4 Candidates to Receive Free TV Air Time : Election: KSCI-Channel 18 made the decision because a rival for City Council ran ads on his wife’s program without directly paying the station, as is required.

Four Monterey Park City Council candidates will receive free commercials on a Los Angeles television station after station officials said another candidate failed to properly pay for advertising.

Frank Arcuri, incumbent Judy Chu, Andy Islas and Bonnie Wai all claimed the free time by March 12, the deadline for taking advantage of the onetime offer from KSCI-Channel 18.

KSCI is providing the free commercials because candidate John Casperson advertised on Channel 18 during his wife Erica’s “China TV” program but did not pay the station for the advertising, said KSCI General Manager Rosemary Danon.

The station figured the time each candidate would get based on when they made their request. Each is entitled to time equal to the disputed commercials that ran within a week of their request.

Arcuri, Islas and Chu, who notified the station March 12, are each entitled to 4 1/2 minutes on the air, to match two Casperson commercials that ran March 5.

Wai, who made her request two days earlier than the others, gets that time plus time matching whatever commercials Casperson ran March 3 and 4. Station officials were not sure Wednesday how much that total was.

In addition, Wai is entitled to another 6 minutes and 43 seconds of commercial time, the length of a March 3 “China TV” program on trash pickup in which Erica Casperson spent a substantial amount of time interviewing her husband, Danon said.

Danon explained that after reviewing the program, station attorneys determined that it was not a bona fide news segment and thus would be treated as advertising.

Station officials have not decided whether candidates will have the flexibility to use up their free time in one long block or whether they will have to split it up.

Erica Casperson said her husband paid her to run his commercials on the Chinese-language news program she airs daily by buying time from Channel 18. Erica Casperson produces, hosts and reports on “China TV.”

Danon said the station requires direct payment for political advertising to comply with the federal equal opportunity rule, which requires broadcasters to offer candidates the same access to advertising at a fixed rate.

Normally, with nonpolitical ads, show producers book their own commercials.

The station is providing the free time, during air time scheduled for “China TV,” because there was no way to monitor how much John Casperson paid his wife for commercials, Danon said. Candidate statements filed by John Casperson on March 5 show a $1,000 payment to “China TV.”

Casperson began paying KSCI, in compliance with station policy, on March 6, Danon said.

Other candidates in the April 14 race are Francisco Alonso, Rita Valenzuela, Charles Wu and Raymond Wu (no relation to each other). Danon said none of them requested free air time before the deadline, which was a week after the last commercial in dispute aired.