Tamworth radio station 88.9fm breaks broadcast rules, complains of harassment

Station chief executive officer George Frame claims some of the breaches were simple accidents, and complained that the station has been subject to a campaign of harassment, with complaints about broadcasts promoting a buy local campaign and a community safety campaign, among others.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) determined the station broadcast two ads in 2020, in contravention of its broadcast licence.

The station also broke community radio rules by twice running promotions longer than they were permitted under the regulations.

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Mr Frame said the station is among the most complained-about in the state and he said almost 10 other allegations have been rejected by the regulator in the last few years alone.

"This has been part of an orchestrated campaign to provide a difficult situation as a community station," he said.

ACMA investigated alleged breaches relating to four broadcasts by the station in July and September, 2020.

On July 2 and July 3 2020, the station encouraged listeners to get the brakes checked on their car at a Tamworth business in advance of school holidays, for free.

Despite station claims that it was a safety campaign, ACMA ruled that the free service was an effort to attract new customers to the business, and therefore that the broadcast was an ad.

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"An ordinary reasonable listener would understand that this free opportunity is a marketing strategy to engage with a potential sales target, rather than community information to improve the health of the community ...," the ACMA report said.

"The ACMA's view is that TBS breached the licence condition ... by broadcasting advertising announcements promoting Company A on 2 July 2020 at 7:30 am and Company C on 2 July 2020 at 7:44 am."

Two more broadcasts that year were found to be permitted under ACMA rules.

The station was also breached for running too many sponsorship announcements in an hour, breaching a limit by 32 seconds on July 2, 2020, and 17 seconds on July 3, 2020.

88.9FM told ACMA that they did not understand that sponsorship tags broadcast before or after other material counts to the limit and had changed its processes since.

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Mr Frame said the station staff and volunteers did their best to follow the rules, and had unknowingly broken the rules by accident.

The station no longer does live reads to prevent future accidents, he said.

He said the proof that the station is well-run is the renewal of their broadcast licence on June 22, 2022.

"The continued campaign to report on our station 24 hours a day with multiple complaints - the majority of them are dismissed by ACMA - my question is why?" he said.

"We are supporting the community."

Community radio stations, which are publicly-funded, aren't permitted to broadcast commercial ads, but are permitted to promote sponsors and advertise "community information material" like sporting events and weather warnings, under the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.

Stations are limited to five minutes of sponsorship announcements in any hour of broadcast.

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