The FCC fined Tempe Radio, licensee of KUPD(FM) in Tempe, Ariz. for airing a phone call with the widow of a baseball player without first notifying her the call could be broadcast. The fine was $4,000.
The case stemmed from October of last year, when the commission received a complaint that the station aired a telephone conversation between host Beau Duran and Flynn Kile, the then-recently widowed wife of St. Louis Cardinals baseball pitcher Darryl Kile. Duran called Ms. Kile, who was visiting Arizona, and asked whether she was "hot" and whether she had a date for the St. Louis Cardinals-Arizona Diamondbacks playoff game.
The station admitted it aired the brief exchange and that Duran did not tell Ms. Kile the call "would be or was being aired."
Tempe fired Duran. The station issued a memo to employees warning them that airing phone calls without first informing parties their calls may be aired would result in termination.