We are about to embark on what will no doubt be an incredibly busy year for broadcasters. With the presidential election in November 2024, stations will be consumed with issues that arise from that election, both in their on-air programming covering all the news that it generates and in their advertising sales to the candidates and issue advertisers. And, with the recent appointment of Anna Gomez as the fifth FCC Commissioner, there may finally be a resolution of the long-pending 2018 Quadrennial Review which concerns the FCC’s review of its broadcast ownership rules, and other regulatory actions to which broadcasters should pay careful attention.

Beyond those issues, routine regulatory filings, dates, and deadlines remain to fill a broadcaster’s calendar. These include the requirement to prepare an annual Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) public inspection file report, to upload quarterly issues/programs lists to the public file, and to pay annual FCC regulatory fees. TV stations also have children’s television reporting obligations at the end of January.

To help keep track of many of the more general obligations, we have put together this advisory to provide a preview of, and some guidance for, many of the important FCC compliance-related dates, as well as other deadlines broadly applicable to significant portions of the broadcast industry. The attached calendar is not intended to cover all filing dates that apply to every station or licensee. Instead, the calendar is meant to highlight some of the more critical deadlines that we are able to identify in advance. Remember, these dates can change, and new deadlines for action can be added, so be sure to keep up with the latest developments.

Access the 2024 Broadcasters’ Calendar here.