Cumulus To Pay $540K Fine For Failing To I-D Sponsor

The FCC has reached a $540,000 settlement with the former owner of a New Hampshire country radio station that broadcast 178 commercial announcements supporting the Northern Pass project without identifying the sponsor.

According to the Manchester Union-Leader, the FCC says its settlement with Cumulus Media, former owner of Dover-based WOKQ 97.5 FM is the largest ever involving a single station for violating sponsor identification laws.

“Radio and television stations that are paid to air any announcements or other content are required to clearly disclose the payer’s identity,” FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc said. “While failure to disclose these identities generally misleads the public, it is particularly concerning when consumers are duped into supporting controversial environmental projects.”

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The settlement resolved an investigation into whether WOKQ violated the FCC’s sponsorship identification rules. The station broadcast 178 announcements in support of the Northern Pass hydro-electric energy project without identifying the sponsor of those announcements, in this case Northern Pass Transmission LLC., a company with a financial interest in the project.

The Northern Pass energy project is a $1 billion proposal to run 180 miles of new power lines from Canada through New Hampshire. According to Will Wiquist, a spokesman for the FCC, the Enforcement Bureau began its investigation after receiving a consumer complaint alleging that WOKQ had broadcast an announcement for the Northern Pass project in September 2011 without identifying who sponsored the announcement.

Investigators found that the station had broadcast multiple versions of the announcements from May through October 2011 that referenced the Northern Pass project, but none of them expressly identify Northern Pass Transmission LL as the sponsor.

Wiquist said he was not authorized to reveal what individual or group filed the initial complaint.

Brian Lang, general manager at WOKQ, referred all requests for comment on the settlement to Atlanta-based Cumulus Media, the station’s owner when the announcements aired.

Cumulus Media referred all calls on the settlement to their public relations firm, Goldin Communications, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday night.

Cumulus Media sold WOKQ in 2013 to Townsquare Media, based in Greenwich, Conn.

Under the terms of the settlement, which takes the form of a consent decree, Cumulus Media Inc. subsidiaries Cumulus Radio Corporation and Radio License Holding CBC, LLC will pay a penalty of $540,000 and will enter into what is termed a “robust compliance plan” covering 195 stations across the country.

The plan includes appointing a compliance officer, enhanced operating procedures, employee training on sponsorship identification laws, and a hotline for reporting violations of the compliance plan.