Stations posting political ad data

Expanded FCC rules no surprise

WASHINGTON -- Starting Tuesday, television stations across the country, including in Arkansas, began posting information online about who is buying political ads.

The reports show that campaigns and outside groups plan to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in the four months left before the election and that time slots near Election Day are going quickly.

The move comes after a change in Federal Communications Commission rules, which now require all broadcast television stations to post the information, called the political file, online at fcc.gov. Since 2012, the four largest stations in the top 50 television markets had to put the information online, but stations in smaller markets, including Jonesboro, Little Rock-Pine Bluff and Fort Smith-Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, did not.

KNWA-TV General Manager Lisa Kelsey said the Rogers NBC station was prepared to start publishing the information.

"We knew it was coming," Kelsey said. "It wasn't like, 'Oh my God, we have to start doing this today.' Our company is very good at preparing all of us."

Television stations have to upload other information to the FCC site, such as Equal Employment Opportunity Act compliance forms.

The forms have to go online within 24 hours of being signed. Considering the number of ads focusing on the U.S. Senate race, Kelsey said "thank goodness" it is easy to put the information online.

Shawn Oswald, president and general manager of KHOG-TV, Channel 40/29 in Fayetteville, said Tuesday's change wasn't hard.

"We've been planning, and we had guidance from our corporate office," he said.

KATV-TV, Channel 7 sales director John Rafferty said the Little Rock station has sister stations in larger markets.

"With us, it kind of started two years ago," he said. "We were able to learn some things from them, which made it easier for us."

Previously, the FCC required stations in smaller markets to keep paper versions of the ad contracts, which include information on who paid for an ad, how much they paid and when the ads were scheduled to run. People who wanted the information had to stop by the stations' offices.

Rafferty said few people made the trek, and those who did were either reporters or from opposing campaigns.

"Even in heavy political years, there weren't a lot of times we had people coming in to look at the political file," he said.

Many of the stations broadcasting in Arkansas have a link to the FCC somewhere on their website.

Public files are available on the FCC website at https://stations.fcc.gov/. After searching for the station by its call letters, such as KARK-TV for the NBC affiliate in Little Rock, website visitors can select the medal icon for political files. It should be the sixth icon to the right.

The files are not searchable. Each contract is scanned and posted separately to the FCC site.

The Sunlight Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that tracks money and elections, is manually creating a database for public use. When completed, the Arkansas information will be available at http://politicaladsleuth.com/political-files/state/AR/.

Previously about 250 stations were required to put information online, foundation spokesman Gabriela Schneider said. Now, over 2,000 stations will.

"By having this information more easily accessible online the public doesn't have to know to go to the TV station to ask for an obscure file," she said. "Disclosure provides a mechanism for accountability and informing people."

Still, she said the way the information is placed online, as a document, or Portable Document Format, rather than a searchable system, makes it difficult to compile data.

"This is a first step. Ideally, we wouldn't have to wade through messes of PDF files," she said. "This isn't a perfect solution, but it is really an important step."

The 21 stations listed on the Sunlight Foundation website as serving Arkansas had filed more than 325 documents in their political files as of Tuesday evening.

Among other things, the documents listed:

• 37 television spots for Arkansas Term Limits on KAIT, Channel 8 in Jonesboro for $23,680. They're scheduled to run between Oct. 27 and Election Day.

• 11 spots for Mark Pryor on KNWA-TV, Channel 24 in Fort Smith for $3,940. The ads, which air during the day, air through Thursday.

• 23 spots for Tom Cotton on KHBS, Channel 40/29 in Fort Smith. They're scheduled to run July 22 to July 31 and cost $6,990.

• 107 commercials reserved the week before the election by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee on KATV, Channel 7 in Little Rock for $75,590.

Metro on 07/02/2014

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