Media Action Center is a group of of concerned residents throughout the U.S. led by former Emmy-winning broadcaster turned media reformer Sue Wilson. We have successfully influenced policy at the Federal Communications Commission and at local TV and Radio stations throughout the country for more than a decade to ensure We the People are truly served by the publicly owned airwaves. (See the archive of our work under "older posts.") We successfully forced Entercom to give up its $13.5 million license to KDND for killing a woman in a radio water drinking stunt. We have a long-running action to label Alex Jones' radio show as the fiction it is, which has taken Jones' program off dozens of radio stations nationwide. We educated the Supreme Court in FCC v Prometheus Radio on critical information to #SaveLocalNews.

Please see MAC's 2018 Comment to the FCC (below) to learn why these actions are crucial to Democracy. Find full journalistic coverage of the Supreme Court case and our Amicus brief, Sinclair Broadcasting's shell game, Alex Jones, the Strange v Entercom trial and other public interest media issues at SueWilsonReports.com. For background on how we arrived in this era of disinformation and what to do about it, see Wilson's 2009 documentary Broadcast Blues.

PRESS ADVISORY

September 24, 2013
Media Watchdogs, CA Common Cause to Urge
FCC to Yank License of Sacramento Radio Station
After Death of Listener in 'Hold Your Wee for a WII' Stunt
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SACRAMENTO –  Media Action Center, in conjunction with the Sacramento Media Group and California Common Cause, is filing a petition to deny the broadcast license of KDND.  MAC's Director, Sue Wilson will personally deliver the legal documents to the FCC at its open meeting in Washington DC October 22.  
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 Details will be released at the Wednesday news conference in Sacramento.
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 In 2009, a jury determined that Entercom was 100 percent responsible for the death of Mrs. Strange. Although the family – which received a $16 million judgment for the wrongful death from Entercom – asked the FCC to revoke KDND's license, the FCC has not taken any action. The deadline for a legal challenge to the KDND license is Nov. 1, 2013.
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"If we drive so recklessly that we kill someone, our insurance company will pay restitution, and the DMV will revoke our license to drive. When a radio station broadcasts so recklessly that it kills someone, its insurance company pays restitution, and the FCC must revoke its license to broadcast," said Wilson.  "If ever there is a time the FCC should act on behalf of the public interest, it is now."
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Wilson said the staff knew the contest could be deadly (and) made fun of a water intoxication death on the air a month before the contest, but purposely did not give the contestants that information.  Staff did draft a set of rules explaining the hazards of the contest, but instead just gave the contestants a generic release form to sign, one so vague a judge later ruled it was no waiver at all. 
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Throughout the contest, concerned listeners called into the station to inform them of the danger, but the DeeJays made sure the contestants could not hear those calls.  Contestant after contestant fell ill, suffering severe headaches and vomiting into wastebaskets, all while the KDND staff laughed and took their pictures. Even after the contest, when Jennifer Strange told the Morning Rave crew she was too ill to drive home, they abandoned her to the station's lobby.  She died hours later at home of  hyponatremia.
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More information:  www.mediaactioncenter.net    www.commoncause.org/ca/fccaccountable
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