Last week, Madison’s reactionary radio harpy, Vicki McKenna, sent out a curious communique to her listeners.
Due to “harassment” she and her employer, Clear Channel Communications, have allegedly suffered at the hands of “enemies,” WIBA-AM has “temporarily removed” McKenna’s podcasts from the station web site.
McKenna explicitly noted that WIBA’s decision to pull the podcasts was directly related to an FCC complaint that was filed regarding her program.
That complaint informed the FCC about McKenna’s illegal playback of a voicemail obtained third-hand from a Madison teacher. Her subsequent attack on the woman was so vitriolic that the teacher received threats from some of McKenna’s listeners.
WIBA would not have removed the entire archive of Vicki McKenna’s podcasts were Clear Channel not taking the FCC inquiry seriously.
In cases of broadcast complaints tendered to the FCC, the complainant is supposed to receive correspondence regarding the agency’s activity on the issue. Obviously, the FCC has been in contact with Clear Channel – though I am still waiting to receive my copy of the Letter of Inquiry which precipitated the formal investigation.
Cases like these typically take months to play themselves out, but the fact that WIBA’s taken preemptive steps to mitigate a potential sanction less than eight weeks since the complaint was filed seems to suggest that someone’s feeling some heat.
Your move, FCC….
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