FCC Probes Lowest Unit Rate, Public File Complaint Against Entercom Buffalo

Investigation

The BUFFALO NEWS is reporting that the FCC is investigating whether the ENTERCOM BUFFALO cluster overcharged a congressional candidate for advertising in the 2018 campaign.  A complaint from JACKIE DROST, who identified herself as a former congressional candidate but whose name does not come up in searches of candidates in 2018 congressional races in Western NEW YORK, alleged that she was charged more than commercial advertisers rather than the lowest unit rate as required by law.

The Commission has sent a letter to ENTERCOM expanding the probe to add the issue of whether ENTERCOM "may have failed to timely upload information to the online political files for the referenced seven stations (News-Talk WBEN-A, Sports WGR-A, Hot AC WTSS (STAR 102.5), Top 40 WKSE (KISS 98.5), Urban Oldies WWWS-A-W297AB (CLASSIC R&B 107.3 & 1400AM), Alternative WLKK-W284AP, and Sports WWKB-A (ESPN 1520AM)/BUFFALO) about each request they received which communicated a message relating to any political matter of national importance."  ENTERCOM indicated in a response to the initial JANUARY investigatory letter from the Commission, which said that Commission agents looking into DROST's complaint found no records of political advertising requests for 2018 in the stations' public file, that it did fail to upload the political information to the online public file until JANUARY but that it was inadvertent, and that it has no records of DROST buying time or even being a congressional candidate.

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