It’s Time for “The Talk”
No, not *that* talk…you should have already had *that* talk by now.
This is the talk we have every time an election rolls around about the ads you hear on the radio. First, a reminder that over-the-air radio stations are regulated by the federal government, because we use the public airwaves to send out our signal. They’re allowed to regulate the electromagnetic spectrum, just as they regulate air quality and rivers, to make sure that this limited natural resource is used most efficiently. Not everyone who wants a station can have one, so there are regulations we must follow. One has to do with advertising for political candidates.
First, understand that stations are licensed by the government to act in the “public interest, convenience, and necessity”. It has been interpreted to mean different things over time, but it’s the standard that has been in place since the Federal Communications Commission was formed in 1934, and the Federal Radio Commission seven years before that.
Essentially, radio and TV stations are prohibited from rejecting any political ad from a campaign…period. So long as there is air time in normally designated commercial breaks, what we call inventory, we have to sell the time to candidates. On top of that, we have to charge the “lowest unit rate”…meaning no business advertising on the radio station pays less, candidates and campaigns always pay the lowest per commercial amount.
Those are federal rules, and the FCC’s enforcement bureau cracks down hard on stations that refuse to sell time to a candidate, or sells at the wrong rate.
Here’s why. Let’s say the owner of a station is a member of the Purple Party, and refused to sell ads to candidates from the Yellow Party. We’d say that wasn’t fair, since the station is to serve the whole community. Likewise, it’s not fair for that same owner to sell ads to Purple candidates for a dollar, and sell ads to Yellow candidates for a thousand dollars.
So if you’re wondering why there are so many ads, and why for example ads for Joe Biden air during the Rush Limbaugh program…that’s part of it. More, tomorrow.
