Rights Group Challenges 3 Disney Radio Permits

BURBANK — A Latino rights group boycotting Walt Disney Co. and its ABC television network announced Tuesday it has asked federal regulators to cancel operating permits for three Disney-owned radio stations.

At the entrance to Disney Studios, the National Hispanic Media Coalition said it had filed challenges with the Federal Communications Commission, contending the stations have failed to hire enough Latinos.

In addition to the three Disney-owned radio stations--KABC, KTZN and KLOS--the coalition said it has challenged the licenses of seven other stations for failure to hire Latinos, and two more stations over obscenity.

“They have a pattern of discrimination against Latinos,” said Alex Nogales, national chairman of the coalition. Nogales said Latinos make up less than 1% of the Disney work force but should total 21% under FCC requirements.

“Our radio stations comply with all FCC rules,” said Ken Green, a Disney spokesman. “In fact, the FCC has praised our stations for our hiring practices.”

While Green declined to release employee demographic data, he said Disney is violating no employment laws.

“We’re not aware of the filing,” said Jim Brown, an FCC spokesman. “We have numerous petitions filed against stations as they come up for renewal every eight years.”

The FCC “very infrequently” denies license renewals based on such petitions, he said. Brown would not comment on Disney or the other companies cited by the coalition, pending receipt of the coalition’s petitions.

According to the FCC, penalties for noncompliance with federal employment guidelines ranges from small fines to denial of operating license renewal. Fines can range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars.

With Disney Studios looming behind him, a dozen fellow protesters at his side and a phalanx of television cameras before him, Nogales also announced the coalition’s intention to challenge permit renewals of radio stations KLSX--the local carrier of talk-show host Howard Stern--and Spanish-language KKHJ.

“Both stations promote obscene programming,” Nogales said, calling Stern’s New York-based morning show lewd and inappropriate. KKHJ, he said, “has out-Sterned Stern.”

The coalition’s petition to the FCC has been joined by the Latino Business Assn. and National Hispanic Bar Assn., according to representatives of those groups at the news conference.

Several other Latino organizations have not decided whether to join the coalition.

Jose Luis Ruiz, executive director of the National Latino Communications Center, a Los Angeles-based developer of Latino-oriented television programming, said his group has taken no position on the FCC challenges.

The League of United Latin American Citizens has not decided whether it would join with the coalition, said Vera Marquez, a league spokeswoman. The league also kept its political distance from the coalition in April, when it launched a boycott of Disney and all Disney-related products, from movies and television shows to amusement parks and merchandise.

Among the other radio stations cited by the coalition for under-employing or not hiring enough Latinos are Lancaster stations KAVL and KGMX, San Diego stations KBZT and KIFM, San Bernardino station KVCR and Los Angeles-area station KLON.