## Facts

- A Mississippi television station (WLBT) applied to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to renew its broadcast license.
- A church communications office and local civil-rights leaders filed a timely petition to intervene in the renewal proceeding on behalf of area viewers.
- The petition alleged the station failed to serve the “public interest, convenience, and necessity,” including claims of racial and religious discrimination in programming and excessive commercialism.
- The FCC dismissed the petition, concluding the petitioners were not “parties in interest” under § 309(d) of the Communications Act.
- Despite acknowledging serious concerns, the FCC granted a restricted, one-year conditional renewal with “strict conditions” during a probationary period, rather than a typical longer renewal term.
- The petitioners sought judicial review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

## Issues

1. Whether representatives of the listening and viewing public qualify as “parties in interest” under § 309(d), permitting intervention in an FCC license-renewal proceeding and judicial review of the FCC’s action.
2. Whether § 309(e) required the FCC to hold an evidentiary hearing when the petition raised substantial and material questions of fact about the licensee’s service to the public interest.

## Decision

- The court held the petitioners were “parties in interest” under § 309(d) and therefore had standing to participate in the renewal proceeding and to seek judicial review.
- The court held § 309(e) required an evidentiary hearing because the allegations presented substantial and material factual questions concerning the station’s fitness and compliance with public-interest obligations.
- The court vacated the FCC’s order dismissing the petition and granting a conditional renewal, and remanded for further proceedings, including participation by the petitioners in an evidentiary hearing.

## Legal Principles

- The Communications Act treats broadcast licensees as public trustees of spectrum; the listening and viewing public is the intended beneficiary of the statutory scheme.
- Under § 309(d), “party in interest” is not limited to licensees and economic competitors; members of the affected audience may qualify when they raise non-frivolous claims that a station is not serving the public interest.
- When a petition to deny or intervene raises substantial and material questions of fact about a licensee’s conduct, § 309(e) requires the FCC to conduct an evidentiary hearing.
- The FCC may not resolve serious, fact-dependent public-interest allegations through conditional renewal alone; statutory procedures require an evidence-based adjudicatory process with meaningful participation, including the opportunity to present proof and test opposing evidence.

## Conclusion

The D.C. Circuit recognized audience representatives as “parties in interest” in FCC license renewals and required a statutory evidentiary hearing on substantial allegations that a broadcaster’s discriminatory practices and programming choices violated public-interest duties.


Office of Commc’n of United Church of Christ v. F.C.C., 359 F.2d 994 (D.C. Cir. 1966)