Be Careful Out There!

The Enforcement Division of the FCC, not Commissioner Clyburn, has decided to crack down on underwriting that violates its rules against calls to action (get your tickets; come on down), qualitative adjectives (best, biggest, finest, largest), price and item (large ears of corn at 3 for a dollar; admission is $5).

Somehow the FCC has even learned Spanish, recently fining Radio Campesina $12,500 for stepping beyond the acceptable boundaries of underwriting. But they’re not just picking on the Latino stations. They have also imposed the same fine on a station that... had subtle promotional messages, while the areas of concern are more clear in others.  But in reaching its decision, the Commission goes through a close analysis of the wording of each announcement to see if the announcement contains "comparative or qualitative descriptions, price information, calls to action, or inducements to buy, sell, rent or lease", all prohibited language in a noncommercial sponsorship identification.  So, when one of the announcement referred to "beautiful Harley Davidson light trucks" sold by a local auto dealer who sponsored the station, the FCC found that this was a qualitative claim that went over the line.  Similarly, statements that "we have it here" or "where we are proud to be Mexicans" (these announcements having been run on a Spanish-language station in California) were found to be attempts to qualitatively distinguish this dealer from others, or to be inducements to buy - a prohibited call to action.  And a specific statement that "no downpayment" would be required on a purchase constituted the kind of price information that should not be contained in a sponsorship acknowledgment.  Another announcement for a local tire store had similar problems in the content of the ads, using phrases such as stating that the company "knows about tires" and that the company's product "reduces [the] loss [of tire] pressure" and "has less risk of suffering damages . . . last longer and [is] not too expensive cause you to save more . . . [and] save more in gas per mileage."

As evidenced by this decision, noncommercial broadcasters need to concentrate on the facts when delivering a sponsorship acknowledgment.  A station can identify the sponsor and provide a non-promotional description of what business they are in, and provide contact or location information.  But they need to keep these product identification statements short and generic, and avoid all that stuff that sometimes makes commercials on commercial stations interesting - the music, the hype, the reason why one business is better or different from its competitors, and the real push to make the listener want to patronize the sponsor.  We've written about some other cases where underwriting acknowledgments have gone too far and prompted FCC fines, here and here.  There is a fine line between the permissible and the prohibited, but it is one that noncommercial stations must carefully walk to avoid FCC penalties.