170 Ch. 6

Front 1

FCC’s purpose for station regulations

Back 1

• Promote competition
• Protect consumers
• Foster efficient use of the spectrum
• Promote public safety

Front 2

Broadcast Identifications

Back 2

• A broadcast station must identify itself at three different times
o Hourly
o At the Beginning and End of Each time of operation
• Applies to stations that air not on the air 24 hrs a day
o After an interruption in the broadcast signal
• Must contain call letters followed by community(s) specified in the station’s license as its location
o For television it must contain the station’s channel number as well
• Other info may be “inserted between the call letters and the station location

Front 3

Rules for Emergency Alert System

Back 3

• Requires stations to test the equipment once a week
• Stations must receive and log a monthly test sent by the LP1 and LP2 stations (local primaries)
• EAS is most often activated on the local level for weather emergencies, such as flash floods, severe thunderstorms, and tornadoes

Front 4

-Amber Alert

Back 4

• 2002, the national news media gave coverage to numerous cases involving the kidnappings and murders of children
• child abduction alert bulletin in the U.S. and Canada
• AMBER= America’s Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response
• Criteria for issuing an alert
o Law enforcement must confirm that an abduction has taken place
o The child must be at risk of serious injury or death (not all police use)
o Must be sufficient descriptive information of child, captor, or captor’s vehicle
o Child must be 17 yrs or younger

Front 5

- The “Live” Rule

Back 5

• Broadcast stations may not say or even insinuate that a broadcast is live when it is not

Front 6

- Broadcast Hoaxes

Back 6

• War of the worlds
o Radio broadcast first demonstrated power of false messages
• Volcano in Connecticut
o Radio falsely broadcasted report that volcano had erupted in the area- studio was given a warning
• Fake Nuclear Attack
o St. Louis station broadcast fake report about nuclear attack on the U.S. during the Persian Gulf War
o DJ said it was a joke two hours later
o FCC fined $25,000 and said it was a violation of section 325(a) “false distress signal”
• “Confess your crime” hoax
o radio where people called to “confess your crime”
o $12,000 for police investigations that took place
o FCC could do nothing because fake on-air murder confession did not constitute “false distress signal”

Front 7

-Broadcast Hoax Rule

Back 7

• Allows FCC to fine stations up to $25,000 for violations
• No licensee or permittee of any broadcast station shall broadcast false information concerning a crime or catastrophe if:
o The licensee knows the information is false
o It is foreseeable that broadcast of the information will cause substantial public harm
o Broadcast of the information does in fact directly cause substantial public harm

Front 8

- Payola

Back 8

• In the American music industry is the illegal practice of payment or other inducement by record companies for the broadcast of recordings on music radio, in which the song is presented as being part of the normal day’s broadcast
• US law 47 U.S.C. 317 says a radio station can play a song in exchange for money, but it must be disclosed on air as being sponsored airtime and it is not counted as “regular airplay”- PAYOLA is a secret payment made to cast a product in positive light
• Independent promoters- middleman
o Record companies hire them and the promoters lobby stations to play certain songs on the air
o No laws are broken if the station reveals the name of the promoter because the radio station is not receiving money directly from the record company

Front 9

Plugola

Back 9

• a broadcast station employee is promoting non-broadcast activities in which he or she has a financial interest
• If a person or station commits Payola or Plugola, the employee and the licensee face a fine up to $10,000 and a year in prision

Front 10

Sponsor Identification

Back 10

• Sponsors must be clearly identified on both commercial and noncommercial stations
• They need to identify the person or entity that is paying to deliver a message to the station’s audience

Front 11

- Subliminal Advertising

Back 11

• The FCC says subliminal ads are “inconsistent with station’s obligation to serve the public interest because the broadcast is intended to be deceptive.” Use of subliminal messages in ads or station promotions should be avoided. Use can hurt a station when it comes to license renewal time.

Front 12

- Soliciting funds

Back 12

• Whenever a station asks its listeners for money, that money must be used for legitimate radio station purposes
• It is up to individual stations whether to allow “solicitations”
• FCC fined $2500 for radio station asking to pay for tower damage because the FCC said the station knew insurance was going to pay for tower damage and for “obtaining money by false or fraudulent pretenses”

Front 13

Unattended Radio Stations

Back 13

• Automated stations
• It is legal as long as the station complies with FCC rules
o 2 options
• Install automatic transmission system (ATS) monitoring equipment to control the transmitter
• Or, personnel must monitor the station for problems
o Problems must be corrected within 3 hrs. If not, station must be taken off the air until transmitting problem is fixed- ATS should be programmed to shut off automatically in these situations
o Emergency Alert System equipment needs to be up to date