Powell praises EB for decent job on indecency

FCC Chairman Michael Powell gave Bureau Chief David Solomon's Enforcement Bureau high marks for its work in 2004 on indecent broadcasts. He noted the necessary ambiguity in the rules, and the thankless task of working in a bright spotlight on a highly charged issue.

EB handed out 12 NALs and arrived at three major consent decrees on indecency in 2004, amounting to almost 8M in potential funding for the US Treasury. Just as importantly, said Solomon, EB refused to take action on certain high profile complaints because the law as written simply failed to support such action.

Interestingly, over the past three years, the number of complaints has risen while the number of programs drawing complaints has gone down. There is also a huge gulf between the number of complaints in 2001 and 2002. Can you say "Internet complaint campaign?"

Here are the total number of complaints over the past four years, and the number of shows being complained about:

Year	Complaints	Shows
2001	346	152
2002	13,922	389
2003	202,032	375
2004	1,068,000	314

EB collected a record 24M dollars in total fine and consent decrees activity (which includes phone and wireless violations, including do not call), and shut down over 250 pirate radio stations.