KCET-TV Fined $10,000 on Public Inspection File Access Violation

KCET-TV, the former flagship PBS member station in Los Angeles, is being fined $10,000 over an incident with its public inspection file. The Federal Communications Commission issued a Notice of Apparent Liability to the station for not making its public inspection file available.

The notice says KCET “willfully and repeatedly” violated the requirement. KCET is owned by the non-profit Community Television of Southern California, which took the station independent Jan. 1. An FCC field agent visited KCET’s Hollywood studios Aug. 19, 2010 and, without identifying himself as such, requested the station’s public inspection file. A security guard gave the agent a phone number and told him to make an appointment. The guard then denied the agent’s request to speak to a manager. The sequence of events was repeated when the agent returned to the station on the following morning. He then returned in the afternoon, displayed his FCC badge to the guard, who, “after a thorough examination... and several phone calls to personnel inside the building,” let the agent in. The files were found to be in order.