FCC Rules & Regulations:

To Comply or Not To Comply,

That is the Question

By Ken and Kelly Orchard

Failure of FCC Compliance at your station is a great teacher! It’s a perfect opportunity to learn how to do it right because of the price of the education! And sometimes, the price of that education, in FCC Fines can be quite expensive!

We went back on the road again to visit stations and do our work in assisting them with meeting their regulatory obligations. This time we spent two weeks on the road and visited stations in three states. In fact, we saw over fifteen stations in those two weeks. Some of these stations are clients that have us update their Public Files and check on their station logs, EAS and transmitter site. Several of these properties were to investigate the overall compliance of the stations for a group owner who is purchasing four stations.

Meeting the seller of a radio station is always an interesting adventure! Once we have set up the arrangement to meet the seller at the station, it never fails that the first thing we do is exchange war stories about radio in the "good ol’ days". I think that is an unwritten radio rule about getting together and telling war stories before you get down to business!

The first thing we did was tackle his Public File. As with many cases across the country, there appeared to be no Public File at all, or to the credit of somebody there, some paper work managed to have made it into a file drawer in a cabinet. I can easily get an idea of what is in store for a new buyer of this station as far as what they are going to have to address in order to be compliant when they take over ownership.

The Public File was a mess. When I mean mess, I mean that it hadn’t been organized at all. It was apparent that anything that came from the attorney over the last several years that had a notation "Please put in Public File" was still in the original envelope and shoved into this file drawer. Of course, acknowledging that the Public File was not given proper attention, I asked about the letters that are to be kept for three years that come to the station, and about the stations issues and programming material that was also missing. The current owner did not know where any of these items were and promised that if he found those letters he would call us and let us know.

So next, we head out to the AM transmitter site. This is a two tower facility, meaning its directional pattern, and I found that there have been no readings of monitor points, and no annual record of any measurements done for the NRSC that are to be conducted every year. Now the programming for this station came off of a Satellite receiver and that receiver was installed at the transmitter site in a rack next to the transmitter. The output of the receiver went directly to the audio processing and then feed to the transmitter. I asked how the station would go live in case of emergency or even to air the Public Affairs programming? His answer to me was, "Well I can’t, right now, that’s how the engineer hooked it up."

$10,000 No Public File.

$ 8,000 No EAS logging or station logs.

$ 8,000 No monitor points readings.

And by the way, there were other points of interest to this investigation. The gate around the tower was not a padlock, but was simply latched with just a piece of twisted wire holing the gate shut. They couldn’t find the actual key.

I don’t get any pleasure out of finding stations is such condition, but it sure makes for interesting writing. Of course, our goal is to help all stations meet their FCC obligations. Its professionalism at its best when stations run a smooth operation, including meeting their obligations that allow them to have a license to broadcast! I’m sure that if the FCC were to inspect this station right now, they could spend a lot of time writing this one up and the FCC Fine would be huge.

The arrangements between seller and buyer to make this station in full FCC compliance will take some time and expense, however it must be done, but at whose expense? They will need to work that out before escrow closes, because if the buyer just accepts the station "AS IS" then the day escrow closes it will be the buyers problem. Question: Why would a buyer agree to take control of a station in an "AS IS’ condition without having all this corrected?

We move on to a bigger station in a bigger market. Are they doing a better job in meeting with their license requirements in the bigger markets? This particular station is one that is billing several million dollars each year. While somebody on the staff had made an effort to organize some items for the Public File to give the appearance that they had a wonderful and organized Public File, I went right to the Quarterly issue list. At least this station actually had a Public File!

This station has a current license from 1997 to 2005. Of course, the rules state that the station must post a description of their Issues and Programming for each of the four quarters of each year during the license period.

It appears that in 1997, under the first Quarter the staff ran many public service announcements. They even typed up the list of about 20 PSAs that they ran during those three months. Since that looked kind of neat they ran another bunch of different PSA’s for the 2^nd Quarter, then the 3^rd and 4^th. They apparently found that this plan seemed reasonable and continued the practice for 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and up through the present 1^st Quarter of 2002. All they have done is played PSAs off of a cart when they were live in 1997 through 1999. When they got a computer-automated system, they loaded the PSAs into the computer and automated 100% programming 24 hours a day.

This is not the best way of handling your Issues and Program materials obligations. If you happen to be working at a station that is attempting to meet its community service commitments in this manner, let us tell you that it is quite probable that you will be held to FCC scrutiny on this matter. Lets look at what the FCC rule says about it. You can also read the entire rules by going to the FCC web site and pulling up rule 73.3526. This can be located by searching the site for "Local Public Inspection File material for Radio and Television.

That is what the FCC rule actually states. This is a list of what I did not see:

PSAs alone do not cover the correct and practical way to handle the FCC rule as stated above.

Remember, the station’s Issue List is the only required record of programming. It is to be kept in your Public File for 8 years. In the event of a petition to Deny the Sale of your Station, or maybe even your license renewal, the Issues and Programming List will serve as a huge part of your documented evidence that your are serving the public in your Community of License. Also remember that under a FCC inspection, the inspector will ask to see your Quarterly Issues List. Whether or not an FCC Inspector would have issued a fine or violation in this situation is a matter best left to the discretion of the FCC. It is understandable that each situation is handled on a case-by-case basis. There may not be a fine, or violation, but treating the Issues properly can avoid headaches later on.

As our regular readers know, Orchard Media Services is under contract with California Broadcasters Association to perform Voluntary Inspections of member stations who request it. Under a very coordinated move, the stations under Clear Channel California have just recently signed up all their stations in California and Hawaii to participate in a statewide "rolling" Voluntary Inspection Program. There are nearly 100 stations for us to inspect in the next few months.

According to Dino Corbin, Market Manager for the Clear Channel stations in Chico, "We take proper operations of our stations seriously." Clear Channel uses the benefits and programs of state associations as one of the tools to meet its obligations.

"Clear Channel is being pro-active in our efforts to reach FCC Compliance and be certain that our operational priorities are in order, " Corbin commented. "Especially in today’s world, we want to be sure that our EAS equipment is working and operating properly."

This is a huge undertaking on the responsibility of OMS to conduct all these inspections, but it is only fair to acknowledge the level of commitment on the part of Clear Channel for taking an important step in meeting their regulatory commitments.

Catherine Deaton, Director of the Los Angeles FCC Enforcement Bureau said, "This is a sharp move on the part of Clear Channel."

As this publication is released, we will be hitting the road, specifically to perform the Voluntary Inspections of nearly 100 Clear Channel stations in California and Hawaii. More stories to come…..

Avoid FCC fines. Orchard Media Services can help you with your FCC Compliance obligations. Call for rates on all services. OMS will come to your station. Soon we will be in Oregon and Washington, this summer we’ll be in the mid-West. We can perform a "mock" FCC Inspection; evaluate your Public Inspection Files, Political Files, Station Logs, EAS Compliance and other FCC rules and requirements. We will be working on inspecting stations in California for the next several months. Perhaps we’ll be in your market soon! We have worked with over 140 Radio and TV stations in the USA, and counting. Call Orchard Media Services for questions and information, at 760-243-4733 or via email @ PIFILE@aol.com.