2OOO FM and 3CH breach licence conditions by broadcasting ads

Two more community stations have fallen foul of ACMA in its most recent complaint rulings. Sydney high powered ethnic community station 2OOO FM breached its radio licence conditions by broadcasting advertisements and failing to keep a record of matter broadcast. Bendigo region community station 3CH Kyneton breached its licence conditions by broadcasting advertisements.

2OOO FM

The ACMA’s investigation began following a complaint that 2OOO had broadcast advertisements during the Urdu language program Nawaa-E-Sarosh on 15 August 2009. In the course of the investigation, the ACMA discovered that 2OOO FM’s program logging equipment had failed between 10 August and 22 August 2009.

In response to the investigation, 2OOO has implemented new procedures to ensure that all sponsorship announcements are appropriately tagged and that community service announcements are clearly identifiable. The Nawaa-E-Sarosh program has been cancelled and its presenter will need to be retrained as a prerequisite to being allocated airtime in the future. 2OOO has also introduced new procedures to ensure its program logging equipment is inspected daily.

The ACMA is satisfied that these actions demonstrate 2OOO’s commitment to meeting its obligations under its licence conditions and they are likely to reduce the risk of similar breaches occurring in the future. It won’t take any further action at this time.

3CH

The ACMA’s investigation began following complaints that 3CH had broadcast advertisements during its broadcast of the local football league qualifying finals in August 2009.

In response to the investigation, 3CH has revised its training manual and retrained all current presenters. This training will also be mandatory for all new presenters and all guest presenters. ACMA is satisfied that these actions demonstrate 3CH’s commitment to meeting its obligations and will not to take any further action at this time.

Community radio stations are prohibited from broadcasting advertisements under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. Sponsorship announcements that include appropriate acknowledgements of financial support (‘tags’) are permitted on community radio but announcements and other material promoting the sponsor that are not appropriately tagged are considered to be advertisements.