e. Comments or Complaints About a Station

COMMENTS OR COMPLAINTS ABOUT A STATION

Comments to Stations and Networks. If you feel the need to do so, we encourage you to write directly to station management or to network officials to comment on their broadcast service. These are the people responsible for creating and selecting the station's programs and announcements and determining station operation. Letters to station and network officials keep them informed about audience needs and interests, as well as on public opinion on specific material and practices. Individuals and groups can often resolve problems with stations at the local level.

Comments/Complaints to the FCC. We give full consideration to the broadcast complaints, comments, and other inquiries that we receive. As stated above, we encourage you to first contact the station or network directly about programming and operating issues. If your concerns are not resolved in this manner, with the exception of complaints about obscene, indecent, or profane programming, which should be submitted in the manner described at page 15 of this Manual, and complaints about blanketing interference discussed at page 24, the best way to provide all the information the FCC needs to process your complaint about other broadcast matters is to complete fully the on-line complaint Form 2000E, which can be found at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html. You can also call in, e-mail or file your complaint in hard copy with the FCC’s Consumer Center in the following manner:

Federal Communications Commission Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division 445 12th St., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20554

Fax number: (202) 418-0232 Telephone number: (888) 225-5322 (voice); (888)835-5322 (TTY) E-mail address:fccinfo@fcc.gov

If you are submitting an audio or video tape, DVD, CD or other type of media with your complaint, you should send it to the following address to avoid mail processing damage:

Federal Communications Commission Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau Consumer Inquiries and Complaints Division 9300 East Hampton Drive Capitol Heights, Maryland 20743

If you do not use the on-line complaint Form 2000E, your complaint, at a minimum, should indicate: (1) the call letters of the station; (2) the city and state in which the station is located; (3) the name, time, and date of the specific program or advertisement in question, if applicable; (4) the name of anyone contacted at the station, if applicable; and (5) a statement of the problem, as specific as possible, together with an audio or video tape, CD, DVD or other recording or transcript of the program or advertisement that is the subject of your complaint (if possible). Please include your name and address if you would like information on the final disposition of your complaint; you may request confidentiality. We prefer that you submit complaints in writing, although you may submit complaints that are time-sensitive by telephone, especially if they involve safety concerns. Please be aware that we can only act on allegations that a station has violated a provision of the Communications Act or the FCC's rules or policies.

In addition to (or instead of) filing a complaint, you can file a petition to deny or an informal objection to an application that a station licensee has filed, such as a license renewal application. This procedure is discussed at pages 10-11 of this Manual. You may obtain further information on the petition to deny process on the Commission’s website, at

http://www.fcc.gov/localism/renew_process_handout.pdf . You may also wish to consider reviewing our rules or contacting an attorney. You can find links to our rules on the Commission website, at http://wireless.fcc.gov/index.htm?job=rules_and_regulations. As noted earlier, the rules governing broadcast stations are generally found in Part 73 of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations.