Posted by chicagomedia.org on August 28, 2008 at 18:19:53:
In Reply to: Public file problems = FCC fines posted by chicagomedia.org on August 28, 2008 at 17:10:50:
The long arm of Peter Doyle’s audio division at the FCC has put the muscle on a couple of groups for sloppy public file maintenance that will likely result in the U.S. Treasury collecting about $54,000 in fines. But it could serve as an alarm to other operators that the Feds are boning up on basics and leaning on broadcasters to keep their public files in order.
First to feel the pain is an Alabama trio owned by Capital Assets, Inc. The FCC has rejected the company’s explanations for sloppy record keeping at WBMH-FM/Grove Hill, and WRJX-AM and WHOD-FM in Jackson. The commission has also strongly rejected Capital Assets’ pleas for a fine reduction on a number of counts and wants to collect a total of $27,000 in forfeitures.
The case, in which the FCC issued its most recent declaration Thursday (Aug. 28) and demands full payment within 30 days, reaches back more than a decade to 1997 when the three stations first began failing to keep proper quarterly programming records. In fact, says the FCC and acknowledges Capital Assets, the sloppy paperwork problem continued into the first quarter of 2002 when a new station manager arrived.
The FCC issued its first notice of apparently liability to Capital Assets to WBMH for $9,000, and $18,000 to the Jackson AM/FM combo in December 2004. The company responded the following month by blaming the sloppiness on the previous GM. It also asked for a reduction of the fine because it claimed that it had an otherwise good record with the FCC and that the fines would cause economic hardship. But Doyle’s division isn’t buying any of it.
In a no non-sense letter to Capital Assets, the Feds reject the stations’ suggestion that its implementation of measures to ensure future compliance is cause for reducing the fine. “While we recognize Licensee’s efforts, corrective action taken to come into compliance with the rules is expected, and does not nullify or mitigate any prior violations.”
The FCC added, “We also reject Licensee’s assertion that 'it has no record of prior offenses,' suggesting that it has a history of compliance with the rules. Licensee disclosed in the license renewal application for the station that it had retained no issues-programs lists in the stations’ public inspection files for seven years of the eight-year license term…Thus, the Licensee failed to comply …” And, says the FCC, if the company is going to put on the poor mouth, it better send the commission investigators its back tax records to prove it.
In Illinois, LaSalle County Broadcasting Corp. is facing a sloppy paperwork problem at its WKOT-FM/Marseilles, and WLPO-AM and WAJK-FM/LaSalle that mirrors the Alabama situation in both the start of the problem and correspondence between the FCC and the company.
In its finding, the FCC notes that LaSalle's VP Joyce McCullough “states that she saw some of the missing reports, but does not know what happened to them. McCullough speculates that the missing reports were discarded during staff turnover. LaSalle has since recreated the missing Programs and Issues lists and placed these lists into the stations’ public file with a memorandum indicating that they were added late.”
Fines for the three LaSalle stations also come to a total of $27,000 and the FCC has again rejected the company’s request for a reduction in the fine amount.
(R&R)