(LEGAL) - WLS Facing $44,000 Sponsorship ID Fine

2-7-2012

The FCC proposed a $44,000 fine on WLS for running 11 announcements that did not contain a sponsorship identification.  This fine was not for 11 different announcements for different groups, but instead a single announcement run 11 times.  Each airing of the announcement triggered a $4000 fine (which is the amount of the FCC "base fine" for a sponsorship identification violation). 

According to the FCC decision, a group called the Workers Independent News ("WIN") bought 2 two-hour programs, one one-hour program, and a number of shorter promotional announcements for those programs. 11 of the promotional announcements did not specifically state that they were sponsored.  Instead, these 11 announcements - each 90 seconds long - consisted of an interviewer, identifying himself as being with Workers Independent News, discussing a local issue with local legislator. 

While the announcement did open with a mention of WIN, it didn't specifically say that they had paid for the spot.  Presumably, the FCC feared that the spot sounded like a program element, perhaps even a news interview (even though it ran in a commercial break), and held that the mere reference to WIN without any explicit statement that the spot was paid for by that group was not enough to convey sponsorship of the ad or to meet the FCC rules requiring sponsorship identification.
The decision here shows how seriously the FCC takes the issue of being able to identify who is trying to influence listeners by providing some form of valuable consideration to a broadcast station in exchange for the broadcast of a message. 

This issue is the subject of an FCC rulemaking proceeding, has previously led to fines for other stations (though rarely ones of this magnitude, even where the FCC has found whole programs or portions of programs to have been sponsored- see, for example, the cases we've written about here and here dealing with "video news releases"), and has become part of the proposals for the new on-line public file, suggesting that sponsorship identification information be made available for any "pay-for-play" programming in such a file. 

The issue has even become important in the online world, with the FTC issuing rules that require similar sponsorship identification even in connection with social media posts for which the author has received consideration.

This case, though, seems to impose a very high penalty for a limited number of violations.  Here, the announcement arguably let people know that WIN was involved with the production of the spot, even if it did not explicitly say that they had paid for the airtime.  As the Licensee argued, ads for normal commercial products and services don't need explicit sponsorship tags, as listeners assume that they are being persuaded by the company that offers that product or service (even if the company is totally anonymous).
So what is the lesson of this case?  First, the case says that the FCC is very concerned about sponsorship identification.  Moreover, it says that the stations need to be especially careful in any sort of paid programming dealing with controversial issues.  Many of the FCC's recent sponsorship fines have been in the areas of issue programming, and in those cases the fines tend to be higher than in commercial cases (compare the cases we wrote about here involving programming dealing with political issues where the host had received consideration for expressing his on-air opinions on controversial issues, with those in the cases linked to above and here, involving commercial programs where the fines were much lower).  So if you are airing programming - especially programming dealing with political or controversial issues - and receiving anything of value for that programming, make sure that the audience knows who is paying for that message to reach the airwaves.

David Oxenford is a partner in Davis Wright Tremaine's Washington, DC office. He has represented broadcasters for over 25 years on a wide array of matters from purchases and sales of broadcast properties and the negotiation of programming agreements to regulatory matters. Visit his website HERE Send him and e-mail HERE

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How to Sell a Facebook Sponsorship Using YouTube.

by Radio Ink Blogger Carl Magnusun.

Social media is meaningless if you have nothing meaningful to give your listeners. Give them excitement, give them unique content, give them characters, give them what they?ve come to rely on your station for and not only will your social media strategy click into place much easier but pretty soon you?ll be generating revenue. Rodney Whitaker is the Interactive Sales Manager at Maverick Media in Santa Rosa, California. Whitaker describes how a simple idea turned into a sponsorship using social media.

?We came upon the idea for River Rarities purely by a real life experience. Mike Waterman, the River program director, and I had been sending YouTube videos to each other of live performances of our favorite classic rock artists. Then it hit us. If we enjoyed seeing these videos maybe our listeners would too and River Rarities was born.?

Whitaker describes how his idea was put into action. ?At 9AM each weekday Lauren Marks announces the River Rarities song of the day and invites listeners to view the video on the stations Facebook page. Listeners view and comment and engage with the station and each other via that wall post. There?s the typical comments about how they miss being able to have hair like that (some of them just miss having hair), they tell stories about when they saw the band live, they suggest other vintage concert footage for us to feature, and so on. Then we have a special sponsor branded webpage with the River Rarities archives where listeners can see all of the past videos we?ve featured. Listeners love it!?

This is all sponsored by a local live music venue and Whitaker says the advertiser loves it. "They just renewed for another 6 months. It?s become a center piece of their advertising with the station and allowed us to leverage more revenue and strengthen our relationship with the client. But equally, if not more important, we?re creating more value for listeners and more opportunity for engagement. And we?re doing it with social media which doesn?t cost the station anything.?

Whitaker advises other broadcasters to "get after it" when it comes to leveraging social media to create revenue opportunities. ?Years ago when we first started streaming a client asked me, ?Are listeners changing their habits because of where and how you are delivering content?? Actually the opposite is true and to an even greater extent today? we are changing what we are doing because of where and how consumers are consuming media.  If ?Radio? is defined as the box in the corner or the thing in your car with a dial, we?ll go the way of the dinosaur. If we evolve? we can win. Listeners are using social media so whether you make money with it or not you better be there. If you?re there why not be creative and find ways to engage your listeners and make money doing it? Some broadcasters are uncomfortable with Facebook because they see it as competitive rather than complimentary to their broadcast and online properties. To them and everyone else reading this I shout:
?DON?T WORRY ABOUT COMPETING! DO WHAT YOU DO BEST AND THERE IS NO COMPETITION!!!?

Whitaker says broadcasters should use the most intimate mass medium wisely. "Radio now has the tools to reach out to virtually every single listener and make their pocket vibrate?yet we struggle. We struggle because we?ve lost our mojo?and that lack of excitement and sizzle and relevance comes through in boring and stale voice tracks, websites and social media posts. You are in the business of making great audio content and serving your community with the music, news and entertainment they need/like/want?wherever they are (on-air, online, mobile, social). So do that more. Do it better."

Whitaker can be reached via e-mail at rodneywhitaker@maverick-media.ws

Carl Magnuson is a blogger for Radioink.com and Co-Creator and Director of Sales, Social Radio LLC. He can be reached via e-mail at thevoiceofcarl@gmail.com

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