http://www.sfbg.com/38/46/news_fcc.html
Squashing David, ignoring Goliath Why is the FCC threatening to shut down little KALW for violations that are also rampant at Clear Channel? By Camille T. Taiara With programs like All Things Considered, The Tavis Smiley Show, and West Coast Live, KALW, 91.7 FM – the nation's second-oldest noncommercial radio station – is one of the few remaining stations on the local dial offering alternative news, progressive talk shows, and independent music and culture programming.
Yet this pioneering public radio station could be shut down by the Federal Communications Commission, which is investigating KALW's faulty public record-keeping but ignoring similar problems at stations owned by corporate behemoths like Clear Channel that broadcast prepackaged music and reactionary talk shows featuring such personalities as Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura.
KALW's problems began in the fall of 1997, when an obscure group calling itself Golden Gate Public Radio filed a petition asking the FCC to deny KALW's license renewal application. The San Francisco Unified School District, which owns the station, argues that GGPR represents a small band of disgruntled mostly former staffers. Nonetheless, the station is facing some serious allegations.
The FCC, while handling GGPR's petition as an informal complaint and dismissing some of the group's charges, has found enough evidence of wrongdoing on the part of former KALW managers to take the case to a judge.
According to the FCC's July 16 hearing notice, KALW failed to adequately maintain its ownership records and quarterly community-issues programming lists – and lied about it in its license renewal application.
At least two of the station's ownership-change records weren't signed and dated until years after the fact. KALW is officially owned by the school board, an elected body that changes annually, so every year there's an "ownership change." KALW's public files also included no programming details beyond a list of National Public Radio-produced shows.
Because of the pending hearing, neither the FCC nor the SFUSD would comment on details of the case.
"I'd like to know whose public files are in shape," Nicole Sawaya, KALW's general manager, told the Bay Guardian. "This is the third station I've managed. [In all those years,] no one's ever asked to see the public files."
Indeed, a Bay Guardian investigation of seven Clear Channel stations' public files last month uncovered some disturbing patterns. Two of the stations' files weren't even available for public viewing at the time, as required by law, and another two contained little more than blank forms in lieu of programming records that are supposed to be there (see "Invasion of the Media Snatchers," 7/14/04).
But the FCC isn't investigating any of those stations. It only requires radio owners to complete a simple form to renew their licenses – and doesn't conduct any further oversight unless it receives a complaint.
The FCC admits the "regulatory system is largely self-policing," and the main focus of the agency's probe of KALW deals with whether or not the SFUSD deliberately lied in its last renewal application. If so, KALW stands to lose its license or be fined up to $300,000 for "willful and/or repeated violations." The parties involved will meet Sept. 8 to schedule the first hearing.
Even if KALW gets to remain on the air, a fine like the one being considered by the FCC would put a serious squeeze on the financially strapped station.
"We're pretty bare-bones as it is," said Sawaya, who runs KALW on $1.1 million a year – more than 80 percent of which comes from listener donations. But if there's a silver lining, she said, it's that the SFUSD "is more engaged now."
She hopes the school district will use the experience to examine the internal dynamics that led to the problem in the first place and take steps to avoid those kinds of troubles in the future.
In the meantime, critics question the government's enforcement process.
"When the Commission finally decides to make an example of a station and designate its case for a hearing, it chooses a small noncommercial broadcast station run by the local school district," FCC commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, the agency's minority Democrat representatives, wrote in a recent statement.
The pair did agree with the decision to pursue the KALW case, but they also noted that many corporate-owned stations that have faced similar allegations have gotten off easy.
"In recent months, the Commission has gone out of its way to avoid sending cases to hearings even when there were legitimate allegations of wrongdoing," they wrote. "We are troubled by the message we send when we send small, independent stations to hearings but give a pass to stations owned by larger media companies for troubling allegations."
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