[BC] More Government Overreach

[tpt at literock93r.com]

Barry will probably want to move this to AF, but this issue is  
important to anyone on the list who owns a station, serves on the  
board of a station, or owns any substantial interest in a station.

You may have seen where we have to file new ownership reports on November 1.
Now we don't, but the reason is an egregious case of government overreach.

See report on delay announced today:

http://www.commlawblog.com/

Originally all stations were to use a new form to report ownership by  
November 1.  This requirement has been expanded to include low power  
TV's as well as any TV or radio station owned by a partnership or  
sole-owner. Non-comms get a pass, the Stazi haven't gotten that far yet.

The supposed purpose of the new form was to provide info on minority  
ownership.  (Which the old form did, but not to the degree desired by  
these anal-retentive bureaucrats.)  However, the report and order  
neglected to provide a sample of the new form, which was only issued  
in August, contrary to the Paperwork Reduction Act. The NAB filed  
several objections with the Office of Management and Budget, which  
administers the PRA. See Link here:

http://www.nab.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Search&section=September28&template=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentFileID=1944

Here's a link to the new form:

http://www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAViewIC?ref_nbr=200908-3060-001&icID=29435

The glaring problem with the new form, besides its complexity, is that  
anyone who:
*Owns stock in a station (apparently >5% interest)
*Serves as a director on a corporate board of a station licensee--even  
without actually ownership interest; or
*Has an attributable interest in the licensee

must now supply their Social Security number to the FCC and obtain an  
FRN for the form.

Note that the form now also requires a listing of all network  
affiliation agreements. Real fun for news talk stations! (Leading to  
my suspicion that anyone who list certain "evil" network affiliations  
--Rush, Hannity,--will find themselves on some government black list.)

Here are links to some law firm articles on the new form:

http://www.pillsburylaw.com/index.cfm?pageid=34&itemid=39355

http://www.commlawblog.com/2009/08/articles/broadcast/revised-form-323-revealed/

http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2009/10/articles/general-fcc/so-what-happened-to-those-new-ownership-reports-that-were-supposed-to-be-filed-on-november-1/index.html