October 2006

From watching television in almost any state with a contested election, it’s clear that it’s political season again.  As the ads multiply, one of the most common tactics to disrupt an ad campaign is to write a letter to a  station saying that the ad is untrue and should be pulled.  However, when an ad is purchased by the candidate or his authorized campaign committee in connection with the campaign, and contains the voice or picture of the candidate, the circumstances in which an ad can be pulled are quite limited.  Nevertheless, the questions are rolling in. 

In one race in the Midwest, stations received complaints about a Federal candidate ad that did not contain the full disclaimer required by BCRA (the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which requires the now familiar statement from Federal candidates that “I’m John Smith, and I approved this ad”). A competing candidate urged stations to pull the ad that did not contain that disclaimer. In fact, stations cannot pull the ad that does not contain the disclaimer (as long as it has the FCC mandated “paid for” or “sponsored by” language at the end of the spot). While the candidate may get into trouble with the Federal Election Commission for not having the BCRA language, and the station may deny lowest unit rate if the required language is not on a spot that mentions an opposing candidate, the spot cannot be pulled from the airwaves.

In another race in a Western state, the question was raised about the use of one of the words that the FCC has ruled to be "indecent" in almost any circumstance.  At the NAB Radio Show, the FCC’s Bobby Baker was asked if such  an ad could be channeled to the "safe harbor" periods after 10 PM.  Bobby answered that it was possible that such channeling would be permitted, but that the FCC has never addressed that question.  So, for now, the issue is unsettled until someone asks for a declaratory ruling or the issue is otherwise put before the FCC.Continue Reading The Censorship Issue – Dealing with Objections to Candidate Ads

The NAB Radio Show held the week before last, in conjunction with the Radio and Records Convention, was notable in its attention to new media. It’s been years since the NAB has devoted so much time to new media issues (remember the Streaming at NAB sessions that were held at the radio show early in the decade?).  And the new media sessions have perhaps never been as central to the Convention. Sessions on streaming, podcasting, downloads, blogging and just generally dealing with the media competition abounded at the convention.

The emphasis on the new media was perhaps most evident and presented most starkly in a pre-convention Summit put on by Jacobs Media. There, one presenter, Gordon Borrell of Borrell Associates, Inc., talked about the reach of media and information on the Internet, and just how prevalent it has become – even in reaching fighting for local advertising dollars – perhaps the one place that over-the-air broadcasters thought was most securely their own. Mr. Borrell pointed to websites such as those run by the Cape May Herald and the Lawrence County Kansas Journal-World as ones which show the power of the Internet to contribute to or eclipse their traditional sponsoring media (he said that the Lawrence site did over a million dollars a year in on-line revenue),. Even sites with no traditional media  partner, like Hartford.com, were said to be generating hundreds of thousands of dollars in local advertising revenue. What was perhaps most surprising was his assertion that in 40% of markets, there is an on-line site that has greater advertising revenue that the most successful radio station in the market.

Another presenter, Jason Calacanis, CEO of Weblogs,  went so far as to suggest that the principal purpose of today’s radio station should be using the station to drive traffic to the station’s website before the station itself became obsolete. Videos of the Jacobs Media Summit are available on-line, here.  While many others found this view to be extreme (Jack Isquith of AOL Music, in a session on streaming held several days later, talked at one point of the “elegance” of radio’s ability to reach local mass audiences more efficiently than on-line media), the whole convention seemed to be in agreement that radio needs to concentrate on the new media and develop their web presence. Continue Reading Radio Show Focus on New Media

The FCC today announced its agenda for its October meeting, to be held next Thursday, October 12.  Three of the items to be considered relate to television and video issues.  The FCC will be seeking comments for its annual report to Congress on the status of competition in the video industry.  At the same time, it will…

Within 10 days of the end of each calender quarter, broadcasters (both commercial and noncommercial) need to place into their public inspection files their quarterly issues programs lists.  We recently published an advisory with details of this quarterly obligation, and a suggested form for the public file report.  Remember that these reports need to be in your file…