Over-the-air radio and television stations operate under a body of FCC broadcasting rules and requirements that cover who can hold a license, what content can air and when, how political ads are sold, what stations owe child audiences, how sponsors must be disclosed, and how stations must handle identification and emergency alerts. These rules apply to broadcast spectrum only. Cable, satellite, and streaming services are not subject to them.
The Federal Communications Commission was created by the Communications Act of 1934 to regulate interstate communication by wire and radio, and it grants broadcast licenses under a “public convenience, interest, or necessity” standard.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 U.S. Code 151 – Purposes of Chapter; Federal Communications Commission Created One boundary sits over everything the Commission does: federal law forbids the FCC from censoring content before it airs, so enforcement is always after the fact and always constrained by the First Amendment.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 U.S. Code 326 – Censorship
Who Can Hold a Broadcast License
Not everyone qualifies. Federal law bars broadcast licenses for foreign citizens, foreign governments, companies organized under foreign law, and companies where foreign interests own or vote more than 20 percent of the stock. For a parent company controlling a licensee, the cap is 25 percent, and the FCC can approve arrangements above that if it finds the public interest supports doing so.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 U.S. Code 310 – License Ownership Restrictions
A broadcast license lasts eight years. At renewal, the FCC looks at whether the station served the public interest and complied with federal law and Commission rules. Refusal to renew, or outright revocation, can follow from false statements in an application, repeated failure to operate as licensed, or violations of federal criminal statutes governing broadcast content.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 U.S. Code 312 – Administrative Sanctions
Obscenity, Indecency, and Profanity
Broadcasting obscene, indecent, or profane language over the radio is a federal crime carrying up to two years in prison. The FCC handles the civil side. The rules split content into three tiers, and the tier controls when — if ever — the material can air.
Obscene material is banned around the clock and has no First Amendment protection. It must satisfy all three prongs of the Miller v. California test: appeal to a prurient interest in sex under community standards, depict sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and lack serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value taken as a whole.5Justia U.S. Supreme Court Center. Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973) A work with genuine artistic or political value cannot be obscene no matter how graphic it is.
Indecent content is protected speech, but it is restricted by time of day. Indecency covers material that describes or depicts sexual or excretory functions in a way that is patently offensive by broadcast community standards, and it may not air between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., when children are most likely to be in the audience. The overnight window from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. is a safe harbor.6Federal Communications Commission. Obscene, Indecent and Profane Broadcasts Profanity, which reaches grossly offensive language beyond sexual or excretory subjects, follows the same clock.
Political Broadcasting
Equal Time for Candidates
If a station lets one legally qualified candidate use its airwaves, Section 315 of the Communications Act requires equal opportunities for every other qualified candidate for the same office.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 U.S. Code 315 – Candidates for Public Office A “use” is triggered any time the candidate’s identifiable voice or image airs, even in an old movie or an entertainment show unrelated to politics. During an authorized use, the station cannot censor what the candidate says.
Ordinary news coverage does not trigger equal time. The statute exempts four categories: bona fide newscasts, bona fide news interviews, bona fide news documentaries where the candidate appears only incidentally, and on-the-spot coverage of news events such as debates and conventions. Without those carve-outs, a station could not put a frontrunner on the evening news without opening its airwaves to every fringe opponent.
Lowest Unit Charge
In the run-up to an election, stations must sell candidates advertising time at the lowest rate they charge any other advertiser for the same class and amount of time. The discount window is 45 days before a primary and 60 days before a general or special election.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 U.S. Code 315 – Candidates for Public Office Outside those windows, candidates pay whatever comparable advertisers pay. Stations that overcharge during the window are a regular target of enforcement complaints in election years.
