A fine day at the FCC

Several broadcasters have gotten fines for the FCC to start out this lazy week of late August.

*KRCK-FM Mecca, Ca, licensed to Playa del Sol Broadcasters, has been hit with 12,000 dollars in fines for failing to maintain a proper main studio in the Palm Springs-Mecca area and for not conducting required EAS tests. Owner Ed Stolz admitted to the lack of a main studio, but showed FCC agents where it was being built in Palm Desert, CA - - with programming originating in the interim from the transmitter site, which did not meet the minimum requirements for a main studio. The licensee insisted that its EAS equipment was in service and that monthly tests were transmitted, although it was having technical difficulties with the equipment and couldn't produce printouts to confirm that the tests had aired. But in the end the FCC reduced its proposed fine from 15K to 12K.

*WLTC-AM Gastonia, NC, was fined 4,000 dollars for repeatedly exceeding authorized power levels. Licensee Frank Neely told the FCC he has put measures in place to prevent future violations, but that didn't get him off the hook for the past ones.

*And the FCC has upheld a 7,000 fine against Infinity's WLLD-FM Tampa-St. Pete (3/22/04 RBR Daily Epaper #56) for indecency, rejecting the licensee's appeal that the commission doesn't grasp current community standards for what is or isn't indecent, that recent indecency decisions have undermined the constitutionality of the Commission's indecency enforcement and that the FCC's indecency standards are so vague as to violate the First Amendment. Commissioner Michael Copps had said in the first go 'round that the 7K fine was too little and Commissioner Kevin Martin added an amen to that this time.

TVBR observation:

Infinity is obviously laying out the case it hopes to argue in the federal courts. We and most broadcasters would like to see a definitive court ruling to put the FCC's indecency enforcement back on some sort of predictable course. Unfortunately, the FCC is unlikely to find any US Attorney willing to take the case, so the indecency muddle just swirls around. Meanwhile, we're all waiting for the next big fine of more than a half million bucks for the CBS O&Os that carried a brief glimpse of Janet Jackson's breast during the Super Bowl halftime show. That may come as soon as this week or next.