240
Opinion of the Court
to keep such records. 43 Fed. Reg. 32794 (1978). Regardless, the information should prove readily available, for the individual requesting a broadcast must provide it to the broadcaster should the broadcaster accept the request. 47 CFR § 73.1212(e) (2002). And as we have previously pointed out, the recordkeeping requirements do not reach significantly beyond other FCC recordkeeping rules, for example, those requiring broadcasting licensees to keep material showing compliance with their license-related promises to broadcast material on issues of public importance. See, e. g., §§ 73.3526(e)(11)(i), (e)(12) (recordkeeping requirements for issues important to the community); supra, at 236 (collecting regulations); Office of Communication of United Church of Christ v. FCC, 707 F. 2d 1413, 1421-1422 (CADC 1983) (describing FCC rules, in force during 1960-1981, that required nonentertainment programming in 14 specific areas and mandated publicly available records detailing date, time, source, and description to substantiate compliance). If, as we have held, the "candidate request" requirements are constitutional, supra, at 238, the "election message" requirements, which serve similar governmental interests and impose only a small incremental burden, must be constitutional as well.
IV
The "issue request" requirements call for broadcasters to keep records of requests (made by any member of the public) to broadcast "message[s]" about "a national legislative issue of public importance" or "any political matter of national importance." 47 U. S. C. §§ 315(e)(1)(B), (e)(1)(B)(iii) (Supp. II). These recordkeeping requirements seem likely to help the FCC determine whether broadcasters are carrying out their "obligations to afford reasonable opportunity for the discussion of conflicting views on issues of public importance," 47 CFR § 73.1910 (2002), and whether broadcasters are too heavily favoring entertainment, and discriminating
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