BREAK A RULE? CONFESS ON RENEWAL, NAB RECOMMENDS TO STATIONS
Under new broadcast license renewal procedures, licensees must certify that they have complied with federal requirements, such as children’s programming mandates or maintaining public files. NAB Thurs. urged broadcasters that thought they might have broken a rule to resist any temptation to lie, and confess the violation.
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“In many cases, you'll find something where you can’t honestly say you did something you were supposed to do,” NAB Gen. Counsel Jack Goodman said in a telephone conference on license renewals sponsored by Communications Daily. “What do you do? The answer must be that you confess.” The worst that can happen, he said, is that a station will be fined, and the FCC doesn’t deny license renewals on that basis.
The FCC’s Media and Enforcement Bureaus will team up to conduct random on-site audits of broadcasters’ compliance certifications, said Peter Doyle, chief, Media Bureau Audio Div. For example, if a broadcaster said the station had received no letters in the past 3 years complaining about indecent or violent programming, an auditor could check that claim against the station’s public file or FCC records. The standard fine for a public file violation, for example, is $10,000 and for violating children’s programming rules $120,000.
“If the Commission were to conclude that you lied, then you're getting into character questions and you could lose your license,” Goodman said. “Legal fees to defend yourself in such situations dwarf the forfeiture you're going to get.”
FCC Comr. Copps has said he sees the license renewal process as a way to “protect the public interest” in the wake of loosened ownership rules. In fact, the FCC recently fined 28 stations during the renewal process for failing to keep adequate public files and has imposed record fines against broadcasters for alleged indecency violations. However, Doyle said that while the process had changed, there would be no fundamental change in the way rules were enforced. “In our view, there is no fundamental change here,” he said. “What we are doing is consistent both with rules and published cases.” While the spot checks are new, he said he didn’t consider the approach a fundamental change. “Entities are expected to comply with our rules,” he said.
Goodman argued that putting the onus on broadcasters to confess or risk losing their license on character grounds represented a major change -- one that was likely to lead to more fines as stations confessed. Doyle and Video Div. Chief Barbara Kreisman said the fines weren’t new and were levied on countless occasions outside the renewal process.
In a broader sense, Doyle said, the FCC would examine whether stations had served the public interest of their markets, and consider any serious instances in which they had been found guilty of violations and “patterns of abuse” when judging each renewal application. He said complaints that have not been adjudicated cannot be considered, and there has not been an instance of a complaint’s being adjudicated during a license renewal. Even so, Goodman recommended stations consult with an attorney whenever complaints were filed against them.
Getting away from the political issues, Doyle said his division no longer would delay renewals for radio stations broadcasting under special temporary authority (STA) permits, but rather would process them routinely. Stations with an STA that didn’t allow them to broadcast would not have their license renewal applications processed until they resumed broadcasting, he said. Kreisman said TV stations broadcasting with STA permits would have their renewal applications processed routinely. -- J.L. Laws