In
the Matter of AMENDMENT OF PART 73 OF THE COMMISSION'S RULES AND
REGULATIONS
RELATING TO STATION IDENTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS
Docket No. 17145
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
6 F.C.C.2d 805 (1967)
RELEASE-NUMBER: FCC 67-114
January
25, 1967 Adopted
BY THE COMMISSION: COMMISSIONER LEE ABSENT; COMMISSIONER LOEVINGER
DISSENTING; COMMISSIONER JOHNSON CONCURRING AND
ISSUING A STATEMENT.
[*805] 1. Notice of proposed rulemaking is hereby given in
the above-entitled matter.
2. The Commission's present rules regarding station
identification (secs. 73.117, 73.287, and 73.652) were adopted in order to
require licensees clearly to identify both the call letters of their stations
and the cities which they are primarily licensed to serve as specified in their
instruments of authorization. One of the basic purposes underlying this
requirement is to enable the public and the Commission's own monitoring
stations readily to identify the stations to which they are listening and,
further, to identify the communities which they are primarily licensed to
serve.
3. Through the receipt of complaints and by the monitoring of
stations which were the subject of such complaints, the Commission has become
aware that some licensees have been broadcasting identification or promotional
announcements which tend to lead listeners to believe that their stations are
licensed to cities other than those designated in their licenses. In most
cases, the licensees involved in such conduct appear to be making the correct
identification of their stations' licensed locations at the times specified in
the identification rules. However, the Commission has observed that
misleading identifications of location frequently are broadcast at times other
than those specified in the identification rules and appear in such cases to
constitute part of a concerted effort to confuse or mislead the listening
public as to the licensed location of the station. The broadcast of
misleading announcements implying that stations are licensed to cities other
than those designated in their licenses defeats the intent and purpose of the
Commission's identification rules and is inconsistent with the public interest.
4. Our policy with respect to misleading identification has been
clearly annunciated in prior decisions of the Commission. In Gulf
Television Co., 12 R.R. 447, 470(1), for example, we stated as follows:
* * * [*806] extreme caution must be exercised to the end
that viewers and listeners be not misled to believing that the station has been
assigned to more than one city or to a city other than that specified in the
construction permit; studied attempts may not be made to conceal the true
location of broadcast facilities.
5. In view of the foregoing, we believe that it would be desirable
to amend the present identification rules, and to that end we are proposing
amendments to the rules. The proposed amendments permit stations to
identify themselves at times other than those presently specified for AM, FM,
or TV. However, the amendments would prohibit the broadcast at any time
of station identification announcements, promotional announcements, or other
matter which would lead listeners to believe that the station had been assigned
to a city other than that specified in its license.
6. We believe that nothing short of a general prohibition such as
that herein proposed would cover all situations and prevent the defeat of the
intent and purpose of our station identification rules. For example, we
have determined that the practices of station KABL, Oakland, Calif., were
undesirable but not in violation of our present rules. n1 KABL, in making the required identification, coupled the mention of
its call letters and actual location with language concerning its coverage of San
Francisco and the clanging of a cable car bell identified with San
Francisco. Further, in announcements and program vignettes broadcast both
before and after the announcements made at the required times, KABL repeatedly
sought to identify itself with San Francisco rather than with Oakland.
n1 5 F.C.C. 2d 855.
7. We believe the proposed amendments would bring about an end to
efforts to confuse or mislead the audience as to the city to which a station is
licensed, and that they are appropriate and necessary means to carry out our
functions under the public-interest standard of the Communications Act.
8. Pursuant to applicable procedures set out in section 1.415 of
the Commission's rules and regulations, interested parties may file comments on
or before March 6, 1967, and reply comments on or before March 21, 1967.
All relevant and timely comments and reply comments will be considered by the
Commission before final action is taken in this proceeding. In reaching
its decision in this proceeding, the Commission may also take into account
other relevant information before it, in addition to the specific comments
invited by this notice.
