[BC] Public File now must include Articles of Inc. and Bylaws

[Tom Taggart]

This came out a few days ago, some of the dispute revolved around the  
failure of the station to provide copy of the articles/bylaws after a  
real public request.

Suspect some sort of semi-internal squabble at the station...see this article

http://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2010/04/articles/fcc-fines/1250-fcc-fine-for-not-having-licensees-articles-of-incorporation-in-stations-public-file/

See also Oxenford's nonsense answer that their guide to the public  
file indicated this recently manufactured FCC requirement.

Also note that this station had gone through an "alternate inspection"  
which bought them exactly nothing with the FCC's stazi agents.

It is not necessarily true that a not-for-profit corporation articles  
are any more detailed/complicated/whatever than those for a for-profit  
corporation.  Depends, of course, on state laws. In Ohio, they can be  
one page, stating a purpose for the corporation, establishing the  
structure of the corporation--number of directors, officers, and  
establishing a principal office and designated agent.

The non-profit articles may need to be structured differently for IRS  
purposes,(to demonstrate proper purpose and organization to qualify  
for 501-C-3 status, for example) but that is not relevant to FCC's  
interests in determining the control structure of a licensee. But this  
goes for an increasing need to control everything emerging at the  
Commission--see the aborted ownership report which would require half  
the universe to get an FRN.

Hate to take this to politics, but this is yet another reflection of  
the shift in government attitudes with the new administration; E.G.  
the over-reach in the broadband proceedings.  Part of the general  
attitude that we are to serve the government, not the other way around.