FCC Questions KROQ on Deejays’ Hoax

The Federal Communications Commission has sent a letter of inquiry to officials at KROQ-FM (106.7), asking them to explain the details surrounding a murder confession hoax fabricated by three of the station’s deejays.

The regulatory commission is particularly interested in whether station management was involved in the incident last June 13, which involved deejays Kevin Ryder, Gene (Bean) Baxter and Doug Roberts, or if KROQ officials knew that it was a fake before it was made public April 11 in an article in The Times.

The letter, dated Friday, poses 13 questions to KROQ officials. Among them: “When and how did the licensee learn the murder confession was false?” “What, if any, remedial action did the licensee initiate with regard to those individuals involved?” “If the facts as set forth are accurate, what mitigating factors, if any, should the commission consider?”

The regulatory agency also seeks more information about the hiring of Roberts for KROQ’s 8 p.m.-to-midnight slot last November. Roberts was a deejay in Phoenix at the time he called Ryder and Baxter and purported to confess to a murder.

Officials at KROQ and its parent company, Infinity Broadcasting, have said that they didn’t know of the hoax until a sheriff’s investigation brought it to their attention this month. The three deejays were suspended without pay for six days.

The incident is regarded as a serious offense, said Roy Stewart, chairman of the FCC’s mass media bureau.

“It seems to me (that) when a station broadcasts something that’s a hoax, that creates a certain amount of alarm in the public, and at the same time police and local officials end up spending a considerable amount of money and time as a result of the hoax, that’s a serious matter,” Stewart said. “We’re not talking about an April Fool’s joke.”

The station must respond to the FCC questions by Monday. After that, the mass media bureau will recommend to the five-member commission what action it should take, Stewart said. The penalties could range from a letter of admonishment to license revocation, he said.