Re: Oldies, contest?

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Wed, 16 Jan 2002 18:21:44 -0500, "Dan Billings" <dib9@gwi.net> said:

> The second requirement is not as direct but I would argue that any
> regulation of how a station can edit a promo impacts speech.

But it is already well-established that free-speech rights of
broadcasters are limited in a number of ways (see /Pacifica/), and
even for non-broadcasters the distinction between ordinary speech and
``commercial speech'' still persists, and even for non-commercial
entities there's still the ``compelling government interest''
doctrine.

As we know, stations are required to accept political advertising from
candidates for Federal office.  Stations are also required to clearly
distinguish between ``content'' and ``advertising'': all advertising
must be clearly identified or identifiable as such.  (That's why you
often hear the announcers on WBZ say, ``The following is a commercial
message'', before launching into a live-read Vermont Teddy Bear spot
or a other commercial which sounds confusingly similar to an actual
news broadcast.)

A radio station promotion, no less than any other sort of advertising,
falls under long-standing deceptive-advertising and unfair-competition
law at the state and Federal level -- which in most instances has
withstood decades of constitutional scrutiny.

-GAWollman