TAB Offers Helpful Station Tools for the 2022 Election Year

posted on 1.18.2022

The FCC’s political window for the March 1 primary is now open and most of the commission’s regulations affecting station political broadcast operations are in effect.

TAB has tools member stations can use to meet their FCC obligations and to keep informed about their responsibilities under the FCC’s regulations.

Last week’s 90-minute TAB webinar reviewing the FCC’s political broadcast regulations is now available for viewing in TAB’s online video archive.

TAB’s FCC legal counsel, Scott Flick, an attorney with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, discussed the six key broadcasting obligations contained in the FCC’s political broadcast rules as well as in laws passed by Congress and the Texas Election Code:

• Reasonable Access
• Equal Opportunities
• Lowest Unit Charge
• No Censorship
• Sponsorship Identification
• Recordkeeping/Disclosure Regarding Political Advertisement Requests

A PDF of the webinar’s slide deck is available by contacting TAB.

TAB Political Broadcasting Advisory, Political Forms, 2022 Political Calendar Available

TAB’s Political Broadcasting Advisory and TAB Political Forms, prepared by the staff of TAB’s FCC legal counsel Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, are available in the members-only section of the TAB website.

The guide incorporates FCC rule changes, federal law updates and FCC decisions in the political broadcasting realm in the past seven years.

TAB’s Political Forms capture all the political recordkeeping information the FCC requires related to candidate and issue advertising.

This information is then uploaded to a station’s online public inspection file to satisfy FCC regulations.

TAB’s political forms serve the same function as the NAB’s political forms which are copyrighted.

The TAB political forms and legal guide are free to TAB member stations to download as an important member service.

You’ll also find the 2022 Texas political dates calendar and past issues of TAB’s Political Update emails in the Members section too.

Station staff will need to login to view the Legal Guides/Hotline page.

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Questions on accessing the Members Services sections of www.tab.org?  Contact TAB.

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