Posted on April 16, 2010 by David Silverman

FCC Fines for No EAS Equipment, Unreported Tower Light Outage, and No Posting of ASR

In two separate Orders today, the FCC issued monetary forfeitures against a cable operator for failure to install Emergency Alert System (EAS) equipment and for various tower violations.  These same violations could have been cited against a broadcaster, so these cases are instructive to both broadcasters and cable operators.  The FCC issued monetary forfeitures of $20,000 and $18,000 against two Texas cable systems owned by the same company.  In both cases, the cable operator failed to install EAS equipment, failed to notify the FAA of a tower lighting outage and failed to exhibit red obstruction tower lighting from sunset to sunrise.   The higher fine related to a system's failure to display a tower's Antenna Structure Registration (ASR) number "in a conspicuous place so that it is readily visible near the base of the antenna structure."  

These same requirements apply equally to broadcast stations that have their own towers.   While most broadcasters are aware of the requirement to maintain working EAS equipment, many may not know that  FCC rules require a tower's ASR to be conspicuously displayed at the base of the tower.  To be compliant, the ASR must be displayed on a weather-resistant surface and of sufficient size to be easily seen at the base of the tower.

Similarly, if tower lighting is required, FCC rules require that any outage be reported "immediately" to the FAA if it cannot be fixed within 30 minutes.  Red obstruction lighting is required to be operational from sunset to sunrise, while high and medium intensity obstruction lighting is required to be operational 24 hours a day.

These are important issues to which both broadcasters and cable operators need to stay alert to avoid big fines like those imposed here.  As they potentially involve matters of public safety, the FCC is not likely to be forgiving in the event of violations.   
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Posted on January 20, 2010 by David Oxenford

Tower Lights Out for Even One Day? - Pay A Fine, Says the FCC

In a recent decision, the FCC's Enforcement Bureau ruled that a tower owner should pay a fine for a single day where the required tower lights were not operational, and where no required monitoring of the tower to discover such outage was taking place.  On top of the penalty for the non-working lights, the FCC also fined the owner for the failure to report a change in ownership of the tower.  The total fine in the case was $4000 (reduced from an initial fine of $13,000 because of the tower owner's past record of compliance).

As with any FCC fine, while the fine was for one day of tower light outage, there was more to the story.  The FCC inspected the tower after receiving a complaint stating that the lights were out on a day that was almost a month before the inspection - indicating that the outage may have been in place for far longer than the one day revealed by the FCC inspection.  The tower owner admitted that the person who was supposed to conduct the required daily inspection of the tower lights had moved from the area in which the tower was located, and the owner did not know exactly when that occurred.  The owner did not get someone new to do the inspection until after the FCC inspection.  And the tower had no automatic monitoring system to determine if the lights were in fact operational.  With these admissions, it seemed clear that there was the potential that there had been a problem for a long time, so perhaps the fine was not unexpected, even though the lights were fixed within hours of the FCC report of the problem, as the issue was a simple one that the tower owner blamed on a careless repair person who had recently visited the site.

In addition, the original complaint indicated that the complainant could not reach the owner listed on the tower registration to notify them of the outage.  After the FCC inspection, it became clear that this was because the ownership had changed, and the FCC had not been notified.  Had the FCC tower registration information been timely updated when the ownership change occurred, the fine for the unreported change in ownership would not have been issued, and the fine for the light outage might also have been avoided if the owner had been able to respond to the private party's notification instead of having to wait for the FCC to get involved.

As we have written before, the FCC takes tower issues very seriously, because of the potential threat to safety posed by improperly lit towers.  Tower owners need to take this issue very seriously themselves, not only because of the threat of FCC fines, but because of the potential exposure to civil liability should there be an aeronautical accident when the lights are out.  If there are lighting problems, they need to be fixed immediately.  If they cannot, the FAA needs to be notified so that it can alert airmen to the potential hazard.  So inspect those towers regularly, and make sure that issues are promptly reported and corrected when they arise. 
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Posted on December 24, 2008 by David Oxenford

FCC Fines Tower Owner for Failure to Monitor Lighting - When Automatic Monitoring Equipment Did Not Give Notice Of Problem

The FCC last week issued an order fining a broadcast  tower owner $2000 for failure to monitor the lights on its tower.  The FCC requires that a tower owner either monitor the tower by visual inspection or by a properly installed automatic monitoring system, at least once every 24 hours.  In this case, the tower owner had an automatic monitoring system installed on the tower, yet apparently its employees did not properly monitor the system  The monitoring of the automatic system was conducted during daytime hours, when no problem was indicated - but when the tower lights themselves were not lit.  During nighttime hours, the monitoring system did apparently warn that the lights were not all in operation, but the owner's employees were not monitoring the system during those hours.  Essentially, the FCC found that a licensee must know how to monitor its own system and detect outages.  If there are outages and they are not caught within 24 hours, a licensee is looking for problems. 

As FAA and safety issues are high on the FCC's list of enforcement priorities, communications tower owners should be sure that their systems are in operating order, and properly monitored, to avoid problems.  Safety issues can result in problems, even if the station has passed a review through an alternate inspection program, given the importance of these issues and their visibility - as tower lights that are not operating can easily be seen by an inspector of from someone associated with the aviation community.  So be sure that these issues are carefully monitored. 

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