Sinclair Won't Air Jimmy Kimmel's Return on Its 38 ABC Stations

[mackdaddy]

58. All these individual stations have to renew their FCC license and you can file a petition againts that.

Not that these complaints will stop it, but will throw a significant monkey wrench into the process. Stemming free speach seems like a valid complaint against the public good.

https://www.fcc.gov/media/radio/public-and-broadcasting#PARTICIPATION
Public Participation in the Licensing Process

Renewal Applications. You can submit a protest against a station’s license renewal application. Before its expiration, each station licensee must broadcast a series of announcements stating when its license expires, the filing date for the renewal application, the date by which formal petitions against the renewal must be filed, and how to obtain a copy of the application. Petitions to deny the application must be filed by the first day of the last full calendar month before the expiring license term. (For example, if the license expires on December 1, we must receive any petition at our Washington, D.C. headquarters by the end of the day on November 1.) Please note that a complaint submitted through the “File a Consumer Complaint” link on the FCC’s website will NOT be treated as a petition to deny or informal objection against a station’s license renewal application. Rather, a petition to deny or informal objection against a station’s license renewal application must either be filed electronically in the FCC’s electronic database for that application, or by mail.

Broadcast licenses generally expire on a staggered basis, by state, with most radio licenses expiring between October 1, 2019, and August 1, 2022, and most television licenses expiring between October 1, 2020, and August 1, 2023, one year after the radio licenses in the same state. Before you file a petition to deny an application, you should check our rules and policies to make sure that your petition complies with our procedural requirements. For a more complete description of these procedures and requirements, see https://www.fcc.gov/media/television/broadcast-television-license-renewal for television for television, and https:www.fcc.gov/media/radio/broadcast-radio-license-renewal for radio. Alternatively, you can also file an informal objection, which has fewer procedural requirements, often takes the form of a simple letter, and will be considered if received at any time before we either grant or deny the application. Instructions for filing informal objections can be found at https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/filing-informal-complaint.