Few topics create as much anxiety at college and community radio stations – not to mention many a commercial radio morning show – than broadcast indecency. Since the dawn of broadcast regulation in the US there have been legal restrictions on the kind of speech that may be broadcast on the public airwaves, with a […]
Search results for "indecency"
Updates: how WHUS makes obeying the FCC’s indecency rules look cool
WHUS of the University of Connecticut has posted a video on its Facebook page explaining its late night music playing policies. “Attention,” the video explains, “between the hours of 10 PM and 6 AM WHUS regularly observes safe harbor period of time recordings . . . ” “Safe harbor” refers to the aforementioned late night […]
Advice for radio mice: don’t break FCC indecency rules during the shutdown
The Federal Communications Commission’s website is mostly down for the duration of the Federal government funding outage. Looks like the whole application filing system is temporarily kaput, which is probably bad news for the impending Low Power FM window, but we’ll have to see how long this crisis lasts. In the meantime, we are noticing […]
American University Radio to FCC on indecency rules: let us broadcast reality
Whatever the Federal Communications Commission decides about its indecency regulations, the last word should go to WAMU, American University’s NPR affiliate in Washington, D.C. The signal has responded to the FCC’s call for comments on remaking its rules, following the Supreme Court’s smackdown on several actions punishing broadcasters for airing “fleeting expletives” (basically dirty talk […]
Boston NPR station on FCC indecency rules: don’t punish us for emergency coverage
Here is an excerpt from Boston NPR News Station WBUR, responding to the Federal Communications Commission’s request for feedback on its indecency rules. The station supports NPR’s position that the rules should be enforced only in “egregious” cases”: “Sometimes WBUR’s service to the community produces potential indecency violations under the Commission’s current ‘zero tolerance’ approach. […]
FCC Extends Deadline for Indecency Policy Comments
Today the FCC released a letter announcing that it would honor College Broadcasters Inc.‘s (CBI) request to allow more time for the public to file comments regarding the broadcast indecency policy proceeding. According to the July 12 public notice (PDF): “On July 1, 2013, College Broadcasters, Inc. (CBI) filed a request to extend the deadline […]
College broadcasters to FCC: we need more time on indecency proceeding
College Broadcasters Inc has asked the Federal Communications Commission to extend the deadline on its proceeding on indecency enforcement. The organization represents hundreds of college and high school radio and TV signals, plus student webcasters. CBI has filed comments with the FCC asking the Commission to take a kinder and gentler stance towards student […]
Student Broadcasters ask FCC to Give College Radio a Break on Indecency
As Matthew has previously reported, the FCC is currently seeking comments from the public about its policies related to the broadcast of indecent material. Lots of folks (apparently there are tens of thousands of comments) have been weighing in with opinions on the subject (the deadline is July 18), and several groups focused on the […]
Sun Sounds to FCC: waive indecency rules for radio reading services
Sun Sounds of Arizona provides audio services for people with reading and sight disabilities, streaming readings of books, newspapers, and magazines over telephone wires, the Internet, and radio. But this last component faces a problem, the company notes in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission: “[R]adio and TV broadcast stations, which might contract with […]
NPR pushes FCC for “egregious cases” indecency standard
Broadcasters are filing comments on the Federal Communications Commission’s request for feedback on the agency’s indecency rules, key portions of which were struck down by the Supreme Court last year. NPR’s comments support replacing the FCC’s now defunct “fleeting expletive” policies (basically sanctions against even a few dirty words said on the fly) with an […]