Arizona Broadcasters,

The ABA has some game-changing news to share with each of you as we head into this holiday week.

Arizona radio and TV stations have been named as eligible recipients in the national COVID relief bill announced last night. This bill is expected to pass the U.S. Congress and become law later this week.

Assuming things proceed as expected, this means more Arizona broadcasters will be eligible for a FIRST round of forgivable PPP loan funding. It also means struggling broadcasters who received forgivable PPP loans earlier this year will now be eligible for a SECOND round of funding.

Challenging doesn't even begin to describe this year, and this news wouldn't be possible were it not for a 9-month-long collaboration between state broadcasting associations, the National Association of Broadcasters, and leaders from all across our industry.

Here’s my best attempt at outlining what this new COVID relief bill is expected to do for Arizona broadcasters:

NEW ELIGIBILITY FOR TV AND RADIO STATION GROUPS:

• TV and radio stations will now be able to apply for a forgivable PPP loan, even if they are owned by a large corporation, as long as their individual TV or radio station employs no more than 500 employee at their address. This new PPP eligibility will allow for loans of up to $10 million total across an entire station group/corporation, but the loans must be made on behalf of individual stations. These stations will be required to make a good faith certification that all loan funds will be used to support expenses for the production or distribution of locally-focused or emergency information. The relief package will waive any prohibition on loans to stations owned by publicly traded entities.

SECOND ROUND OF ELIGIBILITY FOR SMALLER TV AND RADIO STATIONS:

• A second round of forgivable PPP loans will be made available to a narrower group of small broadcasters who demonstrate significant need. This applies to radio and TV stations with 300 or fewer employees that have sustained a 25 percent revenue loss in any quarter of 2020, and is capped at $2 million. This second round of PPP eligibility is available to both those qualifying broadcasters who secured PPP loans earlier this year and to those broadcasters who were made newly eligible for first round PPP as a result of this legislation. All employee and revenue loss thresholds referenced above will be measured at a local level to confirm eligibility. 

As you can imagine, these moves have the potential to be absolutely HUGE for Arizona broadcasters, and by extension they have the potential to support local communication in critical ways across Arizona. In the coming days, we will all need to watch this together. I'm confident each of you are as thankful as me to our Congress for including Arizona broadcasters in this new bill. It's truly only the result of tremendous effort. Please let me know of questions.

More as I learn it.