"Do the Right Thing": Having an Ethical Backbone in the Field of Radio

As I enter my professional career in radio, I can only imagine how many ethical scenarios I may have to face. At a radio station, I would be part of a group that is considered the voice of the community. 

There's a lot of people that will be listening to me and in some cases, hanging on my every word. So I think it's safe to say that putting my ethics hat on is important if I intend to grow my listener base and keep the station out of trouble.

Employees that work as on-air talents are often responsible for giving away tickets for various types events, whether it’s a music concert, comedy show, or a theme park. Once they decide how and when they will give the tickets away, the station promotes the giveaway on air and on their website in advance.  

Giving out free tickets to a lucky listener...what does ethics have to do with this?

Well for example, the talent can announce on air that they will give a pair of tickets away to the 10^th caller and then decide to give it to another caller because the 10^th caller didn’t “sound excited enough.” Is that being fair and honest to that listener? What if the caller was indeed excited, but just didn’t have a bubbly personality to show for it. Should they get rejected from winning because of their lack of     emotion over the phone?

Another scenario is if a radio station gets booked to make a remote appearance at a retail store and the store or marketing manager is dissatisfied because he/she feels like the prizes that the station gave away to customers were too “cheap.” He/she feels that the company invested enough money into the event that should have warranted prizes and giveaway items of reasonable value.

Should the station have bought more expensive items to please their client? Or did the store expect way more than what they bargained for? Maybe the client did pay a fair amount and the station “slighted” them on the value of the items OR maybe the client negotiated a lower booking rate and the promotions department brought items they felt matched the cost range. After all, there is the blunt yet truthful phrase “you get what you pay for”…

How about if a client pays for a certain amount of commercial spots that are scheduled to air 14 times –once in the morning and once in the evening for one week. For one reason or another, one of the spots doesn’t air in the evening and the talent decides to run the ad twice the next morning to make up for it.

Should the talent make the sales team aware so they can inform the client and offer a refund or is it ok that the talent aired it at a different time?

In an online article “Talk through ‘gray areas,’ giving staff a moral compass,” Patti Dodgen says that ethical problems in public broadcasting aren’t derived from “management mischief”, but come from station managers who make bad decisions because they are under stress. “When the survival of the station is in question, the range of acceptable alternatives can grow at a frightening rate.” She goes on to explain that in order to guide one’s behavior and decision-making in compromising situations, the person should practice OPAL principles, (Openness, Performance with Integrity, Accountability, and Leadership).

A good example that can be looked at from an ethical standpoint is when Hot 97 Radio’s DJ Mister Cee was accused of soliciting sex from a male transsexual multiple times. He once got caught by an undercover cop who posed as a male drag queen and another time he was outed by a popular “internet personality” who posted a video of Mister Cee discussing oral sex in exchange for money. 

This of course was extremely embarrassing and damaged the reputation of the popular Hip Hop station. Mister Cee initially tried to deny all allegations and stand by his claims that he was not gay, but after intense media speculation and coverage, he did eventually confirm that the allegations were true. The ethical questions that should be raised are: Should Mister Cee have gotten fired by the station for engaging in illegal activity? Is it fair to his fans, listeners and station that he blatantly denied an allegation that he knew was true? Although Hot 97 chose to stand by Mister Cee, encouraging him to freely explore his sexual identity, they also sent a message that they condone illegal and unlawful behavior from their staff. 

From the readings, I’ve learned that I need to be prepared for difficult situations that may come my way and also know that I will have to make some tough ethical choices. I will have to find a way to balance honesty, respect and fairness in the way that I deliver news on air, communicate with listeners and work with advertising clients. 

Anytime I make a decision, I have to think “Am I being respectful and genuine to my listeners?” and

“Am I representing the station in the right way?” I think those are really important things to always     keep in mind as I move forward in my radio career.

The tools that I already have access to that could help me in my ethical decision-making are: Ethics Guide for Public Radio Journalism, Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, and Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Code of Ethics.

In class and group discussions, I would like to pick apart ethical questions like: Is it ever ok to withhold pertinent information about your client from the public? When is it acceptable to take photos of people without getting waiver consent forms signed? Where should the line be drawn when companies endorse potentially offensive ads, memes, commercials, etc. on social media?