Educational Benefit of Student-Run Stations Threatened By FCC Fines, They Say

The fines are unfair and the FCC should be more lenient, said John Crigler, a broadcast attorney at Garvey Schubert. A $10,000 fine could easily be up to 50 percent of the station’s budget, said Crigler, who represented a student-run station with a public inspection file violation. “The commission doesn’t look at the budget for the stations, it looks at all the revenues for the college,” which can often be millions of dollars, he said: “College stations typically have very small budgets because the budget is just for their operating expenses and they're looked after by some faculty supervisor who has other duties in school.” The FCC doesn’t care that all of a university’s resources aren’t available to its radio station, said broadcast lawyer Peter Tannenwald of Fletcher Heald. “Student activities are granted funds through procedures, they apply for a budget every year and a pool gets divided among the activities."

WPRK(FM), Winter Park, Fla., owned by Rollins College, was issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for allegedly failing to maintain a complete public inspection file, the forfeiture order said (http://xrl.us/bnj75v). The commission should handle such a violation by a college station differently from other types of stations, said Clark Sprinkel, WPRK deejay and former station manager. “It’s frustrating when you're a bunch of college students trying to get through bureaucratic red tape,” he said. “For an educational station whose mission is to provide opportunities for people to learn and be able to train and work in the industry, it would be nice for the FCC to help out those stations instead of coming down with a hammer."

A $10,000 fine is problematic for WPRK, which has a budget of about $30,000, said KC Korge, its station manager. “When we get hit with FCC fines, we get hit pretty hard because it affects the students working at the station.” The station hired a consultant to help it try to get the fine decreased, she said. The students managing the station are working with administrators to obtain a professional staff member, “one that has experience with radio stations and the FCC and broadcasting, in general to come in and be our general manager,” she added: “Students shouldn’t be worrying about a public file.” While a $10,000 fine isn’t a large percentage of a university’s budget, it shows the station in a negative light to a university administration, Sprinkel said. “With all the college radio stations disappearing it gives another reason for an administration or college not to preserve a college radio station."

Last year, Drexel University in Philadelphia was ordered to pay $8,000, reduced from $10,000, over its public inspection file for WKDU(FM) (http://xrl.us/bnj78h). “With a student-run station, turnover can lead to a lack of continuity or files may be put in one place, and management, several years later, may not know where those files are,” said Larry Epstein, faculty adviser for the station. “With student-run radio stations, there is probably an increased risk of not always being able to go back and cull together the records that are needed for the license renewal application.” WKDU is funded mainly by student activity fees, and it has a small operating budget, he said: A fine “can greatly increase the cost of operation of the radio station and can consume resources that the university would rather spend on other things,” he added.

The FCC rules for forfeiture proceedings sets a base amount of $10,000 for violation of public file rules (http://xrl.us/bnj8fg). To determine the amount of forfeiture, the commission will consider factors like the nature and gravity of the violation, the history of prior offenses and ability to pay, the rules say. The commission also looks at precedent if there is a similar case, an FCC aide said. If the commission is deviating from that precedent then it explains why, the aide said.

FCC fines for rules violations are intended in part to act as a deterrent, “but the deterrent isn’t equal,” said Ginny Berson, vice president of the National Federation of Community Broadcasters. A $10,000 fine is “a much harsher fine for a station that’s operating on a small budget than for stations operating on a huge budget,” she said. For a lot of noncommercial stations, whether they're college stations or full-power community stations, “that’s just a huge chunk of their budget,” she said. Large-budget stations “generally have more staff ... that can be assigned to taking care of all the compliance issues,” she added: “They're much more likely to have an attorney either on staff or on retainer who can oversee all of this."

Professional staff can help a university-owned station avoid violations, the University Station Alliance said. “There’s a potential for more violations if appropriate professional supervision isn’t involved,” said Craig Beeby, USA executive director. “It’s up to the licensee in a college-run environment to make certain that there are professional staff or someone of authority to make certain they are operating within legal limits.” Having a student-run operation “doesn’t allow the university to suspend its responsibility in operating in the public’s interest and good,” he said.

Stations that receive tax-based dollars should try to find other alternatives for funding, which can help preserve those stations, Beeby said. Obtaining revenue outside the university allocation is usually difficult for student-run stations, Crigler said. “Most don’t have any other revenue other than what the college gives them.” Some schools don’t encourage underwriting, said Tannenwald, who also represents college stations. “You have to monitor the content.” The university will have to ensure that students are adhering to underwriting rules versus commercial advertising, he said. “It’s not an activity that students are used to.” At WPRK, fundraising events “could get put aside because there’s no money in the budget,” said Korge. The station engages in underwriting for local businesses, “but a lot of local businesses are struggling so we have a hard time getting underwriting sometimes,” she said.

Fines could hurt a college station and the educational advantages that students have by operating a broadcast station, Epstein said. The FCC is “penalizing universities that choose to provide the radio station as a student-run activity for undergrads and graduate students to run as best as they can,” he said. “This seems to be very damaging to the opportunities students have to run their own radio station in the long-term.” In an economic downturn, colleges are looking to cut costs, Crigler said: “They're selling college stations because they're a cost to the college, so getting a fine may further persuade them that these stations just aren’t worth keeping.”