Click on the banner to learn more...

Clear Channel pays for the Sponge

Broadcast giant Clear Channel has paid off its $755K fine levied by the FCC for broadcasts of since-fired Florida shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge (and other infractions). $715K of the total was attributable to Bubba; the remainder was for a number of public file violations.

"We fully accept our responsibility for airing inappropriate content, and our company will accept the consequences," said Clear Channel Radio President/CEO John Hogan. "Our company simply does not want to be associated with indecency. We know we can deliver great radio without compromising our integrity as broadcasters."

As recently as 2/26/04, at a hearing held by the House Subcommmittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Hogan had indicated that the company had not yet decided if it was going to pay or fight the fine (2/27/04 RBR Daily Epaper #39).

The reason for the indecision was the possible legal implications of admitting guilt. Hogan told the subcommittee that a fine is one thing, but attaching license revocation proceedings to indecency violations was like attaching the death penalty.

RBR observation:

Our guess is that if the H.R. 3717 "Broadcast Decency Enforcement Act of 2004" was signed into law by President George W. Bush this week, we might be seeing a different tactic from Clear Channel. However, the bill merely made it out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It still must pass through the House floor, the Senate Commerce Committee, the full Senate, a House/Senate conference committee and then, finally, the White House.

If the bill makes it into law as passed by the Committee, licenses will very much be a factor in indecency cases. The presumption of renewal is done away with by the bill, instructing the FCC to consider a station's indecency record when considering whether a licensee will get to keep the station.

More ominous from Hogan's standpoint is the three-strikes rule, which whips the licensee right into a revocation proceeding. If H.R. 3717 were law right now, we doubt you'd see Clear Channel paying the fine. By admitting guilt, it would be taking a great big swing and the ump would be yelling "STEEEEEEERIKE ONE!"

Who knows when a to-date pleasant and safe Clear Channel minor league DJ - - we'll call him Bubba-Louie the Love Dishrag - - decides to make an unexpected play to fill the void in Clear Channel airspace left by the departed Sponge, and visits a call of "STEEEEEEERIKE TWO!" on Hogan's heroes?

Clear Channel, by paying up well before H.R. 3717 goes on the books, will presumably start with a completely clean slate if and when the bill becomes a law.

Clear Channel could fight now, and quite possibly win, because as we've been stating repeatedly, the indecency rules, and the FCC's enforcement pattern, are hopelessly muddled. Nobody can be expected to follow them.

But who wants to go to court to defend Bubba the Love Sponge's right to spew even borderline filth out over the public airwaves? Clear Channel might win in court, but lose in public. It's a tough choice, and Clear Channel has obviously decided that, in this case, it can play it safe, and it will play it safe.