Home Login RADIO ONLINE RSS Facebook
Advertisement

FCC Fines KXOL-FM in Los Angeles $8000 Over Contest


Federal Communications Commission
Federal Communications Commission

The FCC has levied a proposed fine of $8000 against Spanish Broadcasting System's KXOL-FM in Los Angeles for failing to conduct a contest in accordance with its announced terms and to deliver a prize to the winner in the prescribed time under the contest's terms. Despite being required to deliver prizes to winners within thirty business days, KXOL failed to meet its own deadline.

In proposing this penalty, the agency reiterated the Commission's commitment to protecting the public from deceptive broadcast contests. Under the Commission's rules, broadcast licensees must "fully and accurately disclose the material terms" of a licensee-conducted contest and conduct it "substantially as announced and advertised." Material terms "include any eligibility restrictions, means of selection of winners, and the extent, nature and value of prizes."

The Commission received a complaint alleging that KXOL did not conduct a contest in a manner substantially as announced by failing to award a promised cash prize of $396 to the winner, conducted on air on October 24, 2019. The Enforcement Bureau issued a Letter of Inquiry (LOI) investigating the complaint on June 16, 2021. KXOL submitted its timely response on July 16, 2021.

In its LOI response, KXOL admitted that there was an "undue delay" in issuing the contest prize and that it failed to issue the award within the applicable timeframe. The contest at issue, "Mega Bomba," aired from July 18, 2019 to October 25, 2019, with 459 winners. The contest terms provide, in two separate provisions, that each winner will be awarded their prize "within thirty business days of the date the winner completes all required station documents." KXOL acknowledged that the complainant had completed required documents on January 16, 2020. Despite this, KZOL issued the award in May, 2021.

KXOL attributed its "undue delay" to three different events: the COVID-19 pandemic, a ransomware attack that disabled corporate IT systems between October 2020 and March 2021 and after recovering from the ransomware attack, KXOL lacked the staff needed to complete the remaining work quickly.

The FCC found that KXOL's justifications for this delay did not excuse its liability for failure to issue the prize in accordance with its announced contest terms and issued a base forfeiture of $4,000 and concluded an upward adjustment was warranted making the proposed fine of $8000.

Advertisement

Latest Radio Stories

Red Apple Media Appoints Bert Goldman as CTO
Bert Goldman
Bert Goldman
Red Apple Media names veteran broadcast engineer Bert Goldman as its new Chief Technology Officer. He brings more than 50 years of radio engineering experience to the role, with a deep background in station construction, facility upgrades, signal optimization, and regulatory compliance. Goldman has More

Chris Fillar Joins WWJ Newsradio 950 as Morning Co-Anchor
Chris Fillar
Chris Fillar
Audacy names Chris Fillar as the new morning co-anchor on WWJ-AM (WWJ Newsradio 950) in Detroit. Fillar steps into the role alongside Jackie Paige, with the duo now leading weekday broadcasts from 5-10am ET. Fillar, who has delivered sports updates on WWJ and sister WXYT-FM (97.1 The Ticket) since 2018, More

PodcastOne Announces Return of Chrisley Confessions 2.0
PodcastOne
PodcastOne
PodcastOne has announced the relaunch of Chrisley Confessions, the podcast hosted by reality TV personalities Todd and Julie Chrisley. The revamped series, entitled Chrisley Confessions 2.0, premieres July 16, and will be available in both audio and video formats through PodcastOne. More
Advertisement

Latino USA Podcast Joins iHeartMedia's My Cultura Network
Latino USA
Latino USA
Futuro Media and iHeartMedia announced today that Latino USA, the longest-running Latino-focused news and culture program in the U.S., joins iHeartMedia's My Cultura Podcast Network. Hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa, Latino USA will now be distributed as a podcast via iHeartRadio More

Hubbard Radio Seattle Appoints Nick Beyer VP/MM
Nick Beyer
Nick Beyer
Hubbard Radio has appointed Nick Beyer as Vice President and Market Manager of its cluster in Seattle, marking a homecoming for the longtime broadcaster whose career began over two decades ago at the same group of stations. Beyer now leads operations for a portfolio that includes KQMV-FM (MOViN 92.5), More

Report: Majority of U.S. Voters Trust Public Media
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)
Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB)
As the Senate prepares to vote on the Rescissions Act of 2025 -- which would eliminate $1.1 billion in previously approved funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) -- a new national poll finds that most U.S. voters trust and value public media more than commercial More

Return to Menu

Advertisement

Subscribe to our Newsletter
Radio news and headlines delivered right to your e-mail box -- and it's free.

Advertisement

Advertisement