Weeters 1811 Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 The California Labor Federation is calling on the FCC to yank the license for FOX-owned KCOP, the MyNetwork affiliate in Los Angeles. KCOP recently discontinued news programming, and the group argues that the station is no longer meeting it's FCC-mandated obligations to air "local live programs" and "programming devoted to discussion of local public issues." The complaint also mentions the complaints made in New Jersey over FOX's operation of WWOR. http://www.calaborfed.org/index.php/site/page/fcc_should_revoke_kcops_license Of course, with the government shutdown still ongoing, along with the FCC being obsessed with wireless broadband and a do-nothing Congress, it's unlikely anything will ever come of these (very valid) complaints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrtraveler01 737 Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 The difference between this and WWOR is that the compliant about WWOR was it's lack of news coverage covering New Jersey even though it was licensed in New Jersey on the expectation that it provide local programming for New Jersey. It was legitimate because none of the stations from New York and Philly did an adequate job covering news from New Jersey. Essentially leaving people with very little options for New Jersey news on TV. KCOP seems to be different because it's based in LA where there are many other options for LA news (including sister station KTTV). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundershock MN 169 Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 When did local news (or, "local live programming") become a condition of license? Did I miss something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanewsguy 509 Posted October 14, 2013 Share Posted October 14, 2013 When did local news (or, "local live programming") become a condition of license? Did I miss something? For a while now. I read it somewhere but forgot the link... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Weeters 1811 Posted October 14, 2013 Author Share Posted October 14, 2013 When did local news (or, "local live programming") become a condition of license? Did I miss something? I think it's always been required that full power stations have a set number of hours of local programming. Thus why stations like WBME here have programs like "Racine and Me", which has nothing to do with the classic TV programming of the Me TV network. Look closely at the schedules of, say, your local Ion affiliate and you'll find some poorly produced Public Affairs program that satisfies the local programming requirement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundershock MN 169 Posted October 15, 2013 Share Posted October 15, 2013 I think it's always been required that full power stations have a set number of hours of local programming. Thus why stations like WBME here have programs like "Racine and Me", which has nothing to do with the classic TV programming of the Me TV network. Look closely at the schedules of, say, your local Ion affiliate and you'll find some poorly produced Public Affairs program that satisfies the local programming requirement. There hasn't been a set requirement for full power since the 80's/ deregulation. The FCC doesn't have specific quantitative programming obligations for full power stations*. Stations are only required to report their Public Interest programming by filing a "Quarterly Issues Programs list" report in their online inspection file. This "Quarterly Issues Programs list" report is how the station feels it has met it's public interest obligations for the 3 month period. A Petition to Deny faces an uphill battle as, without specific quantitative program requirements, the Commission cannot punish a station for not doing specific amounts of particular programming. Class A stations have specific requiement to broadcast (on average) three hours per week of local programming. Hence, why WBME airs some of the programming it does. *exempting E/I programming which is reported separately from any other "public interest" programming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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