9. Authority for the amendments proposed herein is contained in
sections 4(i) and 303(r) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended.
10. In accordance with the provisions of section 1.419 of the
rules, an original and 14 copies of all comments, replies, pleadings, briefs,
and other documents shall be furnished the Commission.
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, BEN F. WAPLE, Secretary.
[*807] CONCURRING STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER
NICHOLAS JOHNSON
PROPOSED STATION IDENTIFICATION RULEMAKING
An FCC rule requires the pause for station identification with which we
are all familiar -- section 73.117. Now the Commission proposes to
further modify the rule to prohibit a station from attempting to lead its
audience to believe it is assigned to a city other than that to which it is
licensed.
While I welcome the expression of views on the general subject of our
station identification rules, I am hopeful comments will not be limited to the
narrow rule change proposed.
The purpose and role of local stations in our Nation's larger
metropolitan areas is central to many of the recurring issues in the cases
considered at the Commission's weekly meetings. Our largest megalopolis
areas are also the most profitable broadcasting markets. Their television
and radio stations, though relatively numerous compared to the smaller markets,
are inadequate in number to supply investor demand. As a consequence, the
Commission has been presented with -- and has granted -- numerous requests for
new stations in the suburbs and satellite communities that make up major
markets. This has been done on the theory that the resulting congestion
and signal interference is warranted because the communities involved are
receiving a first service n2 --
even though, in fact, they already may be able to receive two or three dozen
signals from neighboring communities.
n2 See, e.g., sec. 73.37(b) of the Commission's rules, which provides, in
part: "An application for a new daytime station or a change in the daytime
facilities of an existing station may be granted notwithstanding overlap of the
proposed 0.5-mv/m contour and the 0.025-mv/m contour of another cochannel
station, where the applicant station is or would be the first standard
broadcast facility in a community of any size wholly outside of an urbanized
area (as defined by the latest U.S. census), or the first standard broadcast
facility in a community of 25,000 or more population wholly or partly within an
urbanized area, or when the facilities proposed would provide a first primary
service to at least 25 percent of the interference-free area within the proposed
0.5-mv/m contour. * * * Provided, That: * * *."
Once the suburban station is established it often immediately, and
understandably, seeks to increase its potential audience and advertising
revenue. This is achieved by increasing power and hours of operation,
moving its antenna to maximize population coverage, and identifying its
programming, image, and advertising with the central city.
To require a station located in a rural community of moderate size to
serve, and identify with, that community has emotional, historical, logical,
and public-interest underpinnings that are understandable and
commendable. What that local service is now, and what it might be, are
subjects about which we should know more than we do. But few would
question that such stations generally desire, and that we can properly require,
effective local identification.
Whatever may be the role of stations in large metropolitan areas, it is
obviously different from that of stations serving our more independent
communities.
How many broadcasting services can a large community use? What
are we purchasing in return for the cost of increasing the jumble of signals
on, especially, the nighttime AM band? How is the public interest harmed
by a station associating itself with a larger and neighboring
[*808] community -- especially if it is adequately serving the local
service programming needs of the community to which it is licensed? (See,
e.g., In the Matter of the Liability of McLendon Pacific Corporation (KABL), docket
No. 16214, Dec. 13, 1966.) What is gained by requiring a station to serve a
suburban community at all? If, on the other hand, a station can make a
contribution to a satellite city, why permit it to operate with signal strength
going beyond that community? If such stations do, in fact, serve the
larger urban area, why not consider the megalopolis as a whole and prepare
assignment tables on that basis, permitting each station in the megalopolis to
serve the entire area?
Although I now expressly avoid suggesting answers, these questions give
some sense of the broader context in which I view the rulemaking proposed
here. (And see generally sec. 307(b) of the Communications Act and Policy
Statement on Applications for Suburban Communities, 2 FCC 2d 190, 6 R.R. 2d
1901 (1965).) If there are interested parties inclined to treat such matters in
their filings I would welcome their views.