Source: http://www.fcc.gov/print/node/46157
Timestamp: 2013-12-05 21:30:16
Document Index: 428437520

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 503', '§ 1', '§ 73', '§ 336', '§ 303', 'art, 6']

DA 13-272
Facility I.D. No. 32142
Licensee of Station WQQZ-CA
NAL/Acct. No.: 201341420004
In this Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture (“NAL”) issued pursuant to Section 503(b) of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the “Act”), and Section 1.80 of the Commission’s Rules (the “Rules”),1 the Commission finds that CMCG Puerto Rico Licensee LLC (the “Licensee”), licensee of Station WQQZ-CA, Ponce, Puerto Rico (the “Station”), apparently willfully and repeatedly violated Section 73.670 of the Rules, by exceeding the commercial limitations in children’s programming.2 Based upon our review of the facts and circumstances before us, we conclude that the Licensee is apparently liable for a monetary forfeiture in the amount of four thousand dollars ($4,000).
The Community Broadcasters Protection Act requires that Class A television stations comply with all rules applicable to full-power television stations except for those rules that could not apply for technical or other reasons.3 In the Children’s Television Act of 1990 (“CTA”),4 Congress directed the Commission to adopt rules, inter alia, limiting the number of minutes of commercial matter that television stations may air during children’s programming5 and to consider in its review of television license renewal applications the extent to which the licensee has complied with such commercial limits. Pursuant to this statutory mandate, the Commission adopted Section 73.670 of the Rules, which limits the amount of commercial matter which may be aired during children’s programming to 10.5 minutes per hour on weekends and 12 minutes per hour on weekdays. 3.
On October 2, 2012, the Licensee filed its license renewal application (FCC Form 303-S) for Station WQQZ-CA (the “Application”) (File No. BRTTA-20121001APU). In response to Section IV, Question 5 of the Application, the Licensee stated that, during the previous license term, it failed to 1 47 U.S.C. § 503(b); 47 C.F.R. § 1.80.2 See 47 C.F.R. § 73.670.3 Community Broadcasters Protection Act of 1999, Pub. L. No. 106-113, 113 Stat. Appendix I at pp. 1501A-594-1501A-598(1999), codified at 47 U.S.C. § 336(f).
4 Pub. L. No. 101-437, 104 Stat. 996-1000, codified at 47 U.S.C. §§ 303(a), 303(b), and 394.5 “Children’s programming” is defined as a program originally produced and broadcast primarily for an audience of children 12 years old and under. Children’s Television Programming, Report and Order, 6 FCC Rcd 2111, 2112, recon. granted in part, 6 FCC Rcd. 5093, 5098 (1991).
DA 13-272 comply with limits on commercial matter in children’s programming specified in Section 73.670 of the Rules. In Exhibit 22, the Licensee indicated that it violated the children’s television commercial limits by 45 seconds on a total of 15 broadcasts during the Fourth Quarter of 2007 and First Quarter of 2008.
The Licensee blamed its noncompliance on “glitches in the station’s automated traffic system.” The Station reported that, on December 3, 2007, its traffic