§308 Requirements for License

Summary

The FCC may only give construction permits and station licenses after it gets a written application. But it can act without a formal application in three emergency situations: when it finds danger to life or property or damage to equipment; during a national emergency proclaimed by the President or declared by Congress or while the United States is at war when action is needed for defense or the war effort; and in nonbroadcast emergencies when the FCC finds it is not feasible to get renewal applications or follow normal rules. Any emergency authorization ends when the emergency or war ends. The FCC may also issue a broadcast permit by cable, telegraph, or radio for a U.S. ship at sea that works instead of a license until the ship returns to a port in the continental United States. Every application for a new, changed, or renewed license must give the facts the FCC requires about the applicant’s citizenship, character, money and technical qualifications, who owns and where the station will be, what other stations it will communicate with, the frequencies and power, the hours of operation, the station’s purposes, and any other information the FCC asks for. The FCC can ask for more written statements after the application or during a license term. Applications and statements must be signed by the applicant or licensee in any form the FCC allows, including electronically. For stations that do commercial communications with foreign countries, the FCC may add terms like those allowed for submarine-cable licenses under section 35. Anyone renewing a commercial or noncommercial TV license must attach a summary of written public comments the licensee kept that complain about violent programming and call it violent.