Could candidate

YAKIMA, Wash. -- There may be another wrinkle in the Yakima City Council equal radio time saga.

Candidate Mary Place said last week she plans to ask Gap West Broadcasting for considerations under the FCC’s equal time rules in her race against Councilman Micah Cawley, an on-air personality for the company’s 92.9 The Bull FM.

But Cawley, who goes by Cefus during his country-music show, may not fall under the equal time rule because he doesn’t use his own name on air.

My conversation this morning with Federal Communications Commission attorney Mark Berlin shed a little light on what could still be a confusing situation. For the equal time rules to take effect, the candidate on air “has to be identifiable,” Berlin said.

Now, that doesn’t mean Cawley going by a different on-air name necessarily gets Gap West off the hook. If “everybody knows who that really is,” then Place would still be entitled to equal time, Berln said.

But if Gap West were to argue that Cefus is not identifiably Cawley, “that would be a reasonable conclusion for us,” Berlin said.

He added that it would be a “rebuttable presumption,” and Place could then try to show that Cawley is indeed identifiable.

Clear as mud, right?

Gap West General Manager David Roederer said this morning that neither he nor anyone else in the company is even discussing the matter yet.

“To be honest with you, until we have a request (from Place) then it’s a nonissue,” he said.

By then, city hall reporter Chris Bristol will be back from vacation.

He’s supposed to return to the newsroom and, presumably, to Checks & Balances this Wednesday. Make sure you pop by and welcome him back.

- Pat Muir