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CONTINGENCIES AND COMMITMENTS
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2020
Commitments and Contingencies Disclosure [Abstract]  
CONTINGENCIES AND COMMITMENTS CONTINGENCIES AND COMMITMENTS
Contingencies
The Company is subject to various outstanding claims which arise in the ordinary course of business and to other legal proceedings. Management anticipates that any potential liability of the Company, which may arise out of or with respect to these matters, will not materially affect the Company’s financial position, results of operations or cash flows.
FCC Matter
In January 2019, the Company received the first of three letters of inquiry from the Federal Communications Commission (the "FCC") staff in response to a complaint from an individual who claimed to have purchased time on three Company stations in Buffalo, but was not charged the lowest unit rate. The Company cooperated with the FCC in this matter and timely responded to these letters of inquiry, which also addressed the timeliness of the Company's compliance with respect to the political file record keeping obligations for its Buffalo stations. On October 10, 2019, the Company met with the FCC staff and was advised that the lowest unit rate inquiry was concluded. At the same meeting, however, the FCC staff advised the Company that it had separately conducted a more extensive investigation into the timeliness of the Company's compliance with respect to the political file record keeping obligations for all of the Company's stations.
On July 22, 2020, the Company and the FCC entered into a consent decree for the purpose of terminating the FCC's investigation into the timeliness of the Company's compliance with respect to the political file record keeping obligations for all of the Company's stations. Under the terms of the consent decree, which constitutes a final settlement with respect to the investigation, the FCC determined that no civil penalty was warranted. Additionally, the Company agreed to implement a comprehensive compliance plan and provide periodic compliance reports to the FCC.
Insurance
The Company uses a combination of insurance and self-insurance mechanisms to mitigate the potential liabilities for workers’ compensation, general liability, property, directors’ and officers’ liability, vehicle liability and employee health care benefits. Liabilities associated with the risks that are retained by the Company are estimated, in part, by considering claims experience, demographic factors, severity factors, outside expertise and other actuarial assumptions. Under these policies, the Company is required to maintain letters of credit.
Broadcast Licenses
The Company could face increased costs in the form of fines and a greater risk that the Company could lose any one or more of its broadcasting licenses if the FCC concludes that programming broadcast by a Company station was obscene, indecent or profane and such conduct warrants license revocation. The FCC’s authority to impose a fine for the broadcast of such material is $419,353 for a single incident, with a maximum fine of up to $3,870,946 for a continuing violation. The Company has determined that, at this time, the amount of potential fines and penalties, if any, cannot be estimated.
The Company has filed, on a timely basis, renewal applications for those radio stations with radio broadcasting licenses that are subject to renewal with the FCC. The Company’s costs to renew its licenses with the FCC are nominal and are expensed as incurred rather than capitalized. From time to time, the renewal of certain licenses may be delayed. The Company continues to operate these radio stations under their existing licenses until the licenses are renewed. The FCC may delay the renewal pending the resolution of open inquiries. The affected stations are, however, authorized to continue operations until the FCC acts upon the renewal applications. Currently, all of the Company’s licenses have been renewed or we have timely filed license renewal applications.
Music Licensing
The Radio Music Licensing Committee (the “RMLC”), of which the Company is a represented participant: (i) entered into an industry-wide settlement with American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers ("ASCAP"), resulting in a new license made available to RMLC members, that became effective January 1, 2017, for a five-year term; (ii) is currently seeking reasonable terms and fees for a new license that would be retroactively effective to January 1, 2017, from Broadcast Music, Inc. ("BMI") through settlement negotiations and potential rate court proceedings; (iii) is currently subject to arbitration proceedings with SESAC, Inc. ("SESAC") to determine fair and reasonable fees that would be effective January 1, 2019; and (iv) commencing on January 1, 2017, entered into a series of interim licenses with Global Music Rights ("GMR"), the most current of which expires March 31, 2021. The RMLC filed a motion in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against GMR in November 2016 arguing that GMR is a monopoly demanding monopoly prices and asking the Court to subject GMR to an antitrust consent decree. GMR filed a counterclaim in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and a motion to dismiss the RMLC’s claim in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. There have been subsequent claims and counterclaims to establish jurisdiction. In 2019, all claims between the RMLC and GMR were transferred to the U.S. District Court of California.
The United States Copyright Royalty Board hearings to determine the royalty rates for the public digital performance of sound recordings on the Internet under federal statutory license for the 2021-2026 royalty period (the "Web V Proceedings"), originally scheduled for March 2020, were rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and held virtually in August 2020. As of the date of this filing, the CRB has not yet released its determination of rates resulting from the Web V Proceedings.
Leases and Other Contracts
Rental expense is incurred principally for office and broadcasting facilities. Certain of the leases contain clauses that provide for contingent rental expense based upon defined events such as cost of living adjustments and/or maintenance costs in excess of pre-defined amounts.
The Company also has rent obligations under sale and leaseback transactions whereby the Company sold certain of its radio broadcasting towers to third parties for cash in return for long-term leases on these towers. These sale and leaseback obligations are listed in the future minimum annual commitments table. The Company sold these towers as operating these towers to maximize tower rental income was not part of the Company’s core strategy.
The following table provides the Company’s rent expense for the periods indicated:
Years Ended December 31,
202020192018
(amounts in thousands)
Rent expense$58,656 $58,947 $53,948 
The Company also has various commitments under the following types of contracts:
Future Minimum Annual Commitments
Rent Under
Operating
Leases		Sale
Leaseback
Operating
Leases		Programming
and Related
Contracts		Total
(amounts in thousands)
Years ending December 31,
2021$50,379 $2,342 $82,066 $134,787 
202247,688 2,412 65,174 115,274 
202343,190 2,485 49,894 95,569 
202437,589 2,196 25,675 65,460 
202530,713 2,229 16,500 49,442 
Thereafter94,891 8,230 — 103,121 
$304,450 $19,894 $239,309 $563,653