Big Fine for TV Station

The FCC has slapped a California TV station with a $25,000 fine for failing to make emergency information about fires accessible to the deaf. The San Diego station was broadcasting information about a rapidly spreading wildfire in 2003. That’s when the Commission says important information about evacuations was given out about two dozen instances in the audio portion of the programming but not elsewhere. The FCC rule book explicitly states says in Section 79.2 that broadcasters must make information being aired in the audio portion of their programming available to deaf viewers. The critical information does not have to be displayed by closed-captioning. It can be crawls, scrolls, maps, or signs.