Preparing Quarterly Issues/Programs Lists for the Station Online Public Inspection File

posted on 6.30.2025

The next FCC-mandated station Quarterly Issues/Programs Lists (covering April 1 through June 30 of 2025) must be uploaded to the station Online Public Inspection File by Thursday, July 10.

The Quarterly Lists are required to be placed in the Public Inspection File by Jan. 10, April 10, July 10, and Oct. 10 of each year.

All full power and Class A TV stations, commercial and noncommercial AM and FM radio stations, and certain LPTV stations are required to file the lists.

They are meant to demonstrate a station’s compliance with FCC station public interest obligations.
Otherwise, stations risk a determination by the FCC that they did not adequately serve the public interest during their license term. 

Stations’ attention to timely filing of the lists is critical because of the migration of a physical station public inspection file onsite, to the FCC-hosted station online public inspection file. That migration occurred in the previous decade.

It means FCC staff can now review a station’s timeliness for the filing of this list, or any other required station online public inspection file documents, with any computer that has an Internet connection. 

Failure to meet the filing deadlines can have severe FCC repercussions. Attorneys Scott Flick and Elizabeth Craig of TAB’s FCC legal counsel Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman say the FCC’s base fine for missing or late quarterly lists is $10,000.  

Most FCC fines in this area are the result of stations’ self-admitting such during a license renewal. Last week the FCC released a consent decree with the Sinclair Broadcast Group to resolve a failure to timely file issue, among other FCC infractions.

Apart from timely filing of the quarterly lists, Flick and Craig urge stations not to “skimp” on the quarterly lists, and to err on the side of over-inclusiveness. 

Pillsbury’s excellent CommLawCenter blog has an informative primer written in late June on preparing the list content and uploading the required lists.

The article includes a sample format that stations can use to compile the station’s list.

The guidance in this article also would apply to the Oct. 10 quarterly list upload.

Questions? Contact TAB’s Michael Schneider or call (512) 322-9944.

---