FCC Media Intelligence MCP — License Database & Political Advertising

An Apify MCP actor that queries the Federal Communications Commission's broadcast license database. Returns structured records for TV, FM, and AM broadcast stations including call signs, licensees, frequencies, geographic coverage, and license expiration dates.

What This Actor Does

• Queries the FCC license search API (data.fcc.gov/api/license/search/) for active broadcast licenses
• Supports filtering by service type (TV, FM, AM), state, and call sign
• Normalizes raw FCC API fields into a consistent output schema
• Falls back to 20 curated real FCC broadcast license records if the API is unreachable
• Can run as an MCP server (HTTP) for integration with LLM tool-use pipelines

Output Fields

Field	Description
call_sign	FCC-assigned station call sign (e.g. WABC-TV, KNBC)
service_type	Broadcast service: TV, FM, or AM
state	Two-letter state abbreviation of station location
city	City of license
frequency	Broadcast frequency or channel number
licensee	Name of the legal entity holding the license
expiration_date	License expiration date
license_status	Current license status (e.g. Active, Cancelled)
source	Data source identifier

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
serviceType	string	TV	Service type: TV, FM, AM, or ALL
state	string	(all)	Two-letter state filter (e.g. CA, NY)
callSign	string	(none)	Specific call sign to look up (e.g. WABC)
limit	integer	50	Max records returned (up to 500)
serveMcp	boolean	false	Start HTTP MCP server instead of writing dataset

MCP Server Mode

Set serveMcp: true to run this actor as an HTTP MCP server. The server exposes:

• GET / — Health check
• GET /mcp/tools — Lists available tools
• POST / — Invoke a tool with {"tool": "search_fcc_licenses", "arguments": {...}}

Data Source

• FCC License Search: https://data.fcc.gov/api/license/search/
• FCC Open Data Portal: https://opendata.fcc.gov/
• API is public and requires no authentication key

FCC Broadcast Services Overview

Television (TV): Full-power TV stations broadcasting on VHF (channels 2-13) or UHF (channels 14+). Licenses renewed every 8 years.

FM Radio: Frequency Modulation radio broadcasting in the 87.8–108.0 MHz band. Community, commercial, and noncommercial educational stations.

AM Radio: Amplitude Modulation radio in the 535–1705 kHz band. Includes Class A (clear channel) through Class D local stations.

Use Cases

• Media ownership research: identify which corporations own stations in a market
• Political advertising tracking: identify licensed TV stations for political ad placement analysis
• Market entry analysis: find competitors in a local broadcast market
• License expiration monitoring: flag stations with upcoming license renewals
• Regulatory compliance: verify station licensing status

Categories

MCP_SERVERS · BUSINESS