FCC plans the max for Infinity

Viacom Inc.’s Infinity Broadcasting radio unit was slapped with a proposed $357,500 fine for airing indecent material last year on its now-defunct “Opie & Anthony” show in New York, the Federal Communications Commission said Thursday.

In August 2002, Infinity’s WNEW-FM ran a contest that encouraged couples to have sex at New York City locations such as Rockefeller Center, a zoo and a toy store. The FCC was flooded with complaints after the DJs broadcast a live account of a couple allegedly having sex in St. Patrick’s Cathedral. WNEW fired the DJs a week later.

The commission said it proposed the maximum allowable fine against Infinity “because of the egregious nature of the material [and] the involvement of many Infinity employees and managers in planning the marketing event.”

The company has 30 days to contest the size of the fine.