The FCC is hearing far fewer complaints about radio and TV these days. The number of radio and TV complaints dropped from 157,650 in the first quarter to 6,429 in the second quarter. These figures include general complaints and indecency complaints.
The figures are in its quarterly report on consumer complaints and inquiries released this week.
Indecency and obscenity complaints against radio and TV dropped from 157,016 in the first quarter of 2005 to 6,161 in the second. That latter figure compares to 272,818 complaints in the second quarter of 2004. General complaints regard items such as ads or closed captioning, while programming complaints cover indecency/obscenity, loud commercials, and violent or religious content.
The report does not cite reasons for the drop; observers have noted large settlements between broadcasters and the FCC over indecency complaints, group adoptions of zero-indecency tolerance policies and the installation of programming delays at many facilities.
The FCC receives many complaints that do not involve violations and said the existence of a complaint doesn't necessarily mean a station was at fault.
(Radio World)
