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The closest most people get to being on the radio is calling a talk show or making a request for a song. A community radio station that gives locals an opportunity to program their own shows is a rare and valuable asset to any city.
Cincinnati is fortunate to have such a gem in WAIF (88.3 FM). It’s a unique asset with an eclectic mix of programming that can’t be found anywhere else in Cincinnati. Latin American, Italian and Greek programs are mixed in with “gumbo music,” comedy, alternative healing and local bands. WAIF gives residents access to broadcasting in a way that no other station does.
A commercial radio station exercises complete control over its programming and as a for-profit corporation, does so in a way that will result in attracting listeners that advertisers will pay to reach by purchasing commercials. Beyond having paid staff and the resources to purchase and maintain state-of-the-art equipment, commercial stations have different FCC reporting requirements.
Non-commercial stations have to compete by providing unique or better programming. They’re typically supported by members and underwriters who pay to be associated with a program or the station and can be non-profit.
Like any non-profit organization entirely operated by volunteers, WAIF has its weaknesses. Operating on a tight budget — WAIF reported net assets of $164,000 in 2004 — the station competes with larger commercial stations for listeners. In recent months WAIF has been riven by discord among its board of trustees, programmers and members who believe the station has drifted from its mission.
But most serious is a series of alleged violations of regulations promulgated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), which issues — and can revoke — WAIF’s license. The station that describes itself as “What radio is meant to be” doesn’t appear to be living up to its statutory obligations.
Having only limited access to station documents and volunteer leaders, CityBeat was able to identify at least seven alleged FCC violations. While the severity of these violations varies, what’s most disturbing is the apparent lack of regard station management has for the rules and potential consequences for noncompliance.
In the most recent report available, for 2002, the FCC reported it had “taken over $28 million dollars in enforcement actions during this past year and we will continue to take strong actions that enhance enforcement, protect consumers, and promote public safety.”
Knowing the rules
For those responsible for the operation of a community radio station, the burden of stewardship is great. In addition to housing and maintaining the expensive equipment necessary to access the airwaves, the leadership must oversee every aspect of the station’s operation, ensuring public access.
That includes everything from emptying trashcans and replacing copier paper to programming and FCC compliance. At WAIF, all of those people are volunteers.
A purely regulatory body, the FCC doesn’t provide training for people who operate radio stations, according to a prominent communications attorney based in North Carolina who wishes to remain nameless because of his ties to the industry in Ohio. He says the era of deregulation and reduction in government spending on regulatory compliance makes the FCC’s role painfully simple.
“What would happen is, if someone files a complaint with the FCC, the FCC would investigate,” he says. “They’re complaint-driven primarily in their investigative approach. … Radio is a regulated industry. There are a lot of government rules that must be complied with, and it doesn’t shock me at all that there’s a radio station in Cincinnati that’s not perfectly in compliance with the rules. If you’ve got a rule violation, you’ve got a rule violation. You’ve got to deal with it. I deal with them every day, so it’s kind of routine to me. What we say is, ‘Anybody who gets cheap legal advice or cheap engineering advice who’s in a regulated business has a fool for a client.’ That’s just the way it is.”
Failure to stay informed and vigilant about compliance is the responsibility of the radio station’s governing body. In the case of WAIF, that’s the board of trustees. With annual elections by the membership, as dictated by the bylaws of The Real Stepchild Radio of Cincinnati Inc. — the non-profit organization that holds WAIF’s FCC license — the makeup of the board can change every year.
The WAIF board doesn’t have a committee to follow FCC regulations; that’s the responsibility of the station’s chief operator, according to former board member Al Ringshauser. Because the board chair, station manager and treasurer declined requests for interviews, CityBeat is unable to provide the name of that person.
“They don’t really have any knowledge of what it takes to comply with FCC regulations,” Ringshauser says.
He ought to know, because he completed an FCC electronics course while in the Air Force, making him one of the few volunteers with FCC training. He served a pair of two-year terms as a board member, acting at different times as secretary and treasurer.
In addition to being a WAIF programmer for 12 years, Ringshauser volunteered to manage WAIF’s FCC programmer and transmitter logs for 12 years. He received the station’s Outstanding Volunteer of the Year award in 1998.
Despite his extensive knowledge of the station’s operations, Ringshauser is no longer affiliated with WAIF. The reason for his departure — the board suspended his show in February — is unclear, even to him.
Unclear office hours
Established in 1934, the FCC regulates interstate and international communications by radio, television, wire, satellite and cable (visit www.fcc.gov). The agency issues different kinds of licenses for radio stations, with different regulations for each type of license. The FCC provides a summary of its regulations on its Web site.
Title 47 is the main section that governs FM radio station operations. Chapter 1 outlines what the FCC expects a radio station to do when it holds a license. Violations can result in fines or even the loss of a license, depending on the severity of the violation.
Like many government agencies charged with oversight of business concerns, the FCC has experienced a change in its duties and budget cuts. Instead of initiating investigations as it used to, the FCC Enforcement Bureau, responsible for enforcement of the Communications Act, mostly responds to complaints, according to the communications attorney.
Section 74.3 summarizes “inspections of stations” and states, “The logs and records required by this part for the particular class or type of station must be made available upon request to representatives of the FCC” (47.74.3(a)). If an inspector had walked into WAIF March 10, she would find the station unable to comply.
The first problem is that the inspector wouldn’t know when anyone is at the station. WAIF doesn’t post regular office hours on its front door or its Web site.
From 8 a.m.-3 p.m. weekdays during the school year, the Great Oaks Joint Vocational School District uses the frequency 88.3 FM to broadcast as WJVS, so there aren’t typically any volunteers at WAIF during those hours, according Ringshauser. The rest of the time programmers are in the station on the air; but without regular business hours, it’s impossible to know when the station manager or anyone else will be at the 1434 E. McMillan Ave. studio.