Children’s Programming
Every commercial and noncommercial TV station has a legal duty to serve the educational and informational needs of children 16 and under over the term of its license. The FCC measures compliance through “core programming,” which must be designed with education as a significant purpose, run at least 30 minutes, air between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., and appear on a regularly scheduled weekly basis. Commercial stations must display the on-screen “E/I” symbol throughout each qualifying program.8eCFR. 47 CFR 73.671 – Educational and Informational Programming for Children
Under the FCC’s current processing guidelines, stations air at least 156 hours of core programming a year, with at least 26 hours per quarter of regularly scheduled weekly programs. Most of that programming has to sit on the station’s primary program stream, so a multicaster cannot bury its educational obligation on a secondary channel.9Federal Communications Commission. Children’s Educational Television – Rules and Orders
Commercial time inside programming aimed at children 12 and under is capped: 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays.10eCFR. 47 CFR 73.670 – Commercial Limits in Children’s Programs Program content and commercials must be separated by unrelated material so young viewers can tell them apart.11Federal Communications Commission. Children’s Educational Television
Sponsorship Identification and Commercial Volume
When a station airs anything in exchange for money, services, or other value, federal law requires the station to disclose the payer at the time of broadcast. The licensee has an affirmative duty to ask employees and business partners about any such arrangements.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 U.S. Code 317 – Announcement of Payment for Broadcast Two familiar violations fall under this heading. Payola is a station employee taking payment to air something without telling the station in advance.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 U.S. Code 508 – Disclosure of Payments to Individuals Connected with Broadcasts Plugola is an on-air employee pushing their own financial interest during a broadcast without telling the audience.
The CALM Act bars TV stations from running commercials at an average volume above the programming they accompany.14Federal Communications Commission. Loud Commercials on TV Because the standard is based on average volume, a spot with some loud moments can still comply. The FCC does not monitor for CALM violations on its own; it acts on viewer complaints.
Station Operations and Public Safety
Station Identification
Stations must identify themselves at the start and end of the broadcast day and once each hour, as close to the top as a natural break allows. The ID has to include the call letters followed immediately by the community of license from the station’s FCC authorization. Frequency, channel number, licensee name, or network affiliation may appear between the call letters and the community name.15eCFR. 47 CFR 73.1201 – Station Identification
Online Public Inspection File
Commercial broadcasters maintain an online public inspection file open to anyone. It must contain the current FCC authorization, applications filed with the Commission, ownership reports, records of political advertising purchases, equal employment opportunity information, and quarterly lists showing how the station addressed community issues in its programming.16eCFR. 47 CFR 73.3526 – Online Public Inspection File of Commercial Stations The political file, which shows who bought candidate time and what they paid, has a two-year retention requirement. Missing or incomplete files draw attention at renewal.
Emergency Alert System
Broadcasters participate in the Emergency Alert System and must run its tests. Weekly tests of EAS header and end-of-message codes happen on random days and times. Monthly tests include the full EAS header codes, attention signal, test script, and end-of-message code.17eCFR. 47 CFR 11.61 – Tests of EAS Procedures A weekly test is not required in a week that already includes a monthly test.
Broadcast Hoaxes
Stations may not broadcast false information about a crime or catastrophe when the station knows it is false, harm is foreseeable, and the broadcast in fact directly causes substantial public harm.18eCFR. 47 CFR 73.1217 – Broadcast Hoaxes Substantial public harm means immediate, direct damage to property, public health, or safety, or the diversion of law enforcement and emergency responders. A fiction disclaimer presented reasonably under the circumstances creates a presumption that the harm was not foreseeable.
Penalties and Enforcement
Most enforcement starts with a public complaint to the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, though the Bureau can open cases on its own. A credible complaint typically produces a Letter of Inquiry requiring the station to answer questions and turn over records. The station gets to respond before any penalty is imposed.
The Commission’s main penalty is a civil monetary forfeiture. The statutory base maximum is $25,000 per violation for a broadcast licensee, capped at $250,000 for a single continuing violation, with annual inflation adjustments that push the real numbers higher. Obscenity, indecency, and profanity carry sharply higher exposure: up to $325,000 per violation and up to $3,000,000 for a continuing violation.19Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 U.S. Code 503 – Forfeitures
Before a fine becomes final, the FCC issues a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture spelling out the alleged violation and the proposed penalty, and the station has a chance to reply before a final order. In the most serious cases, involving repeated violations, fraud in the licensing process, or criminal conduct, the Commission can revoke a license or refuse to renew it, closing the station down.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 U.S. Code 312 – Administrative Sanctions Revocations are rare, but the threat sits behind every other rule the FCC enforces.