FCC chided for delays in imposing fines

As John B. Thompson sees it, it took federal regulators far too long to determine that Howard Stern’s on-air description of a sidekick’s sex life wasn’t fit for the morning airwaves.

Mr. Thompson dropped his 10-year-old son off at school on April 9, 2003, then flipped on the car radio to check up on his old nemesis, Mr. Stern. He heard the radio host lead a discussion of the sexual habits of sidekick John Melendez, who has since departed the show.

Mr. Thompson — a Coral Gables, Fla., lawyer and activist who has spent the past 13 years battling “shock radio,” violent video games and graphic rap music — drove to his office and dashed off a complaint to the Federal Communications Commission about Mr. Stern’s latest antics.

Almost one year to the day later, the FCC acted on the complaint, slapping radio giant Clear Channel Communications Inc. with a $495,000 fine for airing Mr. Stern’s program on its Fort Lauderdale, Fla., station and five others.

“Why did it take an entire year to issue that fine?” Mr. Thompson asked.

Other activists — and some industry executives and members of Congress — believe the FCC, until recently, lacked the political will to enforce its decency rules.

Also, it can take months for complaints to work their way through the FCC’s bureaucracy, observers say.

Most of the penalties the agency has proposed since the fall are for incidents that are more than a year old:

• On March 18, the FCC fined Infinity Broadcasting Corp. $27,500 for a July 26, 2001, broadcast in which Mr. Stern discussed deviant sexual acts.

• On March 12, the FCC fined Clear Channel $247,500 for a March 13, 2003, discussion about group sex on its “Elliot in the Morning” show.

• On Jan. 27, it fined Clear Channel $715,000 for 26 violations of decency rules by Florida disc jockey Todd Clem, who used the name “Bubba the Love Sponge” on the air. The segments — including a discussion of sex between humans and cartoon characters — aired in July, November and December 2001.

• On Oct. 2, the FCC fined Infinity Broadcasting Corp. $357,000 for broadcasting a Northern Virginia couple’s purported sexual encounter inside New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Aug. 15, 2002. The stunt aired on Infinity’s now-defunct “Opie & Anthony” show.

A study in March by the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit government watchdog group, found that since 1990, the FCC averages 523 days between a broadcast and the proposal of a fine.

“We need to take the time necessary to be thorough and fair to all the parties involved, and the amount of time can vary based on the amount of facts available and the circumstances involved,” said Richard Diamond, an FCC spokesman.

Under FCC rules, broadcasters cannot air material containing references to sexual and excretory functions between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children are most likely to tune in. The rules apply only to over-the-air radio and television stations, not their cable and satellite counterparts.

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