Opinion ID: 658298
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Legal Accountability

Text: 34 The Commission also considers it inherently desirable that day-to-day management decisions be made by people with legal responsibility for the station. 1965 Policy Statement, 1 F.C.C.2d at 395. But station employees can be held legally responsible for their acts even if they don't own the station. Thus, it is a crime for anyone to utter[ ] any obscene, indecent, or profane language by means of radio communication, 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1464, or for a station employee to accept money for broadcasting anything without first disclosing the payment to the station, 47 U.S.C. Sec. 508. More broadly, willful and knowing commission of any act prohibited by the chapter of the Communications Act dealing with radio communication can result in imprisonment and a fine of up to $10,000, id. Sec. 501, and [a]ny person who willfully and knowingly violates any rule, regulation, restriction, or condition made or imposed by the Commission under authority of this chapter faces an extra fine of up to $500 for each and every day during which such offense occurs, id. Sec. 502. 35 It may be true, as the Commission suggests, that station owners have the most legal accountability for the station. See Second Remand Order, 8 F.C.C.Rec. at 1676. But to a large extent they have this accountability whether or not they work at the station. Stations are not insulated from the [304 U.S.App.D.C. 109] threat of license revocation, 47 U.S.C. Sec. 312, or nonrenewal, id. Sec. 307, merely because they are owned by absentee investors. Nor does absentee ownership protect stations from the forfeiture provisions of 47 U.S.C. Sec. 503(b). Since absentee owners thus have strong incentives to ensure that their station complies with the relevant statutes and rules, the incremental contribution of the integration preference on this score appears trivial.