EEO Public File Report
covers activities during the period from June 1, 2006 through
May 31, 2007. However, the FCC has issued a public notice allowing
nonexempt SEUs to opt to "cut off" the reporting period
up to ten days before May 31. This gives the SEU a period of
time in which to prepare the report and place it in the public
file, and upload it to the website, before the June 1 deadline.
If you elect to use this 10-day grace period, be sure that the
next reporting period begins the day after the cut-off date
that you select. For example, if the Nonexempt SEU has cut off
the reporting as of May 25, 2007 for this year's report, next
year the Nonexempt SEU must use the period beginning on May
26, 2007 for the 2008 report.
FCC Form 395-B
In the past, FCC Form 395-B, the Broadcast Station Annual Employment
Report, was due by September 30. In 2004, the FCC readopted
the requirement that Form 395-B be filed with the FCC by that
date each year. However, the FCC has put the filing requirement
on hold until it determines if the information gathered by the
Form 395-B will be available for public review, or if it will
be kept confidential and used only by the FCC for compiling
overall industry statistics. While the issue of confidentiality
is being considered, no filing deadline has been established.
Thus, the FCC never gave notice of a date for the filing of
the 2004 or 2005 reports, and has not yet said anything about
a deadline for any 2007 Form 395-B. Unless such a date is announced,
no Form 395-B filing is due in 2007.
If outreach is not documented, it did not happen
Records documenting performance under the EEO Rule are critical
because the Commission will not allow credits for Menu Option
Initiatives that are not reported in an SEU's Annual EEO Public
File Report nor adequately documented. We recommend that stations
have communications counsel review their draft report, including
supporting material, prior to placing it in the public file.
The Commission enforces the EEO rules through review at the
time of license renewal, at mid-term for larger broadcasters,
and through random audits and targeted investigations resulting
from information received as to possible violations. The Commission
selects for audit approximately five percent of all licensees
in the radio and television services each year. The random audits
check for compliance with the requirements outlined in this
Update, and are planned to continue indefinitely. The FCC's
Public Notices listing audited stations are available at: http://www.fcc.gov/mb/policy/eeo/.
This update can only briefly summarize the detailed requirements
of the EEO Public Inspection File Report. For more information
on your obligations, and practical compliance advice, please
contact any of the lawyers in the Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Broadcast Practice Area.
For more information, please contact:
This advisory is
a publication of the Broadcast Group of Davis Wright Tremaine
LLP. Our purpose in publishing this advisory is to inform our
clients and friends of recent developments in the broadcasting
industry. It is not intended, nor should it be used, as a substitute
for specific legal advice as legal counsel may only be given
in response to inquiries regarding particular situations.
Copyright © 2007, Davis Wright
Tremaine LLP.
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