For Student-Run Stations, Consent Decrees Offer Relief but More Accommodation Needed, Attorneys Say
The FCC Media Bureau reduced a proposed $10,000 fine against Toccoa Falls College in Georgia to $1,000, issuing a consent decree Thursday on station WTXR-FM’s failure to properly maintain public inspection files. The consent decree process follows an FCC policy change that addressed the heavy burden that hefty fines place on student-run stations (CD May 14 p7). The change is perceived as an effort to ease the burden on college stations that have smaller budgets and may lack experienced staff, but it doesn’t fully consider the specific operations of such stations, some attorneys said.
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The consent decree states that TFC will make a voluntary contribution of $1,000 to the U.S. Treasury, the bureau said in an order (http://bit.ly/1hQMo5p). TFC stipulates that it failed to comply with the FCC public file rule in maintaining public files of the station during the 2004-2012 license term, the order said. But the college said “the failure of compliance does not rise to the level of a willful nor repeated violation of the Public File Rule,” the order said. The college didn’t comment.
With a consent decree, the FCC recognized that college stations have a special status, but it distinguished between recordkeeping violations and content-related violations, said John Crigler, a Garvey Schubert attorney who represents student-run stations. There are some hidden costs to the consent decrees, he said. “The trade-off is between fining them money, which student stations are typically short of ... but imposing on them some cost, either from a faculty member or from an attorney, who makes sure they're filing everything and complying with the rules,” he said.
The student stations are trading a lesser monetary penalty in exchange for a stringent compliance program, said Meg Miller, a Gray Miller attorney representing noncommercial and student-run stations. For stations with limited funds, the trade-off could be worthwhile, she said. “For stations that are going to have ... difficulty adhering to the compliance plan, it’s a problem.” The TFC compliance plan directs the station staff to “log all broadcasts of public affairs programming,” the order said. College advisors are to explain to volunteer student staff the requirement to follow all FCC rules and fully explain the obligations imposed by the public file rule, it said. The station staff also must disclose in a sworn certification that its public inspection file fully complies with the rule, it said. Most student stations don’t log all public affairs programs and the FCC rules don’t require a log like that, Miller said. “Because the purpose of the compliance plan is to ensure compliance for a situation where a station had not previously complied, it goes beyond what a station needs to do in terms of minimum compliance with the FCC rules,” Miller said. It is a step in the right direction but “there’s still some further education that could be done so the commission understands the very unique role that these student radio stations have,” she said.
The FCC isn’t trying to make things difficult for student radio stations, but the rules don’t accommodate those stations, Miller said. “Holding student-run radio stations to the exact same standard as the largest commercial broadcast group owners doesn’t really make sense,” she added.
Crigler argued that the commission should cut college stations some slack on content violations as well. Many college stations could have about 100 people on the air, “and there’s a chance that someone will mess up and not preview a CD or recognize that it is indecent, and pop it on,” he said. Existing student stations are full-service stations, he said. “They have the full panoply of FCC requirements to meet.” But the dilemma for student stations is that in some ways they are like low-power stations and operate informally, he said.