The Federal Communications Commission says it has resolved the fee problems that we told you about late last week.
“Media services licensees can now log into the CORES System to see their revised AM and FM fee codes and fee amounts,” it said in a public notice today (Sept. 17).
Fees are still due by Sept. 26.
“The FCC will be evaluating all payments that were made by AM or FM broadcasters between Sept. 10, 2024, when CORES first opened, and today, when revised fee amounts became available for viewing in the CORES system,” it wrote.
The commission said it will take action to reconcile payments that have already been made and it said it will try to contact affected broadcasters who paid the wrong amounts.
It added that low-power FM stations that have a call sign of “Call Sign – LP” are not subject to FY 2024 regulatory fees and that it will remove these call signs from the CORES database or flag them as “Not Feeable” shortly.
Broadcasters seeking more information were asked to contact the FCC’s Financial Operations help desk at (877) 480-3201, Option 6, or email ARINQUIRIES@fcc.gov.
An email today from the Michigan Association of Broadcasters quotes its FCC counsel David Oxenford saying: “When they log into CORES, broadcasters will still see the announcement from last week asking radio broadcasters to refrain from filing until the system has been updated, but the Public Notice says that fees can now be filed. We have been told that the FCC’s IT contractors just have not yet removed the warning, but that it should be removed by tomorrow.”
According to Oxenford, “In some spot checks, it appears that CORES is now showing fees approximately 5% lower than the amounts paid by radio stations last year. This is what was anticipated,” he wrote.
“But we suggest that stations continue to look closely at the fees listed in CORES and investigate any concerns that they may have, and that they do that investigation quickly so that they can meet the Sept. 26 fee filing deadline.”
Separately, the director of engineering for one radio group who had encountered problems last week told RW this afternoon: “They seem to have the population tier issue fixed. All our fees are correct. There is still an issue with grouping; some full-power stations are showing up as translators, but the fees and codes are correct, so we can live with it.”
On Wednesday the FCC added this information in an announcement: “Media services licensees can again look up their Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 regulatory fee amounts now by logging onto the commission’s website at http://fccfees.com and clicking on the ‘View Fee Information and Exempt Status for any Broadcast Property’ link. In some instances, it may be necessary to clear your browser before logging onto the website. After clicking on this link, licensees will be able to view their fee amounts, fee codes, facility identification numbers, and other information pertinent to the filing of their FY 2024 regulatory fees.”
