FCC Demo Page Leads to Broadcaster Confusion

their online public files, but broadcasters apparently have been mistaking it for the actual filing page, and filing their documents there, Flick said. “If it was a phishing site, it couldn’t have been better constructed,” Flick said in an interview. The page was taken down Tuesday after Flick’s post. An FCC spokesman told us the agency will work with broadcasters after the shutdown “to remedy any problems.” Before being removed, the page was the initial result on Google for “public inspection file,” and remained up even after the actual FCC inspection file database went offline because of the shutdown, Flick said. Flick heard about it after a broadcaster unaware the site was only a demo told him the FCC’s database was back online. “The website looked like the online Public File database in every respect,” Flick said, but showed uploads only through September. “Curiously, there is no hint anywhere on the demo webpage that it is just a demo and not the real online Public File database,” Flick said. The test site likely has led many broadcasters to think they uploaded their public files when they actually haven’t, he said. That could leave them vulnerable to thousands of dollars in fines, he said. The demo page also could be responsible for the FCC finding in December that over 1,000 radio stations hadn’t uploaded their required files, Flick said. Quarterly kidvid reports and issues program lists are due Thursday, and broadcasters will have to upload them to the correct database after the shutdown ends, Flick said.