Yesterday the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rejected a request by a radio station owner to apply indecency regulations to subscription satellite services, such as Sirius Satellite Radio, the future home of frequent FCC target Howard Stern.
Saul Levine, owner of three Los Angeles radio stations, had requested that the commission modify satellite radio rules to include an indecency provision similar to the one that governs terrestrial broadcast stations.
The head of the FCC’s media bureau, Kenneth Ferree, declined the request, noting that the FCC “has previously ruled that subscription-based services do not call into play the issue of indecency.”
FCC indecency rules prevent broadcast television and radio stations cannot air material involving sexual and excretory functions between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., hours that are considered the most likely time children might tune in.
Levine filed his request in October, the same month Howard Stern announced that he had signed a multi-million dollar deal to move his popular, and often-fined, radio show to Sirius, beginning January 1, 2006.
"The commission is saying it's fine to have obscenity any time of the day or night on satellite radio even though satellite radio is being made available to people without subscriptions such as in rental cars that come with free service,” Levine told the Associated Press in an interview.
Levine is the president of Mt. Wilson FM Broadcasters Inc., a company without programming that would be considered competitive to Stern.
Sirius' main competitor, XM Satellite Radio, carries Playboy Radio.
