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The FCC’s rules require that all Emergency Alert System (EAS) Participants update their identifying information in the EAS Test Reporting System (ETRS) annually.  Accordingly, the FCC has released a Public Notice announcing that the deadline for updating and submitting the ETRS Form One for 2025 will be Friday, October 3, 2025.

For broadcasters, EAS Participants include full power radio and TV broadcast stations, including Class D noncommercial educational FM stations, and low power FM stations, program-originating FM booster stations, and low power TV stations that are not operating as TV translators.  Stations must file a Form One even if they are silent pursuant to a grant of Special Temporary Authority.

The following types of stations are exempt from this filing requirement:

  • TV translator stations
  • FM translator or booster stations that only rebroadcast the programming of a local radio station
  • Stations that operate as satellites or repeaters of a hub station (or of a common studio or control point if there is no hub station) which rebroadcast 100% of the programming of that hub station, common studio, or control point.  The hub station, common studio, or control point will still need to file its own Form One, however.

The Public Notice states that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will not be conducting a nationwide test this year, so stations will only be filing a Form One, and not a Form Two or Form Three, which are used when reporting on a national EAS test.  The last nationwide test was conducted nearly two years ago, on October 4, 2023. Continue reading →

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Earlier this year, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr initiated a sweeping initiative to review “every rule, regulation, or guidance document” that could be eliminated “for the purposes of alleviating unnecessary regulatory burdens.”  At its July Open Meeting, the Commission voted 2-1 to adopt a Direct Final Rule framework to enable it to act expeditiously in the In re: Delete, Delete, Delete proceeding to repeal certain legacy regulations that have become “outdated, obsolete, unlawful, anticompetitive, or otherwise no longer in the public interest.”  The principal feature of the Direct Final Rule approach is to permit the elimination of rules without the notice and comment procedures typically required under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).  The FCC’s lone Democrat, Commissioner Anna Gomez, dissented, expressing concern that the Direct Final Rule process circumvents essential transparency and due process safeguards, sidestepping a mechanism for public involvement.

At the highest level, the APA establishes the framework by which federal agencies like the FCC propose, adopt, modify, and revoke regulations, thereby ensuring transparency and public participation in the process.  In adopting the Direct Final Rule, the FCC explained that there is “good cause” under the APA to forgo this notice and comment process where it is “unnecessary,” such as where the administrative rules to be modified or eliminated are insignificant or inconsequential to the public.  In its recent efforts, the FCC deleted 11 rule provisions comprising 39 regulatory “burdens” it said related to obsolete technology, outdated marketplace conditions, expired deadlines, or repealed legal obligations, and which therefore no longer serve the public interest. Continue reading →