Cruel call proves costly.

The “prank” call told a listener her husband was dead in a motorcycle wreck.  Mean spirited? Perhaps, but that’s not what gets a Spanish Broadcasting System morning show fined.

As part of the long-running “Caíste!” (“You Fell for It!) feature, Spanish Broadcasting System’s WSKQ, New York morning show “El Vacilón de la Mañana” called a woman named Juliana posing as a hospital employee, telling her that her husband was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident and needed blood.  Juliana handed the phone over to her friend, who cast member Rubén Ithier told, “He died. I’m so sorry. Too late.”  Juliana, crying, could be heard in the background. When she came back to the phone, Ithier asked her to go to the hospital to identify the body.  When Ithier revealed it was a prank, the friend yells, “Ayh no!” and Juliana hangs up.

She later gave permission for the telephone call to be aired but she also complained to the FCC and now the Commission fines WSKQ $16,000 over the August 2007 call.  The fine isn’t over the arguably cruel content of the call.  Instead, the FCC’s rule requires a station to inform someone the call will be recorded and broadcast before the call begins.  In this case, that didn’t happen until the call was over and already on tape.   The hosts are classified as independent contractors and not SBS employees, but the FCC says that’s irrelevant and notes WSKQ and SBS’ tropical “El Zol 95” WXDJ, Miami were fined for a similar prank call during which Ithier told another listener her husband had been shot and killed and her daughter was run over by a car.

The Enforcement Bureau’s Investigations and Hearings Division chief Hillary DeNigro says they’re exercising “discretion” for only fining SBS $16,000 and warns further violations such as this “may result in harsher enforcement action, including license revocation proceedings.”

Read the FCC’s ruling HERE.