FCC Fines iHeartCommunications $1 Million for Transmitting Fake Emergency Alerts During "The Bobby Bones Show"

The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau has resolved an investigation into the misuse of the Emergency Alert System (EAS) tones by iHeartCommunications, Inc., a subsidiary of iHeartMedia. The company has agreed to pay a $1 million civil penalty, admits to misuse of EAS tones, and agreed to a compliance and reporting plan as a result of airing a false emergency alert. On October 24, 2014, iHeart's stations WSIX-FM in Nashville (TN) aired a false emergency alert during broadcast of the nationally-syndicated "The Bobby Bones Show". While commenting on an EAS test that aired during the 2014 World Series, Bobby Bones, the show's host, broadcast an EAS tone from a recording of an earlier nationwide EAS test. This false emergency alert was sent to more than 70 affiliated stations airing "The Bobby Bones Show" and resulted in some of these stations restransmitting the tones, setting off a multi-state cascade of false EAS alerts on radios and television in multiple states.