KLSX Fined $105,000 for Broadcasts by Stern

The Federal Communications Commission issued a record $105,000 fine Tuesday against KLSX-FM (97.1), charging that the Los Angeles radio station broadcast indecent material during Howard Stern’s morning program last year.

“We believe the egregious nature of the material as well as the substantial number of days on which such indecent material was broadcast severely aggravates the violation,” the FCC said. “Thus we are adjusting the fine accordingly.”

Greater Media Inc., KLSX’s parent company, was given 30 days to respond--either with a legal defense or with payment, said Bob Ratcliffe, assistant chief of law in the FCC’s mass media bureau.

“It is the largest fine ever, but it is also the greatest number of days and most material I’ve ever seen in an indecency complaint,” Ratcliffe said.

Stern, whose bawdy talk show recently was crowned No. 1 in Los Angeles--a distinction it also holds in New York City and Philadelphia--could not be reached for comment, but he has been telling listeners for the past week that he believes the federal regulatory agency wants to knock him off the air. He maintains that his program is no more risque than many TV talk shows and argues that parents should take responsibility for monitoring what their children listen to.

The commission’s maximum fine for one incident of indecent broadcasting is $12,500, but Tuesday’s decision was based on broadcasts made over 12 days between Oct. 31 and Dec. 6, 1991, Ratcliffe said. Transcripts detailing the offending material covered 19 pages of single-spaced text, he said.

Adding to the FCC’s concern, Ratcliffe said, was the fact that the broadcasts occurred between 6 and 11 a.m., during what the FCC has deemed the “safe harbor” period of 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. when children should be assumed to be listening.

KLSX officials refused to comment on the fine. Greater Media Inc. officials said they had obtained legal counsel to investigate the allegations.

“Together with our lawyers, we face quite a challenge in examining these lengthy excerpts before we can fully comment,” said Tom Milewski, executive vice president of Greater Media. “We have to take it apart and defend it phrase by phrase.”

Although Stern’s show originates in New York and is carried there and on other stations, only KLSX was fined because the FCC responds to specific complaints, and this one cited only the Los Angeles outlet.

The complaint, documented with tapes, was filed by Al Wescott of Las Vegas. The cited material covered a range of discussions of sexual matters, from masturbation to intercourse to anal sex.

The commission’s definition of indecent broadcasting is “material that depicts or describes in a manner that is patently offensive under community standards for the broadcast medium sexual or excretory functions, activities or organs.”

Ratcliffe said examples of material that the FCC deemed indecent included Stern commenting, “The closest I came to making love to a black woman is, I masturbated to a picture of Aunt Jemima;” a graphic discussion of rectal bleeding; Stern fantasizing about having sex with actress Michelle Pfeiffer; a conversation about Santa Claus fondling children; Stern concocting a fictional rape and castration of two Los Angeles radio competitors, and Stern saying he wanted to defecate on the Hollywood Walk of Fame star of another Los Angeles radio competitor.

Stern has had a run-in with the FCC before. In 1987, three stations owned by New York-based Infinity Broadcasting were each fined $2,000 for a single broadcast of Stern’s show that was deemed by the commission to be indecent. That fine is still in litigation.

Stern’s popularity has soared this year. In addition to his No. 1 ranking in Los Angeles and New York, the radio show has expanded to Cleveland, Chicago, Dallas and Albany, N.Y., in the past several months. Stern has a movie deal with New Line Cinema and last week he signed a deal with E! Entertainment Television to host a celebrity interview show on the cable television network.

He has repeatedly complained on his show that the FCC has it in for him. Before the fine was handed down late Tuesday, he said on the air that he had hired an attorney to investigate the possibility of filing suit against an FCC commissioner he believes is carrying on a personal vendetta. Stern has said on the air over the past few weeks that he intends to vote for Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton for President in the hope that he would change the makeup of the FCC.