KMYQ Seattle faces the larger fine -- $15,000 -- for two overages of 30 and 60 seconds, along with four program-length commercials. The FCC considers any show with an ad featuring a
character to be a program-length commercial. The station got in hot water over a Pokemon program with an ad showing a partially obscured Pokemon game card -- and the FCC has proposed fining a cluster
of stations that aired it.
The station tried use the "fleeting" defense that is more common in "indecency" cases -- even citing an FCC decision that resulted in the appearance of a four-letter word in an FCC notice of apparent liability for kids TV violations.
advertisement
advertisement