Johnny Dare - Controversy

Controversy

In December 2004, the Federal Communications Commission proposed fines totaling $220,000 against Entercom Communications for alleged indecency violations during multiple broadcasts in April and May 2002 of the Morning Show on KQRC-FM in Kansas City, Kansas, and KFH-AM in Wichita, Kansas. The FCC claimed that the material included repeated graphic and explicit sexual descriptions that were pandering, titillating or used to shock the audience. As justification for proposing the maximum fine, the Commission noted "the egregious nature of the violations and Entercom's history of prior indecent broadcasts."

The Commission's official notice ran 28 pages, including 18 pages of transcripts for the four alleged violations. The FCC rejected Entercom's contention that, because KQRC generally enjoys high ratings, "the contemporary community standards of the Kansas City listening community are such that the material is not patently offensive." Entercom further argued that the FCC's definition of indecency was "unconstitutionally vague and overbroad" citing Reno v. ACLU and Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition. The Commission said that the notion of contemporary standards is not different in different regions of the country, but reflects "an average broadcast listener" and isn't tied to "any particular geographic area."

In addition, the FCC said that a station's popularity does not reflect acceptance of the broadcast material by the local community; "Whether particular material is actionably indecent does not turn on whether the station that broadcast it happens to be popular in its particular market." Finally, the Federal Communications Commission denied Entercom's assertions of the unconstitutionality of its definition of indecency, stating in conclusion, "The constitutional validity of the Commission's indecency standard has been repeatedly affirmed by the courts" and that Ashcroft v. Free Speech Commission and Reno v. ACLU did not alter this conclusion.

The FCC 'Notice of Apparent Liability For Forfeiture' dated December 22, 2004, asserts that the fines were assessed for four separate on-air incidents which occurred on April 4, April 29, May 2, and May 3, 2002. The April 4 incident was in response to an on-air game of "Naked Twister" with local female contestants. The April 29th Incident stemmed from and interview with pornographic film star Dave Cummings in which Cummings described the events of the "2002 Wildlife Productions Anal Contest" in graphic detail. The incident on May 2 similarly stemmed from an interview with pornographic film star Ron Jeremy, particularly their discussion of Jeremy's ability to "self-fellate", and his graphic descriptions of sexual encounters with an obese woman. The final incident specifically named in the FCC notice occurred on May 3, 2002 when Sunset Thomas, a pornographic actress, was "masturbated on-air to orgasm with a vibrator" with assistance from T-Bone.