A Lake District radio station have been fined #15,000 by broadcasting watchdogs it duped listeners by deliberately prolonging a phone-in competition.
Investigators found that Lakelane Radio, based in Kendal, breached Ofcom's code of conduct with with unfair tactics in a contest it called "Suss the Celeb".
Ofcom found its fairness rules were breached in a series of three listener competitions aired in 2008 by the station that is one of seven run by the "CN Radio" group.
In around 85 daily rounds of the competition a presenter deliberately selected listeners knowing the had submitted the WRONG answers to avoid finding a winner "too soon".
An Ofcom spokesman said: "We found that the deliberate selection of entrants with incorrect answers was contrary to the competitions' terms and conditions which stated that entrants would be selected randomly.
"As a result, those listeners who had paid to enter the competition on these occasions had no chance of winning.
"The licensee failed to put in place sufficient compliance procedures and checks, and there had been a lack of appropriate compliance training for its staff."
"Although the purpose of the unfair conduct appeared to have been to prevent the prize from being won too soon, for 'entertainment value', and not to raise revenue or profit, it was nevertheless the case that listeners who had paid to enter the affected rounds
on the basis that they had a fair and equal chance of winning had no chance
of winning.
"Moreover, the unfair conduct caused material harm in terms of financial loss, albeit relatively minimal, to those listeners.
"Further, Lakeland Radio's audience overall was misled as to the fair conduct of the
competitions. The competitions were therefore conducted unfairly, in breach of Rule 2.11 of the Code."
"Ofcom considered the breaches, in respect of each of the three competitions, to be sufficiently serious and repeated to warrant the consideration of the imposition of a statutory sanction."
Ofcom also said senior management had made "some efforts" to speak to staff about the spate of phone-in scandals elsewhere in the industry, but it said "no checks had been undertaken to ensure that these communications had been received and/or understood".
"Since the licensee had become aware of the unfair conduct, it had taken steps to improve its compliance training and procedures going forwards. However, the committee was not entirely assured that such steps were sufficient or that the improvements would be effective in ensuring future compliance," the regulator added.
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