Sudden CDBS Sunset Called a Surprise, Not a Problem

The FCC Media Bureau’s announcement Tuesday that the consolidated database system (CDBS) won’t accept new filings after Wednesday (see 2201110077) surprised broadcasters and broadcast attorneys. But they told us it isn't likely to create many problems for them. Other than having to email some forms that previously would have been entered into the system, “it’s not going to be a big change,” said Dawn Sciarrino of Sciarrino and Associates.

Broadcast attorneys have long known that CDBS was being phased out in favor of expanded use of the licensing and management system (LMS), but the short notice caught many by surprise. State associations sent out exclamation-pointed alerts to their members. “Changes made to FCC filing procedures effective TOMORROW!” the Arkansas Broadcasters Association emailed members Tuesday. The FCC has been gradually transitioning operations to the LMS for years, and in November used it for a noncommercial educational FM application window for the first time (see 2110290060).

“In an ideal world,” all the forms that use CDBS would work with LMS before the older system was decommissioned, said broadcast lawyer Dan Alpert. Instead, the Media Bureau instituted a stopgap measure wherein forms that can’t yet be filed in the LMS are emailed to the FCC, to be entered into CDBS manually by staff. Broadcast attorneys were told the complete shift to the LMS is expected to be completed within just a few weeks, suggesting the transitions may have been originally planned to coincide. The bureau and FCC declined to comment.

Due to the gradual transition, only some forms -- many connected with AM radio -- require the system, experts said. “Given the migration that has already occurred for most FM and TV technical applications, ownership reports, and assignment and transfer applications, CDBS had few continuing uses,” wrote Wilkinson Barker's David Oxenford.

One area where the shift may have some impact is on requests for special temporary authority, Alpert said. Those were previously filed by answering questions on a standardized form generated within CDBS, but lawyers will likely now need to include all the needed information in a letter, or use older forms from the FCC’s website, he said. Information left out under the new process could lead to follow-ups with the agency. The shift likely also means AM license applications, which pre-COVID-19 were among the last hard copy forms required by the FCC, will permanently be electronic, Sciarrino said. Since the pandemic began, the FCC has required them to be emailed, and they're included in the CDBS public notice in the forms that will need to be emailed to the agency.

Alpert and Sciarrino said they’re concerned about the decades of filings and correspondence archived in CDBS -- which has been in use since the 1990s. The bureau said CDBS will be left available to the public as a database, but both attorneys believe the agency’s goal is to eventually shift everything to LMS. Some older information shifted from CDBS to LMS “doesn’t seem to transfer properly,” Sciarrino said. Alpert said he's “a little skeptical” about how well archived 30-year-old correspondence with the FCC will translate to the LMS. Lawyers still use that information for research, Alpert said: It could create difficulties “if a lot of data is lost.”