**DA 07-2074**

**Released: May 16, 2007**

**Filing Procedures for Broadcast EEO Mid-Term Report (FCC Form 397)**

To enable the Commission's staff to conduct its mid-term review of the
Equal Employment Opportunity ("EEO") practices of its broadcast
licensees, the Commission's EEO rules and policies, including Section
73.2080(f)(2) of the Commission's Rules, require that, where a radio
station is part of an employment unit with more than ten full-time
employees or a television station is part of a unit with five or more
full-time employees, its unit must file with the Commission an FCC Form
397, the EEO Form entitled "Broadcast Mid-Term Report." The Form seeks
certain information about the stations that comprise the unit and
identification of the person responsible for EEO matters, and requires
the submission of the unit's two most recent EEO public file reports.
The Form must be filed four years after the due date of the unit
station's last license renewal application, which was four months prior
to the station's last license expiration date, as provided for in
Section 73.1020 of the Rules. The Form has been assigned OMB Control
Number 3060-0922.

Thus, the initial station group whose units must file the Form is the
DC-Maryland-Virginia-West Virginia radio station renewal group, whose
licenses expired on October 1, 2003. These units must file their Forms
397 by June 1, 2007, the four-year anniversary of the June 1, 2003,
filing deadline for the renewal applications of the stations in the
unit. The units of other station groups must file a Form 397, on a
rolling basis, on the four-year anniversary of the most recent filing
deadline for the license renewal applications for the units' stations,
as those anniversaries arise.

The Media Bureau has received a number of inquiries concerning the
appropriate filing procedures for employment units that include both
radio and television stations, or stations licensed to various states,
with different renewal application deadlines and license expiration
dates and, accordingly, varying Form 397 filing deadlines. We provide
the following filing guidance for such situations:

Employment Units Containing Stations Licensed to States in Different
Renewal Groups. In *Review of the Commission's Broadcast and Cable Equal
Employment Opportunity Rules and Policies*, Second Report and Order and
Third Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, 17 FCC Rcd 24018, 24065, paras.
148-49 (2002), *recon. pending (*the *"EEO Order")*, the Commission
allowed each such unit to select the renewal group of a station in the
unit for the purpose of determining the filing dates for its annual EEO
public file reports, and the selections should have been made by now.
Employment units containing stations licensed to states in different
renewal groups should file their Form 397s in accordance with their
selections, *i.e.*, the filing deadlines for the renewal groups that
they have selected for their EEO reports.

Employment Units Containing Radio and Television Stations Licensed to
States in the Same Renewal Group. A reporting unit that contains both
radio and television stations licensed to states in the same renewal
group is an exception to the general policy set forth above. In such a
situation, the renewal application filing deadlines for the radio and
television stations will be one year apart. Under such circumstances,
the unit must file the Form 397 for the radio and television stations by
the later mid-term filing deadline: the four-year anniversary of the
filing deadline for the television station's renewal application. The
unit need not file by the earlier radio deadline. *See EEO Order,* 17
FCC Rcd at 24065, para. 150.

As noted in the Public Notice released on March 9, 2007, DA 07-964,
which can be accessed on the Media Bureau's EEO web page,
<http://www.fcc.gov/mb/policy/eeo/>, FCC Form 397 is available for
electronic filing. Users can access the Commission's electronic filing
system via the Internet from the Media Bureau's website at
http://www.fcc.gov/mb/cdbs.html. That Public Notice contains information
about the procedures for electronic filing of the Form. For technical
assistance using the system or to report problems, please contact the
CDBS Help Desk at (202) 418-2MMB. To request additional information
concerning the FCC Form 397, please call the EEO staff at (202)
418-1450.

News Media Contact: Mary Diamond (202) 418-2388.

Media Bureau Contact: Lewis Pulley (202) 418-1450.

-FCC-