The FCC is not happy with Cumulus and has hit the company with a $32,000 fine for violating its EEO requirements. The Commission says Cumulus has a history “of repeatedly violating the Commission’s rules and its apparent disregard of the Commission’s EEO rules is particularly troubling.”
This most recent Notice of Apparent Liability dates back to 2018 and involves a cluster of five former Cumulus stations in Albany, Sasser and Leesburg, GA. The Commission says Cumulus failed to timely upload its 2018 Annual Report in its stations’ public inspection files. “We further find that by failing to timely upload its 2018 Annual Report into its public inspection files, Cumulus apparently violated section 73.3526(e)(7) of the Commission’s rules, which requires licensees of commercial stations to keep certain information, including EEO information such as the Annual Report, in their stations’ public inspection files.”
Cumulus told the Commission that the filing was simply overlooked. Cumulus said that its Business Manager for the stations in the Albany, Georgia market, had previously prepared the Stations’ annual EEO reports with the assistance of the market’s Assistant Business Manager, but that in December 2018, the Assistant Business Manager left the company.
That explanation doesn’t fly with The FCC.
The Commission responded by saying Cumulus is a highly sophisticated broadcaster with extensive operations that employs thousands of people and routinely fills scores of job openings annually. “The Commission’s EEO rules ensure that broadcasters take concrete and thoughtful steps to seek and attract diverse employees. Repeated disregard of these rules by a broadcaster of Cumulus’ size and scope is contrary to the public interest.”
The Commission stated that Cumulus’ history of prior offenses, as well as the other factors, warranted an upward adjustment of the base forfeiture and proposed a $26,000 fine for violating the annual report filing. The Media Bureau previously issued Notices of Apparent Liability against Cumulus in 2008 and 2017 for EEO rule violations.
Another $6,000 was tacked on for failing to adequately analyze its stations’ EEO program.
The Commission also denied Cumulus’ request to reduce the fine. “Cumulus failed to submit any evidence of inability to pay a forfeiture, and moreover, Cumulus’ parent reported on its website that, for the third quarter of 2020, “[d]espite the extraordinary challenges of operating through a pandemic, we have reduced debt by $269 million and increased cash by $316 million since emerging from bankruptcy….” Accordingly, we propose a total forfeiture of $32,000 for Cumulus’ apparent violations of the EEO rules in this case.”
Read the full FCC NAL HERE.
Every Radio Station I’ve worked for ALWAYS made it a top priority to keep public files up to date. Agree or not, it’s the one major thing FCC requires you to do (paper work wise) to keep your license in good standing. And, by the way, it’s really not that difficult.
“A lot” is a stretch. Maybe in some narrow minded circles people would say that, but these policies were put in place for a very real, very present danger: discrimination. It exists. Even if some people want to lie and say it doesn’t, it does. The fine should be larger for being so flippant about protections for minorities in this industry.
But the fine has nothing to do with discrimination in hiring. It has to do with the “timely upload” of its annual report to the public inspection files. More of a secretarial mistake. But that’s what the FCC does today.
Cumulus sure has a tendency to make a lot of “secretarial mistakes” over the years.
Having said that, broadcasters should not have to compile EEO reports or even adhere to arbitrarily-defined “minority”-based hiring. How insulting to all concerned to be forced to do so.
Of course, I don’t know you; but, I would tend to believe, based on your reflexive, defensive and unsubstantiated response, that you do not, in fact, work in the radio or broadcasting industry. There is a lot of resistance to having to comply with the EEO policy, since it often diverts stations and companies away from feeling entirely confident in simply hiring the best employee, whatever that applicant’s demographics are. There are a lot of stations/companies walking on eggshells when a non-minority candidate is hired.
And, whether you work in the industry or not, may I ask: Are you a minority (race or ethnicity) woman? If so, wouldn’t you entirely want to believe that you were hired because you were the best candidate, and not because of affirmative action considerations that are exclusionary to others?
A minority cannot have it both ways: On one hand, thinking that, if a minority is not hired for a position, that it may well have been discriminatory exclusion; yet, wanting to exclude a non-minority applicant simply to satisfy the FCC or some other government agency, or an advocacy group, in fulfilling some arbitrary number or quota.
I’m going to go ahead and say what a lot of people in the industry (and other industries) are saying: This FCC EEO requirement is a bunch of total nonsense. Instead of being able to simply hire the best person possible, we have to stop and consider race, ethnicity, sex, gender and on and on. For the FCC to enforce EEO reporting with an iron fist does absolutely nothing to improve the business.
When someone is applying for a job, wouldn’t that person want to know that they’re being hired because they are one of the best, instead of the color of their skin or which genitalia they have? I would certainly hope so.