EEO Reports Due June 1 for Some Mid-Atlantic States, FCC Says, Clarifying Requirements

Equal Employment Opportunity mid-term reports on FCC Form 397 must be filed June 1 for radio groups in Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and West Virginia with more than 11 full-time employees, said a reminder public notice issued by the Media Bureau Tuesday. “Other station groups must file a Form 397, on a rolling basis, on the four-year anniversary of the most recent filing deadline for the license renewal applications for the units’ stations, as those anniversaries arise.” The form requires licensees to identify an EEO compliance person, and attach their last two EEO public inspection file reports, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a blog post Wednesday. The FCC uses the reports to assess broadcaster hiring outreach efforts, to make sure they were “sufficiently broad to attract applicants from all significant groups within the station’s service area,” Oxenford said. Every two months, new stations in different states will have to submit their reports, Oxenford said. “ Be prepared for the scrutiny that this will bring to your EEO performance,” he said. The Media Bureau has received “a number of inquiries” concerning the appropriate filing procedures for groups that include both radio and TV stations, or stations licensed to multiple states, and therefore multiple Form 397 deadlines, the PN said. Stations licensed to multiple states should have selected their renewal groups by now, the bureau said, while units containing radio and TV should file by the four-year anniversary of the filing deadline for the television station’s renewal application, the PN said. They don’t need to file by the earlier radio deadline, the PN said.