Cruise 1323 in ACMA breach

ARN's Cruise 1323 (5DN) in Adelaide has been found in breach after airing a 4 minute long Coles version of Status Quo's Down Down in July last year without appropriate audio to say it was a paid for ad.

The ACMA also investigated WSFM, Gold FM and 4KQ but found because they aired a credit before the song, they weren't in breach.

"The form, length and placement of the advertisement meant that it was presented as music programming which a reasonable listener was not able to distinguish as an advertisement," said the ACMA release.

Cruise 1323 said that, due to a technical fault, the credit that was supposed to play before the song didn't air. The ACMA noted that "the licensee's non-compliance was not intentional, (but) neither the 2012 standard nor the codes provide exemption from the obligations in the case of technical difficulties."

The station have apparently now upgraded to the latest version of the relevant software in a hope to reduce the risk of it happening again.

The ACMA Chairman Chris Chapman said:

"Long-form musical advertisements like this are a relatively new innovation in radio advertising. During the investigation, the ACMA remained conscious of the need to balance the regulatory requirements for advertising with industry's drive for innovation and competition in radio advertising."

This is the first breach of the 2012 standard, which came into effect in May last year.

The full statement and the four investigations are available to view on the ACMA website here.

See our report on the Media Watch story on this client integration here.