Broadcast Advisory Bulletin
Broadcast Station Update
- Annual EEO Public File Report Deadline
– December 1
Affected States: Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia,
Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, North
Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Vermont
- Mid-Term EEO Report due December 1 for Certain
Radio Stations in Alabama and Georgia
Published by DWT's
Broadcast Group
[November 2007]
By December 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 December 1 filing deadline are: Alabama,
Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota,
Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota,
and Vermont.
| SPECIAL NOTE: MID-TERM EEO REPORT
ON FCC FORM 397 REQUIRED DECEMBER 1 FOR CERTAIN RADIO STATIONS
IN ALABAMA AND GEORGIA
In addition to preparing the Annual EEO Public File Report
by December 1, larger radio stations in Alabama and Georgia
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 three jurisdictions with 11 or more
full-time employees are required to file an FCC Form 397 by
December 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. December 1, 2007 marks the
mid-point in the license term for radio stations in Alabama
and Georgia. Television stations in these states will file
a Mid-Term EEO Report this time next year. |
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 December 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 December 1, 2006 through November
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 November 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 December 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 November
25, 2007 for this year's report, next year the Nonexempt SEU must
use the period beginning on November 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: 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
Davis Wright Tremaine LLP. Our purpose in publishing this advisory
is to inform our clients and friends of recent legal developments.
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. Attorney
advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Thank
you.
Copyright © 2007, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.
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