Candidates Overcharged for Radio-TV Time : Politics: A surprise FCC audit of 30 stations finds widespread violations of the law. Education efforts are slated.

A surprise audit of 30 radio and TV stations found widespread overcharging of political candidates for advertising, a Federal Communications Commission official said today.

However, the official, Roy Stewart, said the commission will not levy sanctions against the stations at this time. Instead, the commission will increase its efforts to educate station executives in the intricacies of the political advertising laws, he said.

Stewart, chief of the FCC’s mass media bureau, said sanctions are possible after the bureau further investigates the 30 stations. He said no more audits are planned at this time.

He said the purpose of the July 16 audit was “to assist” broadcasters in complying with the law, which was passed in 1972. He would not characterize the violations as deliberate.

“I would prefer to think they (broadcasters) are not aware of their full range of responsibilities . . . in carrying out the law,” Stewart said.

He did not identify which of the audited stations were in violation.

The audit reviewed the stations’ compliance with federal rules requiring that candidates have equal opportunities--commonly referred to as equal time--to appear on stations and whether stations are selling ads to candidates at the lowest rates for specific time slots.

The audit found widespread overcharging at 16 of 20 TV stations audited. During a particular time at one of the stations, candidates paid $5,500 for a 30-second ad, while commercial advertisers paid no more than $3,000 for a 30-second spot.

The bureau said broadcasters’ “sales techniques encouraged (candidates) to buy higher-priced classes of time.”

The audit also found that many stations were not keeping good enough records to allow candidates to ascertain whether they should be getting equal time with opponents.

The inspections--the first of their kind--were carried out in Cincinnati, Dallas-Ft. Worth, Philadelphia, Portland, Ore., and San Francisco. The commission said the stations were chosen because of their diverse locations and because they serve large areas.

The commission in April fined an Indianapolis television station, WXIN, $10,000 for violating the political ad rules.