FCC fines Stern producer in crackdown

From combined dispatches

The Federal Communications Commission yesterday issued a fine for a broadcast of shock-jock Howard Stern’s radio show and ruled that an expletive uttered by rock singer Bono on NBC violated broadcast standards.

The FCC, continuing its crackdown on broadcast indecency, proposed fining Infinity Broadcasting the maximum $27,500 for a Stern show broadcast on WKRK-FM in Detroit.

The FCC also overruled its staff and said that Bono’s expletive during the 2003 Golden Globe Awards program was indecent and profane, but issued no fine.

FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell had asked his fellow commissioners to overturn the FCC enforcement bureau’s finding.

The FCC also proposed fining a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications $55,000 for a broadcast on two Florida radio stations where the host conducted an interview with a couple apparently having sex.

The fines are the latest in a stepped-up campaign by the FCC to crack down on indecency. Critics have said the commission failed to aggressively enforce rules, leading to a coarsening of the airwaves.

Federal law bars radio stations and over-the-air TV channels from airing references to sexual and excretory functions between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when children may be tuning in. The rules do not apply to cable and satellite channels or satellite radio.

The FCC received hundreds of complaints about the Golden Globes broadcast after Bono, the lead singer of the Irish group U2, said, “This is really, really, [expletive] brilliant.”

The enforcement bureau said in October that Bono’s comment was not indecent or obscene because he did not use the word to describe a sexual act. “The performer used the word … as an adjective or expletive to emphasize an exclamation,” the bureau said.

The FCC said, though, that it will change federal case law to prohibit a single profane expletive such as that used by Bono. Federal rules in effect at the time of Bono’s performance last year did not bar one-time use of such language.

To avoid a repeat incident, NBC aired this year’s Golden Globes broadcast on a 10-second delay. ABC did the same with its telecast of the Academy Awards.

In a show last week, Mr. Stern, who has as many as 18 million listeners a week, said he expected Infinity, which is owned by Viacom, to be fined and compared Mr. Powell to a communist Chinese leader.

“Chairman Mao, I mean Chairman Powell, gets to decide what’s offensive to him and to fine me,” said Mr. Stern, 50. He does not face a fine in the FCC action.

The FCC also said that Clear Channel Communications Inc.’s Capstar unit faces a $55,000 fine for indecency.

Story Continues →