Radio One pays $120,000 for an FM translator in Detroit

It’s moving from a non-commercial, frequency, 89.1, to 99.9, and the sale document at the FCC says W206BI, Hamtramck, Michigan will be used to simulcast Radio One’s urban AC “Kiss 105.9” WDMK. There’s already speculation that Radio One may in fact be interested in putting something different on 99.9. It could use the new translator to give Black talk WCHB (1200) a place on the FM dial, or it could simulcast something else. Seller of the translator is New York City’s Best Media Inc. Take a look at the signal of the re-located translator at 99.9 here.

FCC fines two stations for phone pranks

The largest fine – a hefty $16,000 – comes with a warning that the next time there’s a similar complaint against Spanish Broadcasting System’s WSKQ-FM (97.9) New York, the punishment will be even more severe. The FCC’s phone-notification rule is simple: Someone being aired live or taped for future airing must be notified what’s happening before they say anything. As the FCC tells WSKQ, the phone prank conducted by an outside contract is “the type of behavior – entertainment at the expense of an individual’s right to privacy – that Section 73.1206 was enacted to sanction.” The sanction in the case of the August 23, 2007 phone call is $16,000, and it’s the second fine of that magnitude against WSKQ. The prank was that somebody pretending to be a doctor called a woman to inform her that her husband had died at a hospital following a motorcyle accident. Read the FCC’s Notice of Apparent Liability here. The other phone-notification rule fine issued this week was against Augusta-market WAAW, Williston, SC (94.7), for the March 23, 2006 broadcast of conversations with three local airport officials. WAAW argued that the talk host identified himself and said he was calling from the station. But the FCC says “mere identification of oneself by name and as calling from a radio station” isn’t adequate notice. The $4,000 Forfeiture Order against Rejoynetwork LLC is here.

CBS places Los Angeles news/talker KFWB (980) into a trust

The status of KFWB has been hanging since 2002, when then-owner Viacom bought a second TV station in Los Angeles and needed to divest itself of a radio station out of the cluster that includes KNX (1070) and modern rock KROQ (106.7). It proposed to temporarily place KFWB into a trust run by former Shamrock group head Bill Clark. But the FCC didn’t like the structure of the deal and CBS has continued to hold KFWB under a waiver. Now the Commission accepts Clark’s stewardship, under the newly-formed Clark Radio LLC. CBS is hoping that the new 2010 quadrennial review of the media ownership rules will produce a local-market formula that would let it retain KFWB, which it has recently modified into a news-and-talk format starring Dr. Laura Schlessinger. The Los Angeles Board of Radio-Info.com is talking about it.

Fresno's KYNO & KWRU will swap frequencies – plus $2 million

The deal has been in the works for five months. Fresno, California’s talk station KYNO-AM (1300), owned by John Ostlund, will swap frequencies with Multicultural Radio Broadcasting-owned KWRU-AM (940), which has a Spanish-language format. KWRU has a 50,000-watt Class-B license, and their signal can reach as far north as San Francisco and Sacramento, and south into Bakersfield, outdistancing KYNO’s 5,000-watt range. The frequency swap takes effect April 1, according to the Fresno Bee newspaper, and is awaiting final FCC approval. Discuss it. In addition to the exchange of frequencies, Ostlund is paying Multicultural $2 million cash at closing.

Honesty Is The Best Policy

Honesty is the best policy. I am sure everyone has heard this statement delivered by a parent, school teacher or even a minister. It is a simplistic statement that is difficult to adhere too 100% of the time because we all have fell short by exaggerating a fact or blurring fact from fiction. The ad industry has been called out on a few occasions for not being honest, with some brands even being ordered to stop advertising a particular message. Is it possible for honesty to be the best policy in an industry that is built on convincing consumers by any means necessary? Are advertisers and their ad agencies capable of being honest in everything that they do? I know I am being naïve because the advertising industry is a microcosm of America.