The Federal Communications Commission’s latest Equal Employment Opportunity audit letters have gone out, and some familiar college and community signals are on the “randomly selected” list. These includes Pacifica station KPFK-FM in Los Angeles and UC Santa Cruz’s KZSC-FM. Other winners include KGHR-FM, Navajo Public Radio of Tuba City, Arizona and WPNR-FM of Utica College (Utica, New York).
The audit requires selected stations with a certain level of staffing (five or more full time employees) to show that they are complying with the FCC’s EEO rules, which basically boil down to the following, as explained by the Commission on its The Public and Broadcasting page:
“Our EEO recruitment rules have three prongs. They require all stations that employ five or more full-time employees (defined as those regularly working 30 hours a week or more) to:
- widely distribute information concerning each full-time job vacancy, except for vacancies that need to be filled under demanding or other special circumstances;
- send notices of openings to organizations in the community that are involved in employment if the organization requests such notices; and
- engage in general outreach activities every two years, such as job fairs, internships, and other community events.”
Stations picked for the audit have to send the FCC copies of their two most recent EEO Public File reports. Here are some other audit requirements:
“(e) Disclose any pending or resolved complaints involving the Station filed during the Station’s current license term before any body having competent jurisdiction under federal, state, territorial or local law, alleging unlawful discrimination in the employment practices of the Unit on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex. For each such complaint, provide: (1) a brief description of the allegations and issues involved; (2) the names of the complainant and other persons involved; (3) the date the complaint was filed; (4) the court or agency before which it is pending or by which it was resolved; (5) the file or case number; and (6) the disposition and date thereof or current status. Note that all complaints must be reported, regardless of their status or disposition.”
and:
“(h) In accordance with Section 73.2080(c)(4), from the first day of the Station’s current license term (or the date the licensee became the owner, if after that date) until the date of this letter, describe the Unit’s efforts to analyze periodically its measures taken to examine pay, benefits, seniority practices, promotions, and selection techniques and tests to ensure that they provide equal opportunity and do not have a discriminatory effect. If the Unit has one or more union agreements, describe how the Unit cooperates with each union to ensure EEO policies are followed for the Unit’s union-member employees and job applicants.”
Wow; what fun! My guess is that some community and many college stations will miss out on most of this merriment because they don’t have five or more full time employees, but they still have to file a response to paragraph (e) above, and list their full time staff. As for the rest, onward . . .
