Just when I thought there is nothing new:

An incident developed in Morrison regarding First Amendment rights of high school play by play.

The play by play team we selected to broadcast the games triggered a call from the school athletic director recently saying the announcers were banned from such activity because of a comment made critical of coaching five years ago on another radio station. He further attemped to get the conference in which the team plays to ban the same announcers from doing any conference games on our station. He did this at a meeting at which other teams we broadcast were present but had left the meeting. Such action would have wiped out much of our sports broadcasts.
I contacted the Illinois High School Association and they immediately agreed the conference could not ban our broadcasters as they had no such authority. Morrison high is licking its wounds now and threatens to challenge our First Amendment Rights in court. I agree with the AD there that if the announcers disrupted any school activities they should not be broadcasting games for us, but if the issue is comments made in broadcasts, that is insufficient reason. We are working our way through this and I do not want to be heavy handed. I am not a sports enthusiast and need guidance on this issue. I do not know where First Amendment rights exist within sports broadcasts. Should we replace our announcers with Steve Stone?

Tom...I don't think there is anything that says sports announcers have to be cheerleaders, nor do
I believe they should be. I hope someone who knows
will weigh in on whether high schools even have any
kind of "approval" rights concerning broadcasts of
their games. Now, if the announcers were way out of
line...I'd think the station would want to reconsider
their employment.

J

Whenever I wonder how a First Amendment lawyer makes a living out here on the prairie, I remember instances like this.

This is a classic case of content based discrimination ina limited public forum. I assume there are no questions about limited access because of space, or questions of conduct, etc. This is an AD ****** off because of a comment made 5 years ago. Again, assuming no vulgarity, etc. Just did not like what was said. Broadcaster wins, school loses. Get heavy handed.

Having been a sports director for several years before I became wise and moved to news, I am very familiar with the relationships, legally and gentlemanly that schools and radio/TV stations have at their disposal and have addressed these many times over the years with many athletic directors, including those in the Rock River Valley.

Generally, a station is granted permission without a financial contract between the parties. The gentlemanly agreement is the broadcasts are not to be controversial. The station makes money on the games, the school gets free publicity.

That is a pretty gray area. I once said on the air how a Rock Falls player broke his hand (punched a car window because he was mad at his girlfriend) and got dressed down by then AD Cal Hubbard. BTW - Cal and I remain good friends today despite that incident.

It is true the conference has no authority to ban you unless the conference hosted the event. The conference falls under the auspicies of the IHSA. They can ban you. The school can ban you or refuse to allow you to broadcast for any reason. Broadcasting a high school game is not a right, it is a privilege granted by the school.

If you were granted permission to broadcast and then they moved to ban you "after the fact" your recourse is to tell them to give it to you in writing that you are officially banned, and the reason.

Your recourse is to use that letter and submit it to the IHSA for review by its board. This IHSA board does take complaints seriously.

It's a shame that had to happen to Tom's station. I enjoyed the area when I worked there in the late 70's and early 80's. But times have changed and so must we. If high schools want to manage their sports programs like professional organizations, then it's time for Illinois stations to act accordingly - get things in writing in advance including clauses of "do's" and "do not's".

Tom, my suggestion - and I did this a few years later in other part of the state - I negotiated financial terms with a school district. I got to broadcast the games exclusively, the school made a little money, and they had nothing to say regarding what I said on the air, although I kept it pretty vanilla as to not create any headaches.

Incidentally, if you really wanted to have some fun - if you found the game had in its attendance a quorum of board members and found them gathering at any time, you could have some clout. I did that with one school district whose board got snitty with me regarding news stories about a bus contract to a relative of two board members. I caught 5 or 7 at a game and talking at half time.

Oops. After that, we had NO problems with the district, news or sports.

Sez