The Federal Communications Commission on Friday issued $17,500 in fines against KWGN-Channel 2 for violating children’s television programming rules nearly two dozen times between December 1998 and September 2002.
Colorado’s oldest television station also failed in 1999 to let the public know where it could get copies of KWGN’s programming reports detailing how it was serving the educational needs of children, a requirement of its federal license, according to the FCC order.
KWGN self-reported 22 violations of the Children’s Television Act of 1990 to the FCC when it applied for license renewal in 2005.
Station officials were not immediately available for comment Monday. It was unclear whether the ruling will be appealed.
Federal rules limit commercials that may appear during each hour of children’s programming to 10.5 minutes on weekends and 12 minutes on weekdays. The longest KWGN reported it had exceeded that limit was by 90 seconds, the order shows.
Additionally, the station said that on five occasions it aired commercials for products associated with the children’s program it accompanied, causing the entire show to count as a commercial. Four times, the station aired commercials for a Jackie Chan feature movie during the children’s program “Jackie Chan Adventures.”
Owned by Tribune Broadcasting since 1966, KWGN became an affiliate of the WB network in 1995. Its current affiliation with the CW network was the result of a 2006 merger between WB and UPN.
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
