[grc] Equal time for political candidates

[Philip Tymon]

Kenny,

The safe thing to do is to have the DJ be off the air while he/she is an
official candidate for office. Whether you like it or not, it is the price
of running for office. If the DJ stays on the air, he/she will, almost
certainly, trigger the equal time rule. However, I believe the potential
candidate can only request time for the period that they are actually an
official candidate.

If you want to allow the DJ to remain on air, you will certainly need legal
advice. This is a complex and tricky area and the FCC does enforce it. At
minimum, you should check the NFCB legal guide. Or call NFCB for advice.
(If you are not a member, this is one of the reasons you may want to
consider joining.) But you will likely need real advice from a real FCC
attorney.

I once had a similar situation when I managed WBAI in New York and one of
our best and longest term programmers was running for a very prominent
office (he lost, unfortunately). His opponent requested equal time. The
programmer had a morning show from something like 7-9 AM once a week. With
the programmer's permission, I offered the opponent that he would alternate
the show during the campaign and he could do the show every other week.
Since this was a very busy person I assumed he would decline, which he did,
and the problem went away. (However, I realized later that my offer did NOT
actually meet FCC guidelines on how to handle this situation--- luckily the
opponent did not contest it.)

So, either the DJ needs to be off the air during the campaign or you need
to get some good solid legal advice on how to handle it, but it will,
almost certainly, trigger the equal time rule.

Yours,

Philip Tymon









On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 5:18 AM, Kenny Lavender WTSQ via grc <
grc at maillist.peak.org> wrote:

> We have been approached by a candidate for office requesting equal airtime
> as one of our DJs that is running for local office.  They aren’t yet
> opponents.  The potential candidate thinks that he is due equal time based
> on the Dj having a musical program where he doesn’t discuss politics.  Any
> ideas on how to proceed?
>
>
> Kenny Lavender
> Vice President
> WTSQ LP 88.1
> The Status Quo
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