In late-breaking news, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has adopted a final rule banning new noncompete agreements for all workers and effectively nullifying existing agreements and requiring companies to notify most current and past employees that the company will no longer enforce such agreements. In a change from the prior FTC proposal, however, the agreements may remain in effect for senior executives. This rule is scheduled to go into effect 120 days after publication in the Federal Register, though its future is a bit uncertain. Various business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of ..read more

The FCC recently released a Notice of Apparent Liability (“NAL”) for a forfeiture of $8,000 that should be a cautionary tale for other broadcast licensees that conduct contests for listeners or viewers.  This fine arose out of the station’s failure to conduct a contest in accordance with its announced terms, and specifically to make payment of a prize by the deadline which the station had established for itself.  The FCC found that this failure was a violation of its contest rules.  Section 73.1216 of the FCC’s rules requires that broadcast licensees must fully and accurately di ..read more

The FCC released a Public Notice today establishing deadlines for submitting comments on its proposed rules to permit limited, voluntary program origination on FM boosters.  Comments must be filed no later than May 16.  Reply comments must be filed no later than June 17.  The proposed rules would provide flexibility for stations to use boosters to transmit hyper-local advertising and programming, independent of the primary station signal.   As discussed in our prior post, the FCC is seeking comment on issues including:   Whether to limit each full-service FM stat ..read more

At this year’s LPTV Broadcasters Association meeting during the NAB convention in Las Vegas, Peter Tannenwald, retired member of Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth, received the Mike Gravino Lifetime Achievement Award. This award recognizes individuals who contribute to the advancement of the low power TV industry and who exemplify the highest standards of excellence in their work with LPTV stations. Keith Larson, Larry Rogow, and Paul Koplin were also recognized for their service.   Over the course of his career spanning more than 40 years, Peter Tannenwald was an early advocate for LPT ..read more

On April 2, 2024, the FCC released a Report and Order (“R&O”) and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“FNPRM”) adopting rule changes that will allow FM booster stations to originate up to three minutes of programming per hour.  Prior to adopting the changes, the FCC generally defined a booster as a “fill-in” translator that is restricted to retransmission of the primary station’s existing broadcast on the primary station’s frequency.  Now, the FCC has adopted an additional definition for “program originating FM booster stations.”  These boosters serve primarily as a fill ..read more

The FCC issued an Order last Friday reinstating the collection of workforce composition data for television and radio broadcasters, requiring broadcast licensees to file Form 395-B, which collects race, ethnicity, and gender information about the licensee’s employees, on an annual basis.  The requirement to file Form 395-B had been suspended for almost 20 years, but in July of 2021, the FCC issued a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in an effort to refresh the public record regarding the form and determine whether the requirement should be implemented again.  The Commission’s sta ..read more

On February 21, 2024, an FHH attorney, Thomas F. Urban II, won an important victory for the firm’s client, Jane Doe, to protect her right to pursue her civil claims against her rapist without having to expose her identity.  Due to Urban’s efforts and those of his co-counsel, Walter Steimel of Steimel Counselors Law Group, LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit issued a published Opinion protecting the anonymity of Doe.  Doe’s counsel established that her assailant was liable for the rape after he not only refused to provide a DNA sample that would have confirmed his cu ..read more

Given the increasing power of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate content that mimics human voices, the FCC issued a unanimous Declaratory Ruling clarifying that current AI technologies that generate human voices constitute “artificial or prerecorded voices” subject to the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The TCPA protects consumers from unwanted calls made using artificial or prerecorded voices by prohibiting the making of such calls to residential and wireless lines without the prior express consent of the party receiving the call.    With this Decla ..read more

The federal Corporate Transparency Act (“CTA”), enacted by Congress on January 1, 2021, established new ownership disclosure and reporting requirements for most small and medium sized U.S. companies (“Reporting Companies”), including both existing and newly created companies. The deadline for filing the required report is January 1, 2025, but companies should not wait to review CTA requirements and make this filing – there may be corporate steps that they have to take prior to filing.   The CTA’s requirement to disclose the owners of companies is designed to assist U.S. authorities i ..read more

On January 17, 2024, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (“NPRM”) seeking comment on a newly proposed requirement for cable operators and direct broadcast satellite (“DBS”) providers, which, if enacted, would require those cable operators and DBS providers to make available rebates to their subscribers for programming blackouts caused by failed retransmission consent or carriage renegotiations.  If adopted, the new rule would add an arrow to the Commission’s quiver as it seeks to address what the FCC states is an increasing number and duration of broadcast station blackouts a ..read more