This is problematic for the public, should anyone wish to stop in the station to access any number of documents or information that WAIF is required to make available. All radio stations are required to maintain a public inspection file that is available to the public during business hours. This is not simply a technicality, but goes to the heart of the public purpose of radio stations.
“The idea is radio stations are outlets for local self-expression in a community,” the North Carolina attorney says. “One of the ways localism is promoted by the FCC is regulations that require stations to make materials and information available to the public so they can interact with the licensees of the radio stations.”
The FCC Public and Broadcasting booklet (www.fcc.gov/mb/audio/decdoc/public_and_broadcasting.html), published in 1999, says, “Stations have an obligation to serve their local community’s needs and interests and to comply with certain programming and other rules. Because we do not monitor a station’s programming, viewers and listeners are a vital source of information about the programming and possible rule violations. The documents in each station’s public inspection file have information about the station that can assist the public in this important role.”
A recent ruling indicates how important this is to the FCC. On Feb. 13 it fined Lebanon Educational Broadcasting Foundation in Lebanon, Mo., operator of KTTK, $4,000 for “willful violation of the public inspection file requirements (and) failure to make available for inspection all required items in the station’s public inspection file during regular business hours.”
The rules specify a list of required documents for public inspection — several of which were missing from WAIF’s file when CityBeat inspected it March 10. The FCC considers the required documents essential, but in practical terms the level of importance for each varies. The issues/programs list (73.353(e)(8)) is “…the station’s most significant treatment of community issues during the preceding three-month period.” This rule dates back to a time when there was only one radio station serving an entire community, says the communications attorney.
“The issues/programs list is a quarterly expression of the most important information broadcast on a station, concerning controversial issues of public importance or matters of interest to the local area,” he says. “That rule is probably violated quite frequently. If you told me that there was a station that didn’t have its issues/programs list properly prepared, I’d say, ‘Uh-huh, and…’
“I would tell you that there’s probably no radio station in American that’s in compliance with all rules at all times. It’s not uncommon for there to be a minor violation of rules.”
The fact that this happens a lot doesn’t matter to the FCC. In 2004 WPWC of Dumfries-Triangle, Va. was hit with a $14,000 fine for “failure to place the most recent ownership report and list of programs that have provided WPWC’s most significant treatment of community issues in the public inspection file.” Noting that the station “willfully and repeatedly” violated these rules, the FCC said the fine wasn’t excessive, as the station argued.
Missing documents
On March 10 two CityBeat reporters went to WAIF and asked for its public inspection file.
FCC rules require the station to make the public inspection file available to the public (73.3527(a)) during normal business hours (73.3527(c)(1)) and provide photocopies of any document requested (73.3527(c)(1)). Anyone who asks for documents in person, via mail or telephone (73.3527(c)(2)(i)) may be charged a “reasonable cost” (73.3527(c)(1)) for copies and the station may require payment in advance (73.3527(c)(1)). However, the station must pay any postage (73.3527(c)(2)(i)) and The Public and Broadcasting booklet is supposed to be free of charge (73.3527(c)(2)(ii)).
When CityBeat visited the station to view the file at 4:30 p.m. March 10, one of the programmers on-site, Victoria Straughn, said she didn’t have access to the file because it was in a locked room she couldn’t access. Straughn told the reporters to call the station manager, Howard Riley, to find out when he would be available to show the file.
Driving out of the station’s parking lot, the reporters were hailed by Donald Shabazz, chair of the board of trustees, who said the station’s office hours ended at 4 p.m., but he would make the file available.
The file was a stack of disorganized papers in a large manila folder, so it took a while to figure out what was there and what was missing. All the while, Shabazz peppered the reporters with questions, comments and criticisms about a previous article that ran in CityBeat. He demanded to know why the file was being requested. The reporters said, “Research.”
When the reporters asked permission to make copies of certain documents, Shabazz refused to grant permission for use of the WAIF copier. The CityBeat staffers reminded him that the FCC required the station to make copies available. Shabazz said he would make the copies but, because WAIF is an all-volunteer station, it might take a while.
CityBeat sent a follow-up letter March 13, providing the same list of documents requested and citing the FCC regulation stating that the request had to be filled within seven days. When CityBeat returned to the station seven days later, on March 17, the station manager, Riley, was onsite and told the reporters that he had no idea what they were talking about.
Four days later, March 21, a letter arrived at CityBeat, dated March 16, in an envelope postmarked March 18, stating that a $50 deposit was required before the copies would be made. After delivery of a cashier’s check, the copies were available seven days later.
The packet didn’t include the requested receipt but did include 25 documents not requested. The charge of $50, divided by 193 pages, equaled 26 cents per page. The list of donors was missing. CityBeat wrote WAIF April 4, detailing the missing documents and requesting a receipt and a refund in the form of a cashier’s check for $29.20 for the documents copied but not requested. The letter was addressed and sent to Shabazz.
A letter dated April 10 was the only response.
“Please be advised that I am in receipt of your recent letters addressed to me, and that the board of trustees has decided to forward your letters to our attorney for his review,” Shabazz wrote. “Once we have received his response, we will act in accordance to his advice.”
The refund hasn’t been received as of this printing, more than a month later.
When the North Carolina communications attorney heard about this scenario, he was surprised and said the FCC would probably be interested in the lack of cooperation providing access to the public file.
“What I would do if I had that is I’d say, ‘I know I live in a regulated industry, I’m going to have a conversation with this reporter and try to find a way to turn this into a positive thing about this station,’ ” the attorney said.
So far CityBeat has not received the following documents it requested, in spite of the fact that FCC regulations require them to be in the public inspection file:
This article appears in May 3-9, 2006.