The Commission held that a notice of intention to broadcast the conversation is required before the call is broadcast. Another frequent trick is to call a competing station to somehow embarrass them. In another case, an air personality called the general manager of a competing station to ask about rumors of staff changes at their station. The call was aired live without obtaining permission. The Commission refused accept the argument that a general manager knows that any call from a competing station might wind up on the air.
Contests can create unsuspecting problems.
The called party must be given a real opportunity to refuse to have his or her conversation broadcast or recorded while not yet on the air or tape. In another instance, the Commission held that even thought the called party gave permission after the subject conversation was recorded but prior to its actual broadcast, there was still a violation of the rule. Another seemingly innocent area is broadcast news. Clearly, this is an area that requires attention in television station operations. News reporters attempt to obtain telephone actualities for later broadcast, sometimes without telling the source that the conversation is being taped.