Article for Radio Shopper/August 2000

Ignorance of FCC Regulations opens up a "Pandora’s Box"

I have seen so much in my journeys with Public Files that it amazes me the amount of ignorance in broadcasting. No, this isn’t to say that all broadcasters are stupid, on the contrary, however, my work in Public Files gives me a complete history of a radio station, and I am finding some fantastic material out there! I am just writing about a select amount of cases I have uncovered across the country.

Lets face it; many in the broadcasting industry do suffer a bit of ignorance. Webster defines ignorance as: "having little knowledge, education or experience". So please do not misinterpret my claim that many broadcasters are ignorant in their knowledge and education of FCC regulations as an insult. There are hundreds of brilliant programmers, managers and owners. But it is impossible to be an expert in every single aspect of the broadcast industry.

This is why I chose to become an FCC Specialist to work specifically with licensee’s to assist them with maintaining their Public Files, Political Files, and engineering standards, so they can take confidence that their license to broadcast is not in jeopardy with a long legal battle with the FCC which will bring financial expenditures to an all time high, jeopardizing their ability to earn a profit!

Ignorance of FCC regulations can open up a "Pandora’s Box" of problems! I am inundated with emails from the readers of this publication with questions regarding Spanish Language Broadcast requirements, to general inquiries about the new policy set in place in June regarding the posting of job openings at your station. I’m more than happy to answer what I can, and contact proper authorities for accurate information. Your FCC Attorneys are up to date on these facts as well, and I always recommend you get a confirmation from them.

I ran across a legal pleading last week while working on a Public File for an unnamed station in the West. This station had been fined by the FCC for violating the EEO standards by not hiring enough minorities in their seven year license renewal period. This may seem like a minor problem to you, but the FCC fined this station $25,000 for failure to comply with the regulation, after investigating a complaint and petition to deny license renewal from the NAACP.

In turn, the groups attorney’s filed a "Consolidated Petition For Reconsideration", stating that this fine was extreme compared to other fines issued by the FCC to stations for the same violation. They didn’t deny that they had violated the EEO standard, but blamed it on "poor record-keeping" during this license period. They demanded that the fine be reduced to a more reasonable amount, and sited that the rules were unfair.

My question as I was reading this document was: "How much money in legal fees did this group pay to avoid the FCC’s penalty, and could it have been avoided altogether with "proper record-keeping". Again, the word "ignorance" came to mind. (Remember, it is not as insulting a word as assumed, it only means, "uneducated").

Their problem wasn’t really completed with answering the FCC. This group also needed to address this issue with the NAACP in order to appease their initial complaint. The station did many things for NAACP in accordance with their complaint that they were not answering or adhering to EEO standards, including a 30 minute weekly radio program dedicated to the issues of the day.

So, by ignorance of what may seem to be a small regulation, this group incurred legal and financial strain, fines by the FCC as well as putting themselves at risk for a full FCC Inspection and the embarrassment of press regarding their lack of equal opportunity broadcasting in their community, not to mention the ill will they achieved with the NAACP in their market. The financial repercussions were possibly enormous. This could have been avoided had "proper record-keeping" been done.

Is it prudent business to place the responsibility of your public file and record keeping in the hands of your receptionist or overnight disc jockey? How well will they complete this task, and how loyal will they be to the license of the station?

As I mentioned in last months edition of Radio Shopper, the FCC has renamed their field offices to "Enforcement Bureaus". They are also adding inspectors to these offices and gearing up for random inspections. Much like the Internal Revenue Service, you could be subject to random visits by the FCC.

The FCC may show up, looking for one particular item. Don’t misconstrue this as a "clean bill of health" if the report comes back in your favor. In reality, the inspector came out to look for one particular piece of information and found it in order. But, did you raise a red flag on another issue for a full FCC Inspection in the future?

It is important not to consider the FCC as an enemy. Their job is to make sure all broadcast licensees follow the same standards of compliance to keep the industry manageable and fair. When an inspector visits your station, they would rather find you in full compliance than issue multiple fines. FCC Inspectors don’t work on commission.

Let me tell you about another interesting case. The legal proceedings were interesting, and the case should be used as an example of opening a Pandora’s Box of problems.

First of all, lets re-visit the myth of Pandora. In Greek Mythology, Pandora is said to have been the first woman on Earth, given many gifts by the gods. One of the gifts given to her was a box in which the gods told her never to open. Unfortunately, Pandora couldn’t resist her curiosity and opened the box, releasing instantly all the world’s vices, sins, diseases and troubles. Pandora quickly shut the lid, but only Hope, people’s last comfort, was left.

Here is a classic case of allowing a "Pandora’s Box" situation to occur with your radio station’s license.

This particular group had some financial difficulties, and had a dispute with one of their creditors. The creditor did their homework, and filed a "Petition to Deny" their license renewal, stating that their Public File was not appropriately available and was missing very crucial elements.

The FCC was brought in to conduct an investigation, and found that although the Public File was at the local library for inspection by the public, the library was only open for 21.5 hours a week. This is inconsistent with requirements by the FCC which specifically provides that the file shall be kept at a location that affords public access "at any time during regular business hours". The investigator also found that the file was deficient because a number of required documents were missing.

These items that missing were copies of their last license renewal application, the annual ownership reports and annual EEO reports for the entire license term; quarterly issues/programs lists; written certifications of its required public notice announcements of the filing of its license renewal application.

To add insult to injury, the station finally came to an arrangement with this creditor, and they dropped their complaint. However, due to the nature of violations uncovered, the FCC was obligated to proceed with the mandated fines issued.

So, not only did the station have to come up with the money they owed this creditor, update and complete their public files, they were continuously scrutinized by the FCC and additional fines were issued to the tune of more than $70,000.

Certainly, one disgruntled creditor can open up a "Pandora’s Box" for a licensee. Do you have any disgruntled creditors, employees, or public agencies in your city of license who would be bold enough to file a petition to deny at time of renewal?

Keep in mind though, just as with Pandora’s Box, there is always hope. You have time to get your files in order, and be sure you are in complete compliance before its too late. The question is, how much time? That is probably the one question that I cannot answer for you.

I deal with stations all over the country. Its impossible for me to know when and where the FCC Inspector will visit next. One thing for sure is, it could be your station. Are you ready?