Re: elected officials on the air ...

[Dib9@aol.com]

The equal time rules kick in 90 days before a general election and 60 days before a contested primary.  The FCC says they also apply to a candidate hosting a show, but there have been court challenges by on air personalities that have stayed on the air while running for office but I am not sure how those cases came out.

When I ran for the State Legislature in 1990 and 1992, I was not on the air for a 90 day period before the election, but when I was a candidate for the Board of Selectmen in my community in 1989, 1992 and 1995, I continued on the air and no one made an issue of it.  I was on the air while serving as Selectmen for six years but did not talk about local issues.  

I don't have a problem with a local official as a talk show host as long as that obvious conflict is made known.  The problem is when the audience is not made aware of a possible conflict, like when a host is interviewing a former collegue.  All talk show hosts come to the job with some kind of bias.

-- Dan Billings, Bowdoinham, Maine