FCC Delivers a Stern Warning : Radio: A Nevada station is on notice that it may be subject to a $73,750 fine if it continues to air Howard Stern’s ‘indecent’ material from his morning show. More stations may be subject to FCC fines.

The Federal Communications Commission has notified a Nevada radio station that carries Howard Stern’s raunchy morning program that it may be liable for a $73,750 fine for airing what the regulatory agency considers indecent material during a time when children might be listening.

And that may not be the end of the liability line. An FCC official indicated Thursday that other stations across the country that carry the syndicated show during morning hours--including KLSX-FM (97.1) in Los Angeles--could also be subject to fines for having broadcast the same material.

KLSX-FM, where Stern leads the morning-drive ratings, and three other stations were fined record amounts last year for 12 Stern broadcasts in late 1991 that the FCC deemed indecent. Those actions are now on appeal.

On his program Thursday morning, Stern reiterated his often-expressed feelings that he is being targeted for persecution by the FCC. “It impedes my ability to do business,” he said of the fines imposed on stations that carry his comedy/talk show. Stern then proceeded to question 64-year-old comic Pat Cooper about how often he masturbates and how often he makes love to his wife.

Los-Angeles based Americom Broadcasting, which owns KFBI-FM in Pahrump, Nev., outside Las Vegas, said it would “vigorously fight” the indecency allegations handed out by the FCC Wednesday. The cited programs aired on nine days between Nov. 10, 1992, and Jan. 13, 1993.

“We’re confident that once we are afforded due process, we will not have to pay a fine and that KFBI will be given a clean bill of health,” said Americom Broadcasting President Tom Quinn. He called the proposed fine a violation of the constitutional right of free speech.

In its notice to Americom, with some 20 pages of cited excerpts, the FCC said: “We believe that the subject excerpts from ‘The Howard Stern Show’ are indecent in that they contain language that describes sexual and excretory activities and organs in patently offensive terms. Because the material aired at times when there was a reasonable risk that children may have been in the audience, it is legally actionable.”

Both the current and previous filings against the Stern show were instigated by Al Wescott of Las Vegas, a guitarist who has been tracking Stern’s show since 1991. The Nevada station has 30 days to respond to the liability notice.

Cited for liability by the FCC were remarks by Stern about bowel movements, masturbation and the fight between Woody Allen and Mia Farrow.

KLSX received a record $105,000 liability notice in late October, 1992, for allegedly indecent material on the Stern show, and the fine went into effect in November. In mid-December, after weeks of internal debate, the FCC fined Infinity Broadcasting Corp. of New York still another record of $600,000 for having aired the same material on three stations it owns in Washington, Philadelphia and New York.

Asked Thursday whether other stations that carry Stern during daytime hours would receive liability notices as well, Marcia Diamond, an FCC compliance investigations lawyer, said: “There is a good possibility, yes.”

Stern is currently heard on 14 stations nationwide. But two stations, in Boston and San Jose, air taped broadcasts late at night--outside the “safe harbor” daytime hours that the FCC has established to protect children--so they would presumably not be part of any FCC actions.

As for piggyback fines, Steven Lerman, the attorney for both Americom and Infinity, which now carries Stern on six of its stations, cautioned with a laugh: “Don’t jump the gun.”

“I don’t know what the commission is going to do,” Lerman said, “but Americom will avail (itself) of the opportunity to reply. We hope to be able to persuade the commission the material was not indecent. The Stern show has a virtually non-existent child audience.”

At KLSX, program director Andy Bloom declined comment. Tom Milewski, vice president of Greater Media Inc., KLSX’s parent company, also declined comment.

The FCC’s Diamond said KLSX appealed on Dec. 23. The station, she said, argued that the fine should be rescinded or reduced on the grounds that it has a good record and that the fine was based on one complaint, whereas the Los Angeles audience is huge.

Meanwhile, a consumer group has cited the FCC’s fines against Infinity Broadcasting as a reason that the company should not be allowed to purchase KRTH-FM (101.1) in Los Angeles.

On Aug. 6, Americans for Responsible Television, led by Terry Rakolta, filed a petition asking the FCC to deny the proposed sale by Beasly FM to Infinity.