FCC Fines Stations for Reporting Violations

The Federal Communications Commission issued one of its larger fines Friday against a station for failure to keep the proper records on its children's and public-interest programming.

The commission's Media Bureau proposed fining WFFT-TV Fort Wayne, Ind., $10,000 for failing to keep records of its compliance with limits on children's programming and its lists of programs addressing issues of public importance before Jan. 1, 2000. As such, it could not ensure that it had complied with the FCC's limits on children's advertising before that date.

Also fined $4,000 was WSJV-TV Elkhart, Ind., for failing to file similar documents, but it was only missing two quarters' worth.

The FCC admonished -- an official reprimand -- but did not fine one other station for reporting violations: WCPX West Palm Beach, Fla., was cited for failing to provide the target age ranges for its kids' shows to electronic-program-guide publishers.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.