“To answer your question point blank: Realistically, NOTHING is bad enough to compel the FCC to pull a license. They will puff their chests, threaten, and fine, but not physically pull a license. Look at history…when is the last time they pulled a license for an established, legally acquired frequency, based on the actions of a station? I can’t think of any time that’s happened.”

Thanks for being the first (and only) person to at least attempt to answer the question.

You may be right when you say, “Realistically, the FCC isn’t going to pull a license for one death” but isn’t that pretty sad? We lock people up for accidentally causing a death by driving drunk. Apparantly, though, when it comes to a CORPORATION, taking away their FREE license to operate a radio station in the public’s “interest, convenience and necessity” is just TOO BIG a price to ask them to pay.

By the way, if, as some people here have pointed out, the death was caused by an accident and therefore no large punishment is warranted, why were the air personalities fired? I mean, apparantly no one in management, other than the program director, is going to lose his or her job, so why can the jocks?

Hey, Has Been, I have another slogan a competing station could use:

“You’ll shout WII! when you listen to KWhatever.”

“While listeners at that OTHER station drop like flies, we keep playing the hits!”

Phil Collins!
Billy Joel!
Madonna!

For everything else, the FCC stands to run a station out of commission by fines, not by blatantly pulling their license. Look at Howard Stern. How many times did he break the rules and the stations paid (literally) for it? The FCC will profit more by upping the fines for infractions ‘against serving the public interest’ than for pulling a license.

To answer your question point blank: Realistically, NOTHING is bad enough to compel the FCC to pull a license. They will puff their chests, threaten, and fine, but not physically pull a license. Look at history…when is the last time they pulled a license for an established, legally acquired frequency, based on the actions of a station? I can’t think of any time that’s happened.

“You let someone drive your car and they do something dumb and kill someone….you knew that they were driving the car, and what they were doing with it, but you expected them to operate responsibly.”

The difference is that the driver of my car is driving with THEIR license and I’m not their employer.

The DJ’s were using the STATION’S license and management ran promos for the contest, which indicates that they knew it was going to happen (the contest, not the death).

Apparantly, no one wants to answer the question, “If causing a DEATH isn’t reason enough to take away a license, what IS?”

I do, however, understand what you are getting at. There are probably those out there who still don’t understand how or care to run a safe promotion. But, I’ll bet if you call almost any random station in the nation right now, and ask a PD, OM, or GM what this situation means to the safety of contestants in future radio events, I doubt you’ll find very little confusion on this subject. I’ll bet lotsa events like milk chugs and hot dog eating contests have already been cancelled due to this news story. These stories spread like wildfire, and people listen up. Getting fired sucks.

Does it REALLY mean anything to penalize the station by revoking their license?

Is ther TRUE justice for the dead woman & her family if that doesn’t happen?

How much responsibility does the station bear promoting a stunt this irresponsible? On the flip side, despite the terrible circumstances, how much responsibility does the woman who died bear seeing as she was in fact an adult, and nobody FORCED her to participate? These are interesting questions that unfortunately most likely will NOT be answered here. The ENTIRE situation is already in litigation and will be vigorously argued by BOTH sides I assure you. Will justice ultimately be served? Probably not. But figuring that radio in general will 100% LEARN a lesson from this is almost laughable. There will certainly be SOME stations around the country ignorant of reality and convince somebody in promotion to go along with some insane attention-grabbing contest that somewhere down the line will sadly result in yet another avoidable death. I suppose I cannot say this with ABSOLUTE certainty, but I’d be willing to bet it’ll happen again — and sooner rather than later.

Once again…NOBODY wins — especially when NOBODY involved is willing to stand up and admit their part in this disaster.

“I believe that taking away this license will establish a bad precedent, because frivolous lawsuits and legal actions seem to come out of the woodwork after events like this.”

Um, if taking away the license of this station sets a precedent that you can become an ex-license holder if you run a promotion that KILLS a contestant, I don’t see a problem with that.

We aren’t talking about someone getting their feelings hurt because they didn’t win a prize here. This was an extraordinary circumstance and I believe the station acted in a negligent manner. I mean, apparantly they didn’t even have the contestants sign a liability release. Dumb de dumb dumb. If they lose their license, they asked for it.

I believe that taking away this license will establish a bad precedent, because frivolous lawsuits and legal actions seem to come out of the woodwork after events like this. I’m afraid that, in the future, if a station does something that offends an individual or business, the first thing that they are going to push for, is the revocation of the license of that station.

Then what? …

Paranoid upper management (likely utilizing the assistance of stuffy overpaid consultants) may take it upon themselves to screen and approve all radio promotions, stunts, and program content, or possibly even put the axe to listener involvement entirely. That could lead to an even poorer quality of service provided by local radio. (That’s just a guess at the potential worst case scenario, of course. But is it possible? I think it’s quite possible.)

All I’m saying, is that we should be careful how react to this situation. When in doubt, proceed with caution.

And, though the involved individuals deserve to be punished, keep in mind this was an accident. These are not bad people, just ignorant people. They already have to live with this for the rest of their lives.

In addition, I believe radio stations nationwide have learned an important lesson from this tragic mistake. Any further “examples” will not be necessary.

I think we’re using the term “buying the book” in different ways, which is causing the disagreement here. Buying the book is off topic, anyway, so we should probably move on.

Peabdy said:

“The (ir)responsible parties should definetly be punished, no doubt about that, but the only reason anyone would want to take the license away from a station is to make an example of them. It won’t bring back the dead.”

Well, NOTHING could bring back the dead woman. What’s wrong with “making an example of them”?

“However, just the fact that someone DIED should be enough a deterrent for most people.”

That may or may not be true. Even if it is, however, shouldn’t the people who already have acted recklessly be punished?

I’ll ask the question again: If running a promotion that ends in a DEATH isn’t reason enough to revoke a license, what IS?

For anyone who didn’t follow the link I provided above, it looks as if the station didn’t even have the now-dead woman sign a liability release. They therefore don’t have the “out” that she signed a paper that said she knew the stunt could result in her death. Oopsie.