School-NCE Stations Can Still Follow FCC COVID-19 Guidance, Say Oxenford and Media Bureau
Noncommercial radio stations attached to schools that aren’t having in-person classes can still follow the COVID-19 guidance issued by the FCC earlier this year exempting them from the minimum operating requirements, said Wilkinson Barker broadcast attorney David Oxenford in a…
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blog post Wednesday. Oxenford is correct, the Media Bureau confirmed. “You can continue to treat the period when students are generally not on campus as a recess when the station does not need to meet these minimum operating requirements,” said Oxenford, relaying his “informal conversations” with the FCC. The matter is “murkier” for schools that partially or fully invited students back to campus, Oxenford said. “I’m told that the FCC recognizes the difficulties that stations may face in the current environment -- and in these situations where schools are open or partially open to students, if the station cannot meet the minimum operating requirements set out above, the FCC will likely be willing to grant a station temporary authority to remain silent,” he said. This probably can be done “informally, by an email" to FCC Audio Division employees, Oxenford said.