Lexington Herald-Leader | 06/23/2005 | Woman gets candy, not $100,000, sues: "A Lexington woman who says she was jilted by a-WLTO-102.5 FM contest filed a lawsuit yesterday against Cumulus Media Inc., which owns Hot 102 and four other local stations. The complaint, filed in Fayette Circuit Court, says the radio station and its Atlanta-based parent company breached a contract to pay $100,000 after a radio contest prize was revealed to be a caramel-filled candy bar, Nestle's 100 Grand, instead of cash.
Experts said Gill's case will rely on state contract law but the radio station also could face actions by the Federal Communications Commission, which licenses radio stations.
FCC regulations say contest descriptions can't be false, misleading or deceptive and that stations must conduct the contests as advertised. Stations in El Paso, Texas, and Shreveport, La., have been fined for contests that told listeners they'd won cash prizes without specifying they were in Italian or Turkish lira, not U.S. dollars. "
Brattleboro Reformer - FCC seizes station's equipment: "Federal authorities raided radio free brattleboro's office Wednesday morning, seizing the unlicensed station's equipment and turning its signal to static. The 7 a.m. raid occurred when no one was in the downtown space, said Larry Bloch, one of the station's founders. The action was executed by United States Marshals and the Federal Communications Commission, acting on a warrant issued by a Burlington federal judge. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael P. Drescher requested the warrant on Tuesday."
Also see http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0622-24.htm
8. We need not attempt to decide which of Capstar’s conflicting versions of the facts surrounding the advertisement of the “I Do Island” contest is most credible. Assuming that Capstar did, in fact, run broadcast messages advertising the value of the prize package at $30,000 (or at $35,000, as the complaint charges), that sum is significantly higher than the approximately $20,000 actual value of the package initially awarded and the advertisements would constitute an apparent violation of section 73.1216. Assuming, on the other hand, that the second of Capstar’s inconsistent filings is correct in stating that the value of the prizes was not advertised through broadcast messages at all, Capstar has, nonetheless, apparently violated section 73.1216. First, that rule generally requires that “material terms should be disclosed periodically by announcements broadcast on the station,” and material terms generally include, among other things, the “value of prizes” and “basis for valuation,” so the omission itself is a violation. Further, there is no dispute that the written rules concerning the contest valued the prizes at $30,000. Non-broadcast advertisements of a contest must also “fully and accurately” disclose the material terms; thus the $30,000 valuation in the written material is as problematic as it would be in a broadcast message.
Getting ready to be prime-time players - The Boston Globe - Boston.com - Local - News: "Music videos, silent movies, mockumentaries, commercials, and a talk show fill out the 5-10 p.m. schedule of WE-TV, Waltham Educational Television Station. Waltham High School's television and multimedia production program has given the city's youth a head start in broadcasting for nearly four decades."
RWonline - IBOC DAB: The advent of multicasting and other datacasting possibilities doesn't affect only broadcasters. Receiver manufacturers as well as their component suppliers are grappling with how to design new radios and make it easy for consumers to access the promised new features of HD Radio and the RDS features of analog broadcasting.
BallerStatus.net Features - DJ K-Sly: Honey With The Slanted Eyes: "'I just basically found a college radio station and was like 'That would be fun,' but I never thought of that as being a career,' says K-Sly. With nearly 6 years of radio experience under her belt, the job she thought would 'be fun' became her passion."
