Will the FCC’s ongoing equal time enforcement controversy spill over into talk radio? That was a pressing question at February’s Open Meeting, where Chairman Brendan Carr and Commissioner Anna Gomez offered starkly different views on the agency’s rule application.
The new dispute over FCC equal time guidance erupted this week after CBS reportedly declined to let Texas State Representative James Talarico, a Democratic US Senate candidate, appear on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, prompting questions about which broadcast programs now face heightened political scrutiny from the FCC.
Talarico appeared on ABC’s daytime talk show The View on Monday, and now an FCC enforcement action against the network may be ahead.
Carr, responding to a question about whether AM talk radio, particularly syndicated conservative host Sean Hannity, faces the same scrutiny as late-night TV, was direct: “The equal time rule is going to apply to broadcast across the board, and we’ll take a look at anything that arises at the end of the day.” This comes after January’s meeting, where the Chair said the Media Bureau’s recent Public Notice was prompted strictly by television-side concerns and he did not view AM/FM as a current enforcement concern.
He acknowledged, “We haven’t seen the same issues on the radio side, but the equal time rule is going to apply.”
When pressed on whether criteria like a host donating to a political campaign or hosting a fundraiser could factor into whether a radio show qualifies for the bona fide news exemption, Carr left the door open. “Yeah, it’s possible. All that could be relevant. The idea of being animated by a partisan political motivation is something that’s been established in the FCC’s case law on equal time for decades.”
In her separate press conference, Gomez agreed the rules apply equally across platforms, but used that parity to make a different argument: that the commission is selectively targeting content it dislikes rather than enforcing the law consistently. “The equal time rules apply equally across broadcasters and radio. And we should apply them equally across broadcasters and radio.” She added pointedly, “There’s plenty of content on radio I’m not particularly fond of, but that’s why I don’t listen to it. I have plenty of other outlets I can go to.”
For Gomez, the broader concern is that the FCC is weaponizing enforcement threats rather than pursuing actual violations. “The harassment is the point,” she said, arguing the commission “is not going to survive appeal if it actually takes action against these broadcasters because what it’s doing is a violation of the First Amendment.”
The other story of note for radio from the Open Meeting is the adoption of a Public Notice directing its Media Bureau to prepare the first-ever filing window for new noncommercial FM translator construction permits. As part of the process, the Commission is seeking comment on eligibility rules and potential application caps to prevent speculative filings and ensure fair access, consistent with past safeguards and the Local Community Radio Act of 2010.
The moment Brenden Carr opens an investigation into a conservative talk show is the moment I’ll eat my hat.